Neiman Marcus Data Breach Class Action Settlement Gets Green Light

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.

An Illinois federal judge has preliminarily approved a $1.6 million class action settlement that will resolve allegations Neiman Marcus Group Inc. failed to safeguard customers’ credit card data, which was exposed in a 2013 data breach.

In yesterday’s order, U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan preliminarily approved the proposed deal and certified a Class of U.S. residents who used a credit or debit card at any Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Cusp or Last Call store between July 16, 2013 and Jan. 10, 2014. These stores fall under the Neiman Marcus umbrella and are covered by the data breach settlement.

Class Members who file a claim will reportedly be entitled to a payment of up to $100 from the Neiman Marcus data breach settlement.

The 2013 Neiman Marcus data breach was reportedly caused when malware was installed in the retailer’s computer system. This malware allegedly accessed customers’ payment data for three months in 2013. Around 370,385 payment cards were reportedly used at the affected stores during this period.

Plaintiffs Hilary Remijas, Melissa Frank, Debbie Farnoush and Joanne Kao initially filed the data breach class action lawsuit against Neiman Marcus in March 2014 after they learned their payment card information may have been compromised in the 2013 Neiman Marcus data breach.

Later that year, the Neiman Marcus class action lawsuit was dismissed by a judge who determined the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue if they could not show they had actually suffered fraud due to the Neiman Marcus data breach.

The Neiman Marcus data breach class action lawsuit was revived by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that consumers did not have to experience unreimbursed fraudulent charges to have standing. The appeals court found that it was sufficient to show that they had incurred fraud prevention expenses to protect their data after the breach to establish standing to sue.

Earlier this year, the parties informed Judge Der-Yeghiayan that they were working toward a data breach settlement. Their proposed $1.6 million class action settlement was announced in March.

Under the terms of the proposed data breach class action settlement, Neiman Marcus is not required to admit liability; nor is it required to take any specific steps to improve its data security. However, the luxury retailer says it has already taken important steps to improve its cybersecurity practices, such as hiring a chief information security officer, installing chip readers in its stores, and educating its executives and employees.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the green “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiffs are represented by Tina Wolfson of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC, and John A. Yanchinis of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.

The Neiman Marcus Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Hilary Remijas, et al. v. The Neiman Marcus Group LLC, Case No. 1:14-cv-01735, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

UPDATE: The Neiman Marcus Data Breach Class Action Settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 2: October 2019, a new, updated website has been established for a $1.6 million Neiman Marcus data breach class action settlement after the initial settlement terms were rejected.

UPDATE 3: On Nov. 15, 2019, a $1.6 million Neiman Marcus data breach class action settlement was initially approved after rejecting a previous version.