Bradley J. Freedman of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP writes about the settlement of a class action lawsuit against Walmart and PNI Digital Media. DataBreaches.net had covered the breach involving both U.S. and Canadian photo centers at the time of the breach.
Canadian class action lawsuits over the Walmart Canada Photo Centre data breach were settled in May 2017. The lawsuits and settlement provide useful lessons for Canadian organizations that collect and process sensitive customer information.
The settlement includes:
- Credit Monitoring: Walmart Canada and PNI Digital Media will pay the costs of a one-year credit and identity theft monitoring service (or reimbursement of previously incurred costs for a similar service) for affected customers. The maximum cumulative total available for credit monitoring for all affected customers is $350,000.
- Recovery of Expenses: Walmart Canada and PNI will reimburse affected customers for their out-of-pocket losses, unreimbursed charges and time spent remedying issues traceable to the data security incident (at $15 per hour for up to five hours) to a maximum of $5,000 for any one customer. The maximum cumulative total available for recovery of expenses for all affected customers is $450,000.
- Administration Costs: Walmart Canada and PNI will pay up to $250,000 for the reasonable costs of administering the settlement, including the costs of a court-appointed independent claims administrator.
Read more on Martindale.com.