Dixons Carphone is due to face a grilling from shareholders next week at its annual general meeting, following its damning admission of a massive data breach last month.
The retailer is due to reveal what financial impact the data breach, which saw nearly 16 million customer records jeopardised, has had on Thursday.
In June the technology retailer revealed that 5.9 million customers’ bank details had been accessed, including 105,000 non-EU cards which were not protected by a chip and pin number, as well as 1.2 million personal records.
However, following an investigation into the major data breach Dixons Carphone found that this number was in fact far higher, with 10 million customers’ private data having been accessed.
Though it has offered no indication of how the breach has affected its finances, its chief executive Alex Badock is expected to face tough questions on how the data breach was allowed to happen.
It is thought that the breach will not incur severe penalties under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as the breach occurred before it was brought in, meaning the maximum penalty will be just £500,000.
Under the new GDPR rules, Dixons Carphone would be fined up to four per cent of its annual global revenue, which is estimated to be around £423 million.
In the year to April 28 2018, the technology retailer posted a 24 per cent drop in profits to £382 million, warning that cost pressures would further impact margins moving forward.
It subsequently confirmed in June it expected profits to drop 22 per cent to £300 million for the 2018-2019 period.
“Overall market conditions appear to have been relatively dull and have remained tough, as was flagged at the last update,” HSBC retail analyst Andrew Porteous said.
“The World Cup will have been a small boost, as will the warmer weather in July, when it was reported that fans sold out in many countries across Europe.”
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