Uber Says Data Breach Hush Money Class Action Should Go To Arbitration

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Uber LLC, Uber Technologies Inc. and Rasier LLC have filed a memorandum in support of their motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings in a class action lawsuit accusing them of paying $100,000 in “hush money” to hackers in an attempt to cover up a massive 2016 data breach.

“This motion seeks the enforcement of a broad and straightforward arbitration agreement that has been enforced by courts around the country,” Uber says in the memo.

When plaintiff Bradley West downloaded the Uber app and agreed to its terms and conditions, Uber says he agreed to be bound by an arbitration clause that requires him to arbitrate any claim against Uber relating to the use of Uber’s services and to pursue those claims on an individual basis rather than as a class action lawsuit.

“Critically, plaintiff further agreed that an arbitrator – not a court – will resolve any disputes about the scope or validity of the arbitration agreements,” the Uber memo says.

“All of plaintiff’s claims arise out of his relationship with Uber, and are therefore subject to the arbitration agreement that must be enforced under well-established law,” Uber argues. “Indeed, courts in this District and around the country have enforced identical or nearly identical arbitration clauses.”

West filed the Uber class action lawsuit in November after Uber disclosed that hackers stole the personal data of about 57 million Uber app users. According to news reports shortly after the Uber hack was disclosed, Uber executives paid the hackers $100,000 not to use the information they obtained during the hack.

“Rather than comply with its obligations to disclose such breaches and inform the public and regulators of what occurred, Uber allegedly paid the hackers behind the breach $100,000 in exchange for the criminals’ silence and assurance that they would delete the data,” West said in the Uber data breach class action lawsuit.

West claims that Uber attempted to conceal the payment by claiming it was a legitimate payment to third parties to test its data security.

The Uber hush money class action lawsuit asserts claims for violations of Illinois consumer fraud law, negligence, breach of contract, invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment. West is seeking injunctive relief and statutory, nominal and punitive damages.

Uber is currently facing several data breach class action lawsuits. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will soon decide whether or not to consolidate the cases. West’s attorneys will reportedly ask the court to stay his case until the JPML makes a decision about whether to group the similar Uber class action lawsuits for pretrial proceedings.

West is represented by Ben Barnow, Erich Schork, Anthony Parkhill and Jeffrey Blake of Barnow and Associates PC; Timothy Blood and Thomas O’Reardon of Blood Hurst & O’Reardon LLP; and by Aron Robinson of The Law Office of Aron D. Robinson.

The Uber Data Breach Hush Money Class Action Lawsuit is Bradley West v. Uber USA LLC, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-08593, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.