The regulator that could disrupt Optus, Medibank lawsuits
The chronically under-resourced OAIC's slow progress could have significant implications for data breach class actions.
Australia's privacy regulator, the OAIC, has become an increasingly important agency in an era of growing cyberattacks and mass data breaches. But back-to-back hearings in the Federal Court on Tuesday showed how its slow progress on consumer complaints could have significant consequences. For other class actions, and the regulator itself.
In a hearing over a Slater and Gordon-led class action lawsuit against Optus over last year's massive data breach, written evidence presented in court showed that the OAIC rejected five requests from the telco for access to consumer complaints made to the regulator over the incident.
Optus wants to access the complaints to help it prepare for the case, which is yet to be scheduled for trial. But the OAIC's internal legal teams say the watchdog is still deciding whether or how to proceed with them.
The upshot? A chronically under-resourced regulator's slow progress almost ten months after the data breach took place risks derailing the Optus consumer lawsuit before it really gets underway.
