Greece’s Predator spyware scandal has reached the courts. Eight people it spied on want €1 million each from the firm that built it.
Eight victims of Greece’s “Predatorgate” wiretapping scandal have sued the Athens surveillance firm Intellexa and 13 people linked to it, Reuters reports. Each is seeking €1 million in moral damages, a combined €8 million. Their lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, says more suits will follow.
How Predatorgate unfolded
The scandal broke in 2022. A financial journalist and a centre-left party leader said the state had spied on their phones using Predator, Intellexa’s flagship spyware. Traces later turned up on dozens more devices.
The fallout was swift. Greece sacked the head of its EYP intelligence service and the prime minister’s chief of staff. Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right government denied any political involvement, called the monitoring of an opponent a mistake, and survived a no-confidence vote in 2023.
The maker in the dock
The suit names Intellexa SA and 13 individuals, among them Israeli founder Tal Dilian. All eight plaintiffs had phones found infected with Predator. They are claiming damages for the unlawful violation of their private life, their communications, and their personal data.
Predator ranks among the most capable spyware tools around. Earlier reporting found that it reached targets through SMS links, exploiting zero-day flaws in Chrome and Android, The Register notes.
The criminal case is further along. In February a Greek court convicted Dilian and three others of breaching data confidentiality in 2020 and 2021. Each drew a nominal 126 years, capped at eight under Greek law. Dilian calls the verdict unfounded and will appeal in December.
Why it matters
Washington moved first. In 2024 the US Treasury sanctioned Intellexa and linked firms in Ireland, North Macedonia, and Hungary. The Trump administration then lifted some of those measures this year. Greece is not alone either, with similar spyware scandals in Spain, Hungary, and Poland.
Campaigners this week urged the EU to investigate and attribute each attack, as the bloc reels from a fresh Pegasus case against one of its own lawmakers. The government still denies wrongdoing, which leaves the victims chasing the vendor instead. This suit tests whether a spyware maker, not the state that bought it, can be made to pay.
The court hears it in April, and it feeds a wider push to rein in an industry that thrives around expanding surveillance.
