Kaminski and Non-Material Damage: The Case That Set the Benchmark
11 February 2026 · Mary Molloy Solicitors
Every developing area of law eventually gets the case everyone cites, and for Irish data protection damages it is Kaminski v Ballymaguire Foods: workplace CCTV footage of an employee used in a training session for purposes he was never told about, a claim for the distress and embarrassment that followed, and a Circuit Court judgment that calibrated the whole field.
What happened and what was decided
CCTV installed for security purposes captured the claimant at work; stills and footage surfaced in a food safety training presentation where colleagues recognised him, and he learned of it second-hand. The court found the processing unlawful — used beyond any purpose employees had been told of — and confirmed that compensation for non-material damage is available for such infringement.
The calibration came with it: damage must be proved and must go beyond mere upset at the fact of a breach; supporting evidence matters; and awards in ordinary cases will be modest. The award itself was in the low thousands of euro.
Why it matters beyond CCTV
The judgment's guidance travels to every non-material damage claim: wrongful disclosures, ignored rights, leaked files. It gave claimants a confirmed cause of action for distress alone, and gave defendants a ceiling argument against inflation. Both sides now negotiate in its shadow — which, for ordinary cases, is precisely what a benchmark judgment is for.
The practical lessons
For employees: the case is a reminder that workplace footage and files carry enforceable limits, and that documenting distress contemporaneously — complaints raised, effects described at the time — is what converts a grievance into a claim. For employers: purpose creep is the whole ballgame; footage and data used beyond stated purposes is exactly where liability lives, and the training-session shortcut cost real money and a reported judgment.
Read more in our main guide: GDPR Compensation Claims: Suing for a Data Breach · or back to the blog.
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