The European Court of Human Rights has today issued its long-awaited ruling in the case of Mosley v. the United Kingdom.

Max Mosley, a UK national and former president of the International Automobile Federation (the governing body of Formula One) lodged an application with the ECHR in 2008 after leading national UK newspapers published details of Mosley’s private life without notifying Mosley before publication of the details.  Mosley argued that the absence of a UK law requiring newspapers to notify individuals before publishing details of their private lives (i.e. a pre-publication notification requirement) denied individuals the chance to seek pre-emptive injunctions to stop publication, and so was a breach of Mosley’s Article 8 right to protection of private and family life.

Max Mosley, a UK national and former president of the International Automobile Federation (the governing body of Formula One) lodged an application with the ECHR in 2008 after leading national UK newspapers published details of Mosley’s private life without notifying Mosley before publication of the details.  Mosley argued that the absence of a UK law requiring newspapers to notify individuals before publishing details of their private lives (i.e. a pre-publication notification requirement) denied individuals the chance to seek pre-emptive injunctions to stop publication, and so was a breach of Mosley’s Article 8 right to protection of private and family life.

The ECHR today rejected this argument, noting that in the UK the right to private life was already “protected with a number of measures”, including self-regulation of the press, a civil right to damages in court proceedings for wronged individuals, and a right to apply for an injunction where an imminent publication was known to the individual and judged necessary by UK courts.  The ECHR also noted that the proposed pre-publication notification requirement could act as a ‘chilling effect’ on the freedom of the press to publish, including under their own Article 10 rights to publish in the public interest, and concluded that the absence of a pre-publication notification requirement in the UK did not breach Mosley’s rights under Article 8.
Tags: ECHR, Mosley
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Photo of Dan Cooper Dan Cooper

Daniel Cooper is co-chair of Covington’s Data Privacy and Cyber Security Practice, and advises clients on information technology regulatory and policy issues, particularly data protection, consumer protection, AI, and data security matters. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, representing…

Daniel Cooper is co-chair of Covington’s Data Privacy and Cyber Security Practice, and advises clients on information technology regulatory and policy issues, particularly data protection, consumer protection, AI, and data security matters. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, representing clients in regulatory proceedings before privacy authorities in Europe and counseling them on their global compliance and government affairs strategies. Dan regularly lectures on the topic, and was instrumental in drafting the privacy standards applied in professional sport.

According to Chambers UK, his “level of expertise is second to none, but it’s also equally paired with a keen understanding of our business and direction.” It was noted that “he is very good at calibrating and helping to gauge risk.”

Dan is qualified to practice law in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium. He has also been appointed to the advisory and expert boards of privacy NGOs and agencies, such as the IAPP’s European Advisory Board, Privacy International and the European security agency, ENISA.

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