Liability for Pure Data Loss

The economy of the 21st century is increasingly data-driven. Data is the basis of virtually all technologies, and thus the basis of digitisation as such. Up to now, data have not so much been at the focus of tort law. However, the general principles of liability and compensation, which Helmut Koziol has developed in the course of his unparalleled lifetime achievement and brought to bear far beyond Austria and Europe, also serve to solve new and emerging issues of liability that arise in the modern data economy. This paper will demonstrate how, in particular, the idea that the scope of protection of an interest under tort law depend on its value, the precision of its definition and its obviousness, enshrined in Article 1:102 of the Principles of European Tort Law (PETL), guides us towards convincing results even when it comes to damage to data. Austrian law will serve as the starting point for the analysis, but the findings are arguably valid for many other legal systems