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Shopify and Ledger caused — and then covered up — a massive 2020 data breach that led to “substantial” damages for consumers whose information was exposed to criminals, a new lawsuit alleges.
The nationwide class action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California, and alleges Ledger and Shopify were negligent, reckless and dishonest in their care of sensitive consumer information.
“Ledger’s and Shopify’s misconduct has made targets of Ledger customers, with their identities known or available to every hacker in the world. Ledger’s persistently deficient response compounded the harm,” the lawsuit states.
Ledger is a French company that provides online “hardware wallets” for people’s cryptocurrency assets. It has a U.S. subsidiary in Delaware. Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company with a U.S. subsidiary in Delaware.
Georgia Plaintiffs John Chu and Edward Baton said Ledger’s wallets contain the “private keys” of an individual’s crypto-assets which are akin to a person’s bank account password. They said the company relies on its customers remaining anonymous in order to provide the “best security.”
“Over the past year, however, Ledger repeatedly and profoundly failed to protect its customers’ identities, causing targeted attacks on thousands of its customers’ crypto-assets and causing Class members to receive far less security than they thought they purchased when they purchased a Ledger wallet.”
This happened in 2020, when between April and June, hackers found and exploited a database vulnerability at Ledger and its e-commerce vendor Shopify, the lawsuit says.
Through the hack, the criminals obtained a list of Ledger’s customers, as well as email addresses and other contact information. By June 2020, Ledger’s customer list had made its way onto the online black market, and then was posted publicly on the internet.
“As a direct result, the attacks on Ledger’s customers grew exponentially, with customers losing money, facing threats of physical violence, and even feeling vulnerable in their own homes,” the Shopify users said.
Shopify Failed to Protect Consumers After Data Breach, Lawsuit Claims
As part of its claims of negligence, the lawsuit alleges Ledger and Shopify did not act to protect its consumers after the breach. It says it did not inform consumers of the breach, instead denying a breach had occurred, until it was no longer viable to do so.
In failing to notify every affected customer or admit to the scope of the breach, Ledger left customers wide open to hackers, the class action lawsuit alleges. As a result, many customers allegedly fell victim to hackers’ phishing emails disguised as emails from Ledger.
The class action is suing under federal negligence laws, under the Declaratory Judgement Act — to force the companies to further protect consumer data — and under California and Georgia business and consumer laws.
The lawsuit seeks to represent multiple nationwide Classes and subclasses. One is a nationwide class of United States residents who provided Ledger or Shopify with personal information that was accessed in the data breach, with a nationwide Subclass of those who suffered damages from phishing or threats.
The lawsuit also seeks to represent a nationwide consumer Class of United States resident who purchased a Ledger Nano X or S wallet from Ledger. There are also California and Georgia Subclasses for residents of those states affected by the breach.
The consumers are seeking certification as a Class Action, an Order requiring the defendants to cooperate with asset recovery efforts, damages, fees, interest and a jury trial.
A data breach can expose your most confidential and sensitive information to hackers looking to use the information for nefarious purposes.
Data breaches expose personal information, financial information, and even very private medical and health data.
If you were affected by a data breach, you might be eligible to join or file a class action lawsuit. Lawyers are currently investigating recent data breaches nationwide and the impact that they’ve had on Americans. Click here for more information.
Have you been affected by a data breach before? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by Todd M. Schneider, Jason H. Kim, Matthew S. Weiler and Kyle G. Bates of Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP and Kyle W. Roche, Richard Cipolla, Jolie Huang, Velvel Freedman and Constantine P. Economides of Roche Freedman LLP.
The Shopify Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is John Chu and Edward Baton et al, v. Ledger SAS, Ledger Technologies, Shopify (USA) Inc. and Shopify INC., Case No. 3:21-cv-02470, in the United States District Court Northern District of California.
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8 thoughts onShopify, Ledger Made Targets of Customers With ‘Massive’ Data Breach, Class Action Claims
Add me please. I personally suffered from this leak of info. Having multiple non ledger accounts hacked due to data leak, which resulted in loss of funds.
Ledger Breach: please get intouch with me regarding this breach.
Respectfully requesting submission
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Add me please
Hi! I am also one of Ledger’s victims. I contacted them, but they put all the blame on me. I wanted to take my Ledger device to their office in Paris to investigate theft, but Ledger refused. How and who can I contact to join the class action lawsuit against Ledger? Many thanks
Please add me
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