District Court preliminarily approves data breach settlement

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

On October 24, the U.S. District Court for the District Court of Colorado granted preliminary approval of a class action settlement resolving claims that a defendant failed to safeguard personally identifiable information (PII) during a data breach. According to the plaintiffs’ unopposed motion for preliminary approval of class action settlement and supporting memorandum, in December 2021, the defendant determined that an unauthorized third party gained access to and gathered data from its computer network in June 2021. The plaintiffs further alleged that, “if [the defendant] ‘properly monitor[ed] … [its] computer network and systems that housed the … [PII],’ [the defendant] ‘would have discovered the intrusion sooner.’” Furthermore, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant failed to provide “timely and adequate notice” to the plaintiff class, and filed claims for negligence, breach of implied contract, and invasion of privacy by intrusion. The settlement also includes a provision for the defendant to pay directly for credit monitoring and identity theft protection services, not limited by the $475,000 cap, along with about $51,000 for settlement administration costs. The plaintiffs would also be able to seek up to $210,000 for attorney fees and costs, and a total $5,000 for service awards to the named plaintiffs.