amicus data breach Eichenberger v. ESPN Gubala SuperValu

Appeals Court Revives Data Breach Suit Against Zappos

A federal appeals court has ruled that consumers affected by a Zappos.com data breach have the right to sue the online retailer. The 2012 breach exposed the personal data of more than 24 million Zappos customers. A lower court previously held that the consumers lacked "standing" to bring a lawsuit against Zappos because their injuries were merely "conjectural." But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision and allowed the case to continue. "With each new hack comes a new hacker, each of whom independently could choose to use the data to commit identity theft," the court wrote. EPIC regularly files amicus briefs defending standing in consumer privacy cases, most recently in Eichenberger v. ESPN (where the Ninth Circuit also held for consumers), Gubala v. Time Warner Cable, and In re SuperValu Customer Data Security Breach Litigation.

March 9, 2018| Share: