Chipotle, Customers Reach Data Breach Class Action Settlement

Chipotle customers have asked a federal judge for preliminary approval of a settlement agreement stemming from a lawsuit accusing the restaurant chain of a data breach that exposed their personal information.

Chipotle suffered a cyberattack in early 2017, which resulted in credit card information being hacked and exposed, the class action settlement agreement states.

Lead plaintiffs Todd Gordon, Marc and Kristen Mercer, Michelle Fowler, Greg Lawson, and Judy Conard filed the Chipotle class action lawsuit shortly after the data breach incident occurred.

The proposed Chipotle class action settlement declares that, “All settlement Class Members who submit a valid claim…are eligible to receive reimbursement for…out-of-pocket expenses not to exceed $250 per Settlement Class Member.”  

The $250 expense reimbursements are for card reissuance fees, overdraft fees, charges connected to the unavailability of funds, late fees, over-limit fees, and credit monitoring.

In addition, the proposed Chipotle class action settlement stipulates that Chipotle will reimburse settlement Class Members up to $10,000 for out-of-pocket expenses that may have resulted from the security breach incident relevant to this case. 

According to the Chipotle data breach class action settlement, “Chipotle denies each and all of the claims alleged against it in the Litigation [and] denies all charges of wrongdoing or liability as alleged, or which could be alleged, in the Litigation.”

In addition, as part of the proposed settlement agreement, Chipotle has agreed to “hire a third-party Qualified Security Assessor to annually conduct an assessment of Chipotle’s compliance with PCI DDS and hire a penetration testing company to annually conduct a penetration test of Chipotle’s cardholder data environment.”

Also, Chipotle has agreed to provide security awareness training to its employees.

As part of the proposed Chipotle class action settlement agreement, Chipotle will put in place a system that will encrypt credit card data. Chipotle has agreed to put this system in place within 12 months of the effective date of the settlement agreement.

The Chipotle data breach class action settlement also states that these security measures will be continued for three years after the effective date of the agreement and Class Counsel will have up to a year to ask for a status report on these security measures.

Additionally, the Chipotle class action settlement agreement proposal includes $1,200,000 for attorneys fees and a service award of $2,500 to each of the represented plaintiffs in this case.

The proposed settlement agreement also notes that no money will be available for payment for “emotional distress, personal/bodily injury, or punitive damages, as all such amounts are not recoverable under the Settlement Agreement.”

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.

Gordon, Mercer, Fowler, Lawson, and Conard are represented by Benjamin F. Johns and Andrew W. Ferich of Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP, Tina Wolfson and Theodore Maya of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC and Jean Sutton Martin of Morgan & Morgan.

The Chipotle Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Gordon, et al. v. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-01415-CMA-SKC, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

UPDATE: July 2019, the Chipotle data breach class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 2: On June 8, 2020, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving settlement checks from a Chipotle data brach class action settlement worth as much as $250.

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