Ben Packer

Ben is a Partner in Litigation, Arbitration and Investigations in London specialising in disputes in the tech, financial services and sports sectors.

In the tech sector, he has represented a range of major clients on some of their most significant issues. He has advised clients on investigations and interactions with regulators including the Information Commissioner (ICO), Ofcom, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and international regulators. He also assisted clients in defending claims in litigation and in providing evidence to public inquiries. This has covered a range of topics including illegal content, misinformation, online fraud and scams, data privacy, data scraping and more. Ben is one of the firm’s experts on online safety and has led several mandates concerning the UK’s Online Safety Act and overseas legislation concerning online content.

In financial services, Ben has advised many significant institutions and senior individuals on Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigations, enforcement actions, skilled persons reviews and supervisory action. He has also advised clients on criminal investigations by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and issues concerning the UK’s financial sanctions regime, including resolving investigations conducted by the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI). He has advised clients on the potential to judicially review decisions made by regulators and other public bodies.

In sports, Ben has advised sporting teams, governing bodies and commercial partners on several significant regulatory disputes, concerning various sports’ financial, technical and sporting regulations.

More broadly, Ben has led several internal investigations into high-profile issues, including cross-border tax evasion and the sharing of confidential information. He is a member of Linklaters internal steering committee overseeing innovation and client solutions and was formerly a trustee of CyclingUK.

Ben is recognised by the Legal 500 as being one of Linklaters’ key lawyers in several categories, including financial services (contentious), fintech, regulatory investigations and corporate crime and data protection, privacy and cybersecurity.

Work highlights

• Experian: Advising Experian on its successful appeal of an ICO enforcement notice and defence of a connected class action. This was one of the most significant data privacy matters in the UK to date and concerned the legality of how Experian’s marketing business processed the personal data of virtually all UK adults.

• Social media platform: Advising a major social media platform on the defence of a threatened claim in the English courts concerning harm alleged to have been caused by online content.

• Entertainment platform: Advising a major entertainment platform on a potential challenge to an international regulator’s decision concerning data privacy.

• Tech companies: Advising several tech companies on aspects of their implementation of the UK’s Online Safety Act and their interactions with Ofcom.

• Tech company: Advising a major technology company on its evidence to the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and a major social media platform on its evidence to the UK’s COVID-19 inquiry.
• Senior executive: Advising a senior executive of a UK bank on a joint PRA and FCA investigation into operational resilience issues, concluded with no action taken.

Ben studied Law at the University of Sheffield.

He is qualified in England and Wales with Higher Rights (Civil).

Recent publications include:

Patchwork regimes make it hard to police online content, Ben Packer, The Times, 30 November 2023

Levelling up: the latest legal trends shaping the gaming industry, Verity Egerton-Doyle, Ben Packer and Laetitia Nicolazzi, TechUK, 16 May 2024