Family Wants R18 Million From Spar For Alleged Data Theft. The family has stated in a letter that the supposed stealing of their private financial records was an invasion of privacy.
A Greek business family, the Giannacopoulos family, is requesting R18 million in damages from The Spar Group for supposed data theft. The family runs numerous Spar stores, mostly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The family has stated in a letter that the supposed stealing of their private financial records was an invasion of privacy.
In October 2019, Spar got temporary ex parte orders from the North Gauteng and Pietermaritzburg high courts. The Spar Group has alleged that the family has brought their brand into disgrace by showing attention towards rival supermarket chains, which was not accepted for Spar franchisees, defied labour and selling expired products. The family has 2800 employees in their 41 Spar stores.
The temporary orders ensured Spar to keep control of the supermarkets they own, a decision that only lasted for two days. This is due to the family successfully reversing the ex parte order that was given in Pretoria and also got control of their shops in KwaZulu-Natal. However, the issue has not been resolved yet. The family states that their computers at the Spar in Sinoville Centre in Pretoria, were taken Spa on their 18th of October, a day after the orders were reversed, at a moment when Spar was supposed to have restored the ownership of the shop to the family.
The family has a headquarters in Sinovile for their business functions in Gauteng and the North West province, where they manage their other business interests either than the Spar stores. It is states that the members of Spar illegally duplicated 113 files and folders that had private financial records from one of the family computers, the following morning. Emails that included a staff member’s private messages and 46 pictures were copied, including details that were linked to their other business interests.
“The reprehensible theft of our client’s data and information was carried out by The Spar Group on the October 19. It is clear that Spar, once it became aware that it could not keep our client’s computers in terms of the order, decided to deceitfully and unlawfully copy the contents thereof, reads an extract from the letter,” says the family’s legal representatives. Apart from the supposed stealing of data, the family stated that Spar was in disdain of the court order and largely violated the right to privacy and dignity of the family and their workers.
Thus the family asked that Spar returns all their supposedly stolen data and also demanded affidavits from all Spar members who had a hold of the data, acknowledging that the data had been destroyed or brought back to the family. They also requested that two of their computers be brought back. The Spar Group was given 7 days from Tuesday to give the family R18 million for the claim of damages. The failure would lead to the family continuing with legal action. The secretary of the Spar Group, Mandy Hogan, says the group denied the allegations against them made by the family, they also state that the family is false and defamatory.
The secretary states that Spar planned to strongly defend themselves in court, as the allegations were meant to have affect the reputation of Spar intentionally. She stated that the letter should be seen in the background of the court application brought forward by the family to avert from their expulsion from Spar. The issue will be heard in court on March.
by Alexandra Ramaite
