A lawyer representing Greek expatriates and their spouses in what has come to be known as Greek Email Gate announced on X that the law office alone has already filed 140 cases against the Greek state for the data breach, and that claims currently reach €2.8 million.
The Email Gate Scandal started in March when the now former New Democracy MEP candidate Anna-Michelle Asimokopoulou was forced to drop out of the running for the 10th European Parliament elections when it was discovered she had illegally obtained a list of email addresses of Greek voters abroad and proceeded to send them unsolicited emails advertising her candidacy.
She stated that she received the list of email addressed from an official of the New Democracy party, which is a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Since the scandal broke, two high ranking officials of New Democracy have resigned.
The lawyer of many Greek expats, Vassilis Sotiropoulos, stated in his post on X that the claims are for moral damage and that the law office is expecting another 14 lawsuits to be filed, which are currently in the drafting and preparation stage.
The scandal has been embraced by political opposition parties, particularly by SYRIZA, as an opportunity to attack incumbent New Democracy in the runup to European Parliament elections scheduled for June 9.
In a statement, SYRIZA points out that a month has passed since the scandal broke and they are still demanding answers to questions such as who else illegally received the list of expatriates’ data.
