Contents

1. Summary
   1. Facts
   2. Holding
2. Comment
3. Further resources
4. Decision

Summary

The High Court held the Tanzania Beijing Huayuan Security Guard Service Company Ltd (the “Respondent”) liable for infringing on the rights of Deogras John Marando (the “Appellant”) when it used the Appellant's image in promotional material without his permission.

Facts

Deogras John Marando (the “Appellant”) was an employee of Tanzania Beijing Huayuan Security Guard Service Company Ltd (the “Respondent”). The Respondent used the Appellant's images in promotional material and declined to stop doing so even after the Appellant left its employment and notwithstanding his requests for the company to stop doing so.

He filed a matter in the lower courts alleging a violation of his rights to privacy and seeking compensation which suit dismissed his suit on the basis that he was the Respondent's employee, and that he was compensated for the use of the photos through his salary. The court also held that he had not proved the commercial benefit derived by the Respondent by their use of his photos. Feeling aggrieved by that decision, he appealed to the High court.

Holding

The High Court agreed with the Appellant.

The court affirmed that the Respondent ought to have obtained the consent of the Appellant prior to publishing his image and in failing to do so breached the Respondent's image rights/ right to privacy. In reaching this decision, the court noted that the images were used for commercial purposes (gain) noting in dicta, that the Appellant was not even its employee at the time. The High Court awarded the Appellant TZS 50 million as general damages

Comment

The original case was instituted in 2018 before the Tanzania Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 was passed in 1 November 2022.

Further resources

N/A

Decision

Deogras John Marando vs Managing Director Tanzania Beijing Huayuan Security Guard Service Co Ltd (Civil Appeal 110 of 2018) 2020 TZHC 1992 (27 March 2020).pdf