Up to 500,000 passengers are entitled to sue British Airways over last year’s cyber attack that compromised their personal data.
At the High Court on Friday, Mr Justice Warby granted a group litigation order to law firms representing affected customers.
Over 5,000 customers are being represented by SPG Law and a further 230 represented by Your Lawyers Limited, both of which are bringing claims for compensation.
But the potential number of claimants is much larger and the judge granted a window of 15 months from the hearing on Friday for people to join the group litigation.
The cyber attack was discovered in September 2018 but the breach is believed to have started in June of that year. Personal details of at least 500,000 customers were compromised. Part of the scam involved passengers being diverted to a fake website, where their details were harvested.
Aman Johal, director of Your Lawyers, said: "Today’s grant of a group litigation order is a key step towards justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the British Airways data breach scandal."
In July 2019, the Information Commissioners Office said it would impose a record fine of more than £183 million on BA over the breach.
BA is appealing the fine, which represents 1.5% of its annual turnover.
