Colleen Murphy reports that a potential class action lawsuit that relied on a legal strategy called the “alter ego doctrine” has been dismissed. Since DataBreaches is not a lawyer and has never heard of this doctrine before, Murphy’s coverage makes for an interesting read. She reports:
A group of optical companies secured the dismissal of a federal class action lawsuit that alleged the entities failed to protect their patient’s personal data.
The defense prevailed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in a class action claim that accused U.S. Vision and related companies of allowing cybercriminals to access the personal information of more than 700,000 patients. The decision, In re U.S. Vision Data Breach Litigation, was issued by U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn.
The decision hinged on whether the plaintiffs could prove that defendants U.S. Vision and USV Optical directly interacted with the consumers filing the lawsuit despite being customers of a third entity. The complaint, first filed by named plaintiff Ian Torres in November 2022, alleged that he was a customer of that third company, Nationwide Vision and SightCare. However, Torres contended that U.S. Vision should also be held liable for the breach, since Nationwide Vision and SightCare were essentially acting as the “alter ego” of that company.
Read more at Law.com,