EBay Wants Data Security Breach Class Action Tossed

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EBay wants a data security breach class action lawsuit dismissed, saying that it’s too speculative an assertion for the lead plaintiff to say he may suffer future harm because his personal information was compromised.

Plaintiff Collin Green doesn’t have standing to bring this data breach class action lawsuit, eBay contends, because he has not shown how he was injured when eBay’s data security networks were hacked.

Green filed the eBay data security breach class action lawsuit in July alleging that eBay’s electronic files containing customer information were compromised by hackers sometime in February or March, and as a result, he and other eBay customers are at a greater risk for identity theft.

EBay claims that the data breach included the encrypted passwords, birthdays, addresses and phone numbers of its customers, but not credit card or other financial information like the data breaches aimed at Target Corp. or Home Depot Inc.

“Plaintiff does not allege that he has been injured by misuse of stolen information,” the e-commerce company wrote in its motion to dismiss the data security breach class action lawsuit.

“He does not allege that anyone has used his password, or that anyone has even tried to commit identity fraud with his information — let alone that anyone has actually succeeded in doing so — and that he has thereby suffered harm,” eBay continues.

“Instead, plaintiff relies on vague, speculative assertions of possible future injury — that maybe at some point in the future, he might be harmed,” the company argues.

EBay cites the Supreme Court’s decision in 2013 in the Clapper v. Amnesty International USA case, in which the high court said that a group of lawyers, journalists and others could not challenge amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that were passed in 2008 because they lacked standing under Article III.

The internet giant argues that according that standard, that Green also lacks standing to bring this class action lawsuit, since none of his financial information is at stake, as was the case in other data breach lawsuits.

“These cases do not apply here, because plaintiff does not even allege that any of his sensitive financial data was stolen, let alone that it has actually been misused,” eBay contends.

In addition, eBay says that its privacy policy explained that eBay “does not offer an absolute guarantee that user information will never be the subject of a cyberattack,” and that its customers were, therefore, made aware of the possible risks.

However, eBay does say in its privacy policy that “‘we protect your information using technical and administrative security measures to reduce the risks of loss, misuse, authorized access, disclosure and alteration.'”

Green alleges in his data security breach class action lawsuit that “eBay was aware of the value of the personal information it held, and the threat to the security of that information long before the 2014 security breach.”

Even though the data breach occurred in February or March, eBay did not disclose the information to the public until May 21, which Green says was done by the company to protect its “market perception” and its “bottom line.”

Green is represented by Charles F. Zimmer, Eric J. O’Bell and Bradley T. Oster of O’Bell Law Firm LLC.

Ebay is represented by Michael Rhodes, Matthew Brown and Benjamin Kleine of Cooley LLP and Kerry Miller, Joseph Mole and Heather McArthur of Frilot LLC.

The eBay Data Security Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Collin Green v. eBay Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-01688, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

UPDATE: A federal judge has dismissed the eBay Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit. Click on this link to learn more about the court’s decision.