Hotel Guests Seek Approval of Revised Kimpton Data Breach Settlement

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A plaintiff has urged a California federal judge to preliminarily approve a revised class action settlement with Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC over a 2016 data breach.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria rejected an earlier version of the proposed Kimpton data breach settlement, finding that its terms were too vague and that the parties failed to explain why the $600,000 class action settlement amount is reasonable in this case.

“The parties have substantially improved the claim form to address the Court’s main concern that it was unreasonable to expect a class member to fill out the form and gather all required documents to obtain the relief offered,” plaintiff Andrew Parsons said in his memorandum supporting preliminary approval of the revised data breach class action settlement.

“The parties have agreed that the documentation described in the claim form would not be required for several categories, and a narrative description of the costs incurred would suffice.”

Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group reportedly acknowledged in August 2016 that it had been affected by a malware incident that compromised customers’ payment card information.

Parsons subsequently filed the data breach class action lawsuit seeking compensation for expenses incurred due to the Kimpton data breach, such as unreimbursed bank fees, costs of credit monitoring, and time spent dealing with obtaining replacement cards or reversing fraudulent charges.

In addition to offering compensation for such losses faced by Class Members as a result of the data breach, the Kimpton class action settlement also requires the hotel and restaurant company to implement measures to improve its data security.

“The Agreement offers substantial recovery and is an excellent result for the members of the class,” Parsons says.

Class Members of the proposed Kimpton data breach settlement include: “All residents of the United States whose Personal Information was compromised as a result of the malware attack publicly announced by Kimpton on August 31, 2016.” The proposed Class has not yet been certified, the court documents state.

Under the terms of the proposed Kimpton class action settlement, Class Members are eligible to receive reimbursement of up to $250 for certain out-of-pocket expenses resulting from the Kimpton data breach.

Class Members who experienced extraordinary unreimbursed out-of-pocket costs due to the Kimpton malware attack may make a claim for reimbursement of up to $10,000, as long as they can provide documentation of the losses and show that it was more likely than not caused by the Kimpton data breach.

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 “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

Parsons is represented by Michael F. Ram and Susan S. Brown of Robins Kaplan LLP, Matt Malone of Rock Law LLP and John A. Yanchunis and Marisa Glassman of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.

The Kimpton Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Andrew Parsons v. Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Case No. 3:16-cv-05387, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Sept. 13, 2018, for the second time, the federal judge overseeing a Kimpton data breach class action lawsuit has denied a proposed settlement.

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 9, 2019, after two previous rejections of the proposed deal, a California federal judge has approved a $600,000 class action settlement that will end  claims that Kimpton Hotels didn’t do enough to protect customers’ information from a data breach.

UPDATE 3: March 2019, the Kimpton Hotels data breach class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.