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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

District Court grants final approval to grocery chain data breach settlement

Courts Class Action Settlement Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security Data Breach

Courts

On July 21, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois granted final approval to a class action data breach settlement, resolving allegations that a grocery chain was responsible for a data breach that exposed the credit card information of consumers. The final settlement (which was preliminarily approved in January) allows class members representing consumers who used a payment card to make a purchase at an impacted point-of-sale device during the security incident to receive reimbursement of up to $225 for out-of-pocket expenses related to the breach, including (i) unreimbursed bank, overdraft, and late fees; (ii) telecommunication charges; (iii) payday loan interest; and (iv) costs related to credit monitoring, identity theft protection, and time spent replacing credit cards and addressing fraudulent charges. Additionally, class members may be awarded up to $5,000 for “extraordinary expenses” resulting from the compromise of personal information. The grocery chain also agreed to “establish and maintain security enhancements that are estimated to cost more than $20 million.” However, the court reduced the attorneys’ fees to $739,000 in the final settlement after determining the initial fee request was too high compared to the overall relief for class members.