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District Court approves settlement of class claiming privacy violations

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

Courts

On February 11, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted approval of a $217 million class action settlement, resolving allegations that the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) and their contractors (collectively, “defendants”) allegedly repeatedly used their access to drivers’ personal information to share data. According to the plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of the settlement, the defendants allegedly provided toll violation information to the California Department of Motor Vehicles so the agency could prevent drivers' vehicle registration renewals until the outstanding tolls were paid, in violation of California law. According to the settlement, the TCA is required to forgive $135 million in penalties and pay $29 million in cash awards. Each class representative will receive $15,000 from TCA, and class counsel will receive $17.5 million. Among other things, TCA must also increase the time to pay unpaid toll citations from five to seven days and update its privacy policies to include a list of the categories of personal identifying information sent to third parties. The toll operator is required to pay $11.95 million in cash to class members as part of the settlement, in addition to $3,000 to each class representative and $3 million to class counsel. Additionally, Orange County Transportation Authorities are required to forgive $40 million in penalties and pay $1 million in cash and will be required to reduce the maximum toll violation.