Ashley Madison Sued in Ala. Data Breach Class Action

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The popular extramarital dating side Ashley Madison has been hit with several lawsuits since the website’s recent data breach became public knowledge, as many plaintiffs are claiming that the website company failed to protect their users’ information.

On Aug. 26, another Ashley Madison class action lawsuit was filed, this time in Alabama federal court, alleging that not only did the website neglect to thoroughly protect users’ sensitive data, it also failed to inform their consumers that information from 37 million Ashley Madison accounts were made public during a June data hack.

Plaintiff John Doe (who filed under a pseudonym) is suing Avid Life Media Inc., Ashley Madison’s parent company, alleging the Toronto-based company violated Alabama state laws, federal laws, and acted negligently by not taking full security measures in order to protect Ashley Madison users’ information. Furthermore, the plaintiff claims that the website company failed to delete consumers’ data even after these users paid $19 to have their personal information removed from the site.

According to the Ashley Madison data breach class action lawsuit, Doe claims he created an account on the extramarital affair website in July 2012, at which time he was allegedly not in a relationship, though currently he is engaged. He alleges that he became aware that his personal information had been made public on Aug. 21 of this year, roughly around the same time Doe’s friends, customers, and even neighbors personally informed him that they knew of his Ashley Madison account. After his account information became public, Doe and his fiancee began to receive multiple embarrassing social media messages from from friends and family.

The Ashley Madison data breach class action lawsuit claims: “Plaintiff was not in a relationship at the time he accessed the site, however, he is now in a committed relationship with his soon to be wife, and they have suffered much embarrassment and emotional distress as a result of Ashley Madison’s failure to protect Plaintiff’s private information.”

Doe brings several allegations against Ashley Madison and its parent company, including claims of violating the Federal Stored Communications Act and Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, breach of implied contract, bailment, conversion, fraud and misrepresentation.

The plaintiff is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for himself as well as a Class of U.S. individuals who created Ashley Madison accounts and whose information was leaked or downloaded to the public or who used the websites Paid-Delete function and whose information was still leaked to the public. Doe is also seeking the certification of two subclasses of Ashley Madison consumers from the state of Alabama.

The plaintiff is represented by Thomas E. Baddley Jr., Jeffrey P. Mauro and John Parker Yates of Baddley & Mauro LLC.

The Ashley Madison Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is John Doe v. Avid Life Media Inc., et al, Case No. 6:15-cv-01464, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

UPDATE: On Dec. 9, 2015, several class action lawsuits filed over the Ashley Madison data breach were consolidated in Missouri federal court.

UPDATE 2: On June 24, 2016, in response to a recent federal court ruling, 18 plaintiffs who have filed suit against Ashley Madison over the highly-publicized data breach have amended their complaint to include their own names.

UPDATE 3: On July 14, 2017, Ashley Madison’s parent company agreed topay $11.2 million to settleclaims arising from a data breach that revealed personal information about those using the adultery dating website. UPDATE 4: The Ashley Madison data breach class action settlement is now open.

 Click here to file a claim. 

UPDATE 5: On Jan. 31, 2018, Top Class Actions viewers who filed a valid claim for the Ashley Madison data breach class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $2,915. Congratulations to everyone who got PAID!