Thousands of Morrisons staff are to sue the supermarket for damages following a data leak.
The case at London's High Court on Monday follows a breach of security in 2014 when a former senior internal auditor at the retailer's Bradford headquarters posted the payroll information of nearly 100,000 employees on the internet.
This included their bank, salary and national insurance details, addresses and phone numbers.
The two-week trial, which is only concerned with the issue of liability, involves claims brought by 5,518 current and former staff who allege that Morrisons failed to prevent the leak.
They claim it exposed them to the risk of identity theft and potential financial loss and that Morrisons, which denies liability, is responsible for breaches of privacy, confidence and data protection laws.
Lawyers say that the case, the first data leak class action in the UK, has potential implications for every individual and business in the country.
It is thought to be the biggest-ever claim in relation to a data breach in the UK and comes amid growing concerns about cyber security.
Nick McAleenan, of law firm JMW Solicitors, said: "The court will decide whether Morrisons bears any legal responsibility for the misuse and disclosure of the payroll information of the many thousands of people bringing claims in this case."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here