Checkers Drive-In Class Action Alleges Credit Card Data Breach

A Checkers Drive-In customer has filed a class action lawsuit against the fast food chain over claims that it should have done more to prevent a massive data breach.

Plaintiff Breandan Cotter says that after making a purchase at Checkers, his personal identification information was compromised by a data breach that affected the company from September 2016 and April 2019.

The Checkers class action states that around 100 of the company’s 1,000 restaurants were affected by the data breach.

The company allegedly made an announcement about the data breach on May 29, notifying customers that malware had been used to steal customers’ credit and debit card data. Allegedly, card numbers, verification codes, expiration dates, and the names on the cards had been compromised.

According to Cotter, the company should have done more to prevent the data breach — he argues that Checkers Drive-In had insufficient security in place to protect customers’ card information.

Additionally, the Checkers Drive-In class action claims that there have been a number of data breaches at similar restaurants, so Checkers knew that data breaches were a problem, and failed to learn from other restaurants’ and retailers’ mistakes.

Cotter says, “despite all of this publicly available knowledge of the continued compromises of personal information in the hands of other third parties, such as national restaurant chains, [Checkers’] approach to maintaining the privacy of [customer information] was lackadaisical, cavalier, reckless, or at the very least, negligent.”

The Checkers data breach class action lawsuit argues that the restaurant chain’s failure to adequately protect customer information represents a breach of implied contract, negligence, negligence per se.

Allegedly, the company violated the Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and unjustly enriched itself from the sales made from customers while not protecting their personal identifying information.

Cotter stresses that the data breach was unusually long, at three and a half years, noting that many consumers could have had their information compromised during that time.

The Checkers data breach class action states that the mere fact that the company did not catch or stop the data breach during the three and a half years indicates their negligence.

In a statement made by the company about the data breach on May 29, the company reportedly said that they were already taking steps to protect customers from future data breaches, and working to correct the damage from the past breach by working with law enforcement officers and card companies.

Additionally, the company has allegedly hired data experts to investigate the data breach.

Cotter is seeking damages on behalf of himself and all other similarly affected consumers.

The plaintiff is represented by Patrick A. Barthle, Ryan J. McGee and Jean Sutton Martin of Morgan & Morgan, and Tina Wolfson of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC.

The Checkers Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Cotter, et al. v. Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc., Case No. 8:19-cv-01386, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

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