Sprouts Data Breach Class Actions May Be Consolidated

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Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. and a plaintiff in a data breach class action lawsuit pending in California federal court have 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.

The Sprouts class action lawsuits were filed after the company fell victim to a W-2 phishing scam in March, sending all of its employees’ 2015 W-2 forms to a scammer and allegedly placing all of its approximately 21,000 employees at risk of identity theft.

The information was reportedly sent after a Sprouts employee received an email that appeared to come from a company executive and asked for the 2015 W-2 statements of all Sprouts employees.

The Sprouts employees say that the grocery chain should have been far more cautious before sending vast amounts of sensitive data through email.

They also claim the company should have done a lot more for its employees other than offering 12 months of free credit monitoring and protection from Experian’s ProtectMyID, according to the phishing scam class action lawsuit.

Plaintiff Julio Hernandez filed his Sprouts phishing scam class action lawsuit in April on behalf of all Sprouts employees whose 2015 W-2 forms were sent to the unknown third party.

Hernandez says the protections offered by Sprouts after the data breach were insufficient and that he has needed to pay $12.99 a month for identity theft protection through Wells Fargo Bank NA.

A similar data breach class action lawsuit was filed April 14 by plaintiff Debra Price in Colorado federal court. Price alleges that she and her husband were unable to e-file their 2015 tax return because someone used her Social Security number and financial information to claim a refund.

She states that she will need to spend additional time, money and resources to resolve the issue with the IRS, the state of Colorado and credit reporting agencies.

On June 14, a plaintiff in one of the pending Sprouts data breach class action lawsuits filed a motion with the JPML to consolidate four similar cases, including the ones filed by Hernandez and Price.

“In the interest of efficiency in this collective litigation, the parties file this motion to stay the proceedings in this case pending the Panel’s decision of whether and where these cases will be consolidated,” Hernandez and Sprout argue in their joint motion to stay the data breach class action lawsuit.

Hernandez is represented by Scott B. Cooper and Samantha A. Smith of The Cooper Law Firm; Roger R. Carter of The Carter Law Firm; and Marc H. Phelps of The Phelps Law Group.

The Sprouts Data Breach Class Action Lawsuits are Hernandez v. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-00958, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California; Castellano v. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc., Case No. 16-cv-01184-CAB, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California; Price v. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc., Case No. 16-cv-00855-WJM, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado; and Porras v. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc., Case No. 16-cv-01005-JGB, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.