The Noord-Holland court ruled last month that an ICT supplier is not liable for data loss from the client's old ICT environment. The agreement between client and supplier did not cover management of the old ICT environment, only setting up and managing the new one.
Relevance
This ruling again emphasises the importance of properly recording agreements between parties, also when it comes to data migration. In this case, the parties had not clearly agreed what was to be understood by 'management'. The client assumed management of both the new and old ICT environment, including migration, while the new ICT supplier did not. Partly on the basis of the e-mail correspondence back and forth, the court ruled that the parties had not agreed that the ICT supplier was also responsible for the old IT environment.
View the entire ruling here.
If you are planning to replace your ICT environment, engage a consultant in time to help you with this or ensure that both your new and old ICT supplier are involved in the planning. Good exit agreements are hugely important in this kind of situation. Our lawyers from Team IP/ICT/Privacy will of course be happy to help you with this.