James Watt, the founder of BrewDog who sold the debt-laden brewer's assets to Tilray in March, is facing complaints to the UK's data privacy watchdog after emailing thousands of former shareholders about his surprise bid to buy the company back. Several recipients said they could not work out how Watt had obtained their contact details, raising concerns about a possible breach of GDPR, the strict rules governing how organisations collect and use personal data. The episode matters because it casts doubt over the legitimacy of Watt's unexpected comeback venture at a moment when it is trying to win over the same "equity punk" investors whose shares were wiped out by the earlier sale.

Watt's new venture, Second Best, launched with backing from 43,000 former crowdfunding investors and offered them the "exact same stake" they once held in BrewDog, for free. The Information Commissioner's Office has been asked by several ex-shareholders to investigate, though it has not yet confirmed whether it will act. Watt insists the emails used "lawfully obtained data" following legal advice but has not explained their source, while both Tilray and administrator AlixPartners deny supplying the shareholder records, leaving the origin of the data unresolved.