Medibank loses bid to pause privacy probe while class actions on foot
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The news: Medibank Private has lost its court application to force the privacy regulator to hit pause on its investigation of the health insurer's data breach.
The company wanted the watchdog to face a restraining order on its probe while it managed ongoing class action proceedings before the Federal Court of Australia.
The numbers: Medibank's 2022 mass data breach is understood to have affected around 9.7 million current and former customers.
The data breach pre-dated new privacy law penalties, but could see Medibank face fines of up to $2.2 million per serious or repeated breach of privacy law.
The context: In the aftermath of the privacy breach, Medibank is facing a civil class action lawsuit before the Federal Court of Australia, as well as shareholder class claims before the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will proceed with its investigation off the back of the representative claim in light of today's decision, which could also see the watchdog pursue compensation payments before the Federal Court.
The OAIC is also conducting its own investigation of Medibank's handling of the data breach which could also lead to Federal Court action.
