Sprouts Class Action Lawsuit Targets Employee Data Breach

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A former Sprouts employee filed a proposed class action lawsuit in Colorado federal court following the data breach that has recently plagued Sprouts employees, alleging that the company’s negligence caused financial damages.

Plaintiff Debra Price filed the lawsuit on April 14, exactly one month after the data breach at Sprouts occurred. As part of the data breach, approximately 21,000 Sprouts employees allegedly had their personal identifying information (PII) stolen when an employee in Sprouts’ payroll department shared the information with an unknown and unauthorized party as part of a W-2 phishing scam.

In the complaint, Price stated that she and her husband were unable to e-file their 2015 tax return because someone who had her social security number and financial information already claimed a rapid refund of the tax money. The lawsuit adds that Price “will need to expend additional time, money and resources to work with the IRS, her CPA, the State of Colorado and all reporting agencies to sort out the fraudulent tax claim made with her social security number that was compromised due to Sprouts’ negligence and failure to protect her form W-2.”

Price further claimed that her minor daughter was also employed at Sprouts during 2015 and had her personal information compromised “leaving her vulnerable to identity theft and a threat that her credit will be compromised before she even has a chance to build that credit.”

The plaintiff is seeking to represent herself and a Class of 21,000 other workers employed during 2015 who were affected by the data breach.

The Sprouts class action lawsuit brings forth allegations of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, breach of implied contract and invasion of privacy.

As a result of these allegations, Price is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, damages (including compensatory, statutory, exemplary and punitive damages), costs of suit, attorneys’ fees and other appropriate relief. As part of the injunctive relief she has requested, Price is seeking 25 years of credit monitoring, bank monitoring and identity insurance on behalf of herself and the Class she is representing.

Sprouts is one of several large companies to fall prey to the so-called “CEO fraud” where a phishing scam email is sent to an employee in the payroll or accounting department posing to be a high level executive of the company, asking for financial information. In this case, the phishing scam email asked for all 2015 W-2s of Sprouts employees.

Upon gaining knowledge of the employee data breach, Sprouts sent out a memo to all workers informing them of the data breach. A copy of the memo found at the Office of the Attorney General stated that the breach occurred on March 14 and Sprouts became aware of the situation on March 17. The memo was dated March 28, a full two weeks after the alleged breach occurred.

The memo indicated that Sprouts is working with law enforcement and the FBI to investigate the crime and has offered all employees one-year of free credit monitoring services.

At least one other proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in California Superior Court on April 8 by a resident in San Diego County, with full details not yet released.

Price is represented by David H. Miller, Esq. and Heather Joyce, Esq. of Sawaya and Miller Law Firm.

The Sprouts Employee Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Price v. Sprouts Farmers Market, Case No. 1:16-cv-00855, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

UPDATE: On July 6, 2016, Sprouts and a plaintiff in a data breach class action lawsuit pending in California federal court asked a judge to put their case on hold while the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers a request to consolidate it with three similar class action lawsuits.