Salesforce Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach

A class action lawsuit claims that Hanna Andersson and Salesforce suffered a data breach which compromised customers’ information.

Plaintiff Addi Jadin says she is a customer of Hanna Andersson, a children’s clothing company which uses Salesforce’s e-commerce platform.

Allegedly, Salesforce suffered a data breach in January 2020 that compromised Jadin’s information.

According to the Salesforce class action, the companies did not do enough to prevent the data breach, and did not respond appropriately after it occurred.

The data breach class action claims that Hanna Andersson sent its customers an email on Jan. 15, 2020, which informed customers that the company had suffered a data breach. According to the notice, a third party had accessed Hanna Andersson’s website between Sept. 16 and Nov. 11, 2019. 

Jadin says she received this email, which explained that information entered during the purchase process on the company’s website could have been exposed. The email further explained that information including a customer’s name, billing address, shipping address, card number, card CVV code, and card expiration date could have been compromised.

The Salesforce data breach class action lawsuit claims that Hanna Andersson also sent a Notification of Security Incident to attorney generals in states throughout the U.S. on the same day.

However, Jadin asserts the details in this notice conflicted with the information provided to customers. She argues that there are inconsistencies in the information conveyed about the breach and says there is evidence of problematic decision-making that “substantially increased the exposure and harm to customers.”

Elaborating on what Jadin sees as inconsistencies in how Hanna Andersson handled the data breach, the class action notes that the Notification of Security Incident says the malware was removed on Nov. 11, 2019. However, Hanna Andersson allegedly claims that the company was not aware of the malware until it was notified of the breach by law enforcement on Dec. 5, 2019. 

Jadin says that “there is no indication of whether Salesforce was aware of the breach, exfiltration and theft of customers’ personal and financial data prior to November 11, 2019, in order to remove the malware on its Commerce Cloud platform.”

Additionally, the plaintiff claims that there is no evidence that Salesforce informed Hanna Andersson of the data breach, exfiltration, or theft. 

Based on this lack of evidence, the Hanna Andersson data breach class action lawsuit argues that it is improbable that the malware on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform was removed without the notice of Salesforce or Hanna Andersson.

Jadin argues that this information implies that Salesforce itself did not promptly alert Hanna Andersson or customers of the data breach. 

The Salesforce data breach lawsuit says that the notice about the data breach was sent to customers on Jan. 15, 2020, more than two weeks after the data breach was discovered.

According to Jardin, this two-week delay in contacting customers put them at risk for injury from the data breach and prevented them from taking steps to mitigate the damage.

A similar class action lawsuit over the same data breach was filed earlier this month.

In related legal news, a class action has also been launched against Salesforce in the U.K. over claims that it collects users’ personal data in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Do you worry about your data security while shopping online? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Jadin is represented by (Eddie) Jae K. Kim, Gary F. Lynch, and Kelly K. Iverson of Carlson Lynch LLP.

The Salesforce Hanna Andersson Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Jadin v. Hanna Andersson LLC, et al., Case No. 4:20-cv-01347, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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