Chili’s Customers Get Cert in Data Breach Class Action

Chili’s customers who claim the chain should have done a better job protecting their information after a 2018 data breach convinced a federal judge to certify a Class of Californians in a class action lawsuit.  

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan agreed to certify a pair of Classes made up of consumers who used their debit or credit cards at certain Chili’s locations in March or April of 2018. Class Members must have had their data exposed during the data breach and incurred costs fixing damage caused by the breach.  

While Judge Corrigan agreed to certify the California Classes over negligence claims, the judge withheld ruling on the class action’s nationwide claims for breach of contract.  

“If plaintiffs wish to pursue a nationwide class claim based on their breach of implied contract theory, they must complete a trial plan detailing how the court will manage a class action applying all fifty states’ laws to the breach of implied contract claim,” states the order which also gives the plaintiffs until May 21 to propose a trial plan for the nationwide claims.  

The Chili’s data breach class action lawsuit was filed in 2018, two weeks after the company notified consumers that its payment system was hacked and consumers’ financial information exposed.  

Consumers alleged that Brinker International Inc., the parent company that owns Chili’s restaurants, was negligent in protecting consumer information, allowing a data breach that exposed the personal information of thousands of consumers. 

The lead plaintiffs contended that thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent purchases were made on customer cards as a result of the Chili’s data breach. In addition to failing to properly protect consumer data, the class action also claimed that the popular chain failed to notify affected consumers in a timely fashion.  

The class action was trimmed of certain state law claims, as well as a demand from consumers that Brinker improve its security.  

Was your information compromised in the Chili’s data breach? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.  

The class is represented by Jean Sutton Martin of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group, William B. Federman of Federman & Sherwood, and Graham B. LippSmith of LippSmith  

The Chili’s Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Brinker Data Incident Litigation, Case No. 3:18-cv-00686, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. 

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