$10M Target Data Breach Settlement Awaits Final Approval

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The multidistrict litigation for Target’s consumer data breach in 2013 is finally nearing a close, with a claims review underway and a final hearing scheduled to seek approval of the process.

Consumers told U.S. District Judge on Tuesday that the analysis completed by the court-appointed claims administrator that reviewed a sampling of the documented claims supported the previously agreed-upon $10 million settlement deal.

According to court documents, Rust Consulting Inc., the court-appointed claims administrator, analyzed the claims seeking an amount of $5,000 or more as well as a statistically significant random sampling of the remaining claims. The analysis confirmed that the total estimated payout for the documented, validated claims totals about $443,000.

The analysis reviewed a total of 371 claims seeking $5,000 or more and found that 27 had valid documentation, with the payout averaging about $2,200 each. Of the remaining claims seeking less than $5,000, 375 were randomly selected and 32 had valid documentation and proof of Class membership. The validated claims seeking the lesser amount had an average payout of just under $300 in the analysis, according to the motion supporting final approval of the Target class action settlement.

In addition to estimated payout of $443,000 for the validated, documented claims, consumers were also allowed to file a claim without documentation of their losses. After the documented claims are paid out, class members will be able to receive an equal amount of the remainder of the fund, which is estimated at about $40 per claim. An additional $6.75 million beyond the $10 million settlement has been allotted for attorney’s fees.

The Target data breach class action lawsuits were originally filed in 2013 after the data of up to 110 million customers was compromised. Some consumers who had their information compromised were allegedly forced to pay unlawful charges, had their bank account access restricted or blocked, were unable to pay their regular bills or were forced to pay late charges for untimely bill payments and fees for new cards to be issued.

The data breach class action lawsuits brought forth charges against Minnesota-based Target including negligence, violations of Minnesota Business Law and Minnesota’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, California’s Unfair Competition Law and California’s Data Breach Act, as well as other consumer protection laws in various states.

The $10 million settlement was reached in March of this year and received final approval in April. Following the settlement approval, individuals were provided a filing window to submit claims from April until July 31, 2015 for their association with the Target data breach.

Consumers were able to file a claim if they received a notice directly from Target about the breach or if they:

• Shopped at Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 18, 2013 and used a credit or debit card
• Provided contact information to Target before Dec. 18, 2013
• Were issued a new credit or debit card from their bank, credit card, or financial institution shortly after the data breach, with a letter accompanying the newly-issued card suggesting that the old card may have been compromised.

The terms of the Target data breach settlement will also require Target to provide security training to their employees to further safeguard consumer information in an effort to avoid any data compromises in the future.

The final hearing for the Target data breach class action settlement is scheduled for Nov. 10, 2015.

The plaintiffs are represented by Heins Mills & Olson PLC, Nichols Kaster PLLP, Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group PA, Girard Gibbs LLP, Milberg LLP, Chestnut Cambronne PA and Steuve Siegel Hanson LLP, among others.

The Target Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Target Corp. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, Case No. 0:14-md-02522, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

UPDATE: The Target data breach class action settlement received final approval on Nov. 17, 2015.

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 27, 2016, an objection to the $10 million Target data breach class action lawsuit settlement deal was dismissed by the 8th Circuit on appeal.

UPDATE 3: On Apr. 21, 2016, plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation against Target Corp. over the infamous 2013 data breach are asking the Eighth Circuit Court to ignore claims made by an objector in the settlement.

UPDATE 4: On Feb. 1, 2017, the Eighth Circuit Court of appeals reversed the class certification and directed the district court to make a new ruling and explain its findings. According to the settlement website, claims will not be paid until class certification is resolved. This could take several more months. Please keep checking Top Class Actions for updates. We are following the case and will let our viewers know as soon as the class certification decision is made!

UPDATE 5: On Aug. 22, 2019, Top Class Actions viewers started getting checks from the Target data breach class action settlement worth as much as $1,201.88. Congratulations to everyone who filed a claim and got PAID!