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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>FYI – FWIW from Tom Smedinghoff <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Federated ID Management Task Force [mailto:BL-FIDM@MAIL.AMERICANBAR.ORG] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Smedinghoff, Tom<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, February 16, 2015 8:49 AM<br><b>To:</b> BL-FIDM@MAIL.AMERICANBAR.ORG<br><b>Subject:</b> [ABA-IDM-TASK-FORCE] Liability of IdP?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>With respect to the issue of identity system participant liability, and the discussion regarding legislative approaches to the issue, a list participant alerted me to a recent UK decision that might be of interest. See <b><a href="http://economia.icaew.com/news/january-2015/companies-house-liable-for-companys-collapse">Companies House liable for company's collapse</a> </b>and <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11372343/Government-in-9-million-payout-after-single-letter-blunder-causes-business-to-collapse.html">Government in £9 million payout after single letter blunder causes business to collapse</a></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>In that case, Companies House (the UK government's official registrar of companies, and an executive agency of the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills) had provided (apparently negligently) false information to credit reference agencies indicating that a business was in liquidation. The result was that all of its suppliers canceled their orders within three weeks, and the 100-year old company was forced to shut down. The UK High Court held Companies House liable for the resulting damages, finding that it owed a duty of care to the business, and that there was a special relationship with the business because “it is foreseeable that if a company is wrongly said on the register to be in liquidation, it will suffer serious harm.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Since the case involves identity attribute-like information, it appears to raise numerous issues of relevance for the current discussion, including the liability of identity providers and attribute providers, the nature of the duty they might owe to persons and businesses they identify, and the potential liability of a government agency. It will be interesting to see whether similar reasoning is applied to identity credentials asserting incorrect information.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Tom<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#7F7F7F'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#5A5A5A'>Thomas J. Smedinghoff<br></span></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#FF6633'>Locke Lord LLP<br></span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#5A5A5A'>225 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 3000<br>Chicago, Illinois 60606<br>312-201-2021 Direct<br>312-545-1333 Mobile<br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#FF6633'><a href="mailto:Tom.Smedinghoff@lockelord.com"><span style='color:#FF6633'>Tom.Smedinghoff@lockelord.com</span></a><u><br></u></span><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="http://www.lockelord.com/"><span style='color:#FF6633;font-style:normal'>www.lockelord.com</span></a></span></i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>