COVID-19 Litigation Fund Case Studies
The COVID-19 Litigation Fund was open for applications in the second half of 2020. It is not currently accepting new applications. See more information here.
The COVID-19 Litigation Fund was made possible thanks to funding from the Open Society Initiative for Europe, Luminate and the Sigrid Rausing Trust.

Foxglove and JCWI successfully challenged the UK Home Office, stopping use of a discriminatory algorithm used to stream visa applications.
Organisation: Foxglove, in collaboration with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
Grant type: Emergency Litigation and Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection; Human rights standards in the use and design of technology

HCLU are taking legal action to pressure Hungary’s government to put in place adequate measures for individuals to find out about or challenge unwarranted surveillance against them/to which they have been subjected.
Organisation: Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU)
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation to challenge use of copyright law by the German government to restrict the sharing of official information online.
Organisation: Open Knowledge Foundation Germany
Grant type: Emergency Litigation
Thematic area: Free Flow of Information Online

Complaints to data protection authorities pushing for the investigation of data brokers, adtech companies and credit rating agencies in the advertising technology industry.
Organisation: Privacy International
Grant type: Emergency Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

defenddigitalme is taking legal action against the UK Department of Education to ensure that the data of students is collected and processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently.
Organisation: defenddigitalme
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation challenging website censorship and demanding that access to sexual and reproductive health services be recognised as a key part of the right to information in Spain.
Organisation: Women’s Link Worldwide, with Women on Web
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Free flow of information online

Litigation challenging the collection of personal data of airline passengers and the sharing of this data with government authorities.
Organisation: epicenter.works and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic areas: Privacy and data protection

Litigation against universities in Germany to stop the processing of personal data through automated online proctoring software.
Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation to improve security standards and shorten retention periods for sharing of health data by insurance providers with research institutions.
Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Research to prepare for litigation challenging examples where data protection law is misused by the Spanish government to limit freedom of information and expression

Research preparing for litigation challenging an inadequate data protection regime for people residing in Germany without German citizenship.
Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: Pre-litigation Research
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation to restrict access to photographs and personal information from biometric ID cards.
Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: Emergency Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Legal action demanding access to information about algorithm-driven technology used by state bodies in Germany
Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: Emergency Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Research to prepare for litigation to challenge the practice in Germany of accessing sensitive personal data on the mobile devices of migrants and asylum seekers upon arrival in the country.
Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
Grant type: Pre-litigation Research
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Appeal to gain access to the content of an algorithm used to allocate judges to cases.
Organisation: ePaństwo Foundation
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Human rights standards in the use and design of technology

Coordinated complaints to data protection authorities across the EU pushing for changes to the online advertising industry so that users have control over how their data is used.
Organisation: Open Rights Group, Civil Liberties Union for Europe and Panoptykon
Grant type: Pre-litigation Research and Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Facebook censorship and changing corporate policies on content moderation towards a fair, transparent, and regulated system.
Organisation: Panoptykon Foundation
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Free Flow of Information Online

Litigation preventing the expansion of a criminal record database to include COVID-19 lockdown infringements.
Organisation: La Quadrature du Net
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Cross-jurisdictional litigation action to stop the use of COVID-19 apps that do not respect people’s rights to privacy and data protection.
Organisation: Civil Liberties Union for Europe, with Access Now and member organisations across 12 EU countries
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection; Human rights standards in the use and design of technology

Research to prepare a strategic case challenging restrictions to copyright exceptions that limit freedom of expression and access to information.
Organisation: Digital Republic Bulgaria, with Defesa dos Direitos Digitais, Homo Digitalis, Centrum Cyfrowe, and Association for Technology and Internation (ApTI)
Grant type: Pre-litigation Research
Thematic area: Free flow of information online

After a legal challenge brought by two victims of rape, the UK police agreed to revoke a “digital strip search” policy.
Organisation: Big Brother Watch
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation ensuring the increased roll out of thermal scanning technology does not violate privacy and data protection rights.
Organisation: Big Brother Watch
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection; Human rights standards in the use and design of technology

Litigation to prevent the use of remote proctoring software until data rights and equality issues are resolved.
Organisation: Open Knowledge Foundation
Grant type: COVID-19 Litigation Fund
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection; Human rights standards in the use and design of technology

Research to prepare a strategic case challenging digital practices that interfere with the rights to freedom of thought and opinion.
Organisation: Susie Alegre and Centre d’étude sur les conflits
Grant type: Pre-litigation Research
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation against the UK government challenging the UK Investigatory Powers Act, which grants the government mass surveillance powers.
Organisation: Liberty
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

Litigation in the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal challenging data breaches by the UK Security Service.
Organisation: Liberty
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Privacy and data protection

A coalition in the Netherlands successfully challenged the use of the “SyRI” risk-scoring algorithm by the Dutch government.
Organisation: A coalition of NGOs, the Dutch trade union federation and two citizens, led by the Public Interest Litigation Project (PILP-NJCM) and Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten
Grant type: Single Instance Litigation
Thematic area: Human rights standards in the use and design of technology