POPIA Judgments and Cases

POPIA judgments or POPIA cases

You need to know about and possibly take action when the courts hand down POPIA judgments or POPIA cases. It is a critical part of ensuring that your organisation complies with data protection law. POPIA is a principle-based law and our courts apply the principles to real-world scenarios or activities. But how are you supposed to monitor all judgments on an ongoing basis to find the relevant ones, read them to understand what the latest POPIA judgments deal with, and decide what action you might need to take in response to them?  Impossible? Don’t worry, we do this for you.

We continually monitor and provide a plain-language summaries of all POPIA judgments or POPIA cases. Our summaries highlight what action you might need to take in response. We summarise any judgment that applies to POPIA. We do all the hard work for you to save you time.

What POPIA judgments or cases?

Essentially, we monitor and summarise any judgments that apply to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA judgments). We also monitor and summarise data privacy judgments or cases in a South African context. Privacy is a broad topic and includes the various aspects like data privacy, the privacy of communications, bodily privacy, and surveillance. We focus on data privacy judgments but will include others if they are relevant.

Judgment summaries

Only some of the judgment summaries are linked below. To read all previous judgment summaries and be alerted to future ones, join the Michalsons data protection programme. If you are a member and you are logged in, you will be able to view the public as well as the “Members only” judgments.

Discovery vs Liberty judgment | Data ownership

The Discovery vs Liberty judgment adds weight to the argument that the data subject and not the responsible party owns their personal data. Data protection law puts the control back in the hands of the data subject. It gives [...]

Black Sash Trust v Minister of Social Development

In Black Sash Trust v Minister of Social Development, the Constitutional Court agreed with the Information Regulator that data subjects own their personal information and that a responsible party cannot transfer the data subject's personal information to another party. [...]

President of the Republic of South Africa v Office of the Public Protector

In President of the Republic of South Africa v Office of the Public Protector, the Court confirmed the authority and powers of Chapter 9 Institutions. Similar to the Public Protector, the Information Regulator can also hold others accountable for their […]

Dutch Reformed Church Vergesig v Sooknunan

In Dutch Reformed Church Vergesig v Sooknunan, the Court ordered Sooknunan, the owner and publisher of a Facebook page, to remove certain posts as they were unlawful in content and impact. The Court held that people posting the Church members' […]

Bernstein v Bester

In Bernstein v Bester, the court gave an interpretation of the constitutional right to privacy. The court held that business activities are public affairs that need public scrutiny. This means that the right to privacy applies in the personal or [...]

National Media Ltd v Jooste

In National Media Ltd v Jooste, a magazine published an article about Jooste and her child without Jooste's consent. The Court held that a child's personal information was also a guardian's personal information. The Court also held that a person […]

Financial Mail v Sage Holdings

In Financial Mail (Pty) Ltd v Sage Holdings Ltd, the Court extended personality rights to a corporation. This judgment is a significant development in our law and is the basis behind POPIA's requirement that responsible parties must protect the personal [...]