Class action lawsuit alleges Francesca’s failed to protect customer, employee info during data breach

Francesca’s data breach class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Taylor Doherty, Alessandra Jiminez, and Kayla Stewart filed a class action lawsuit against Francesca’s Acquisition Inc. 
• Why: Doherty, Jiminez and Stewart claim Francesca’s failed to safeguard and secure the private information of its customers and current and former employees during a data breach it discovered in January. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Texas federal court. 

Speciality retail company Francesca’s Acquisition failed to properly secure and safeguard the private and personally identifiable information of its customers and current and former workers from being exposed in a data breach. 

Plaintiffs Taylor Doherty, Alessandra Jiminez, and Kayla Stewart claim Francesca’s discovered the data breach in January that an unauthorized actor had been able to access its network from Jan. 12 to Jan. 31, 2023. 

Doherty, Jiminez, and Stewart argue the data breach has put Francesca’s customers and former and current workers at a substantial or imminent risk of experiencing identity theft and “various other forms of personal, social, and financial harm.” 

“The Private Information compromised in the Data Breach included highly sensitive data that represents a gold mine for data thieves,” the Francesca’s class action states. 

Doherty, Jiminez and Stewart want to represent a nationwide class of individuals who were impacted by the January 2023 data breach, including all those who were sent a data breach notice by Francesca’s. 

Francesca’s waited almost eight months to disclose data breach, says class action

Doherty, Jiminez and Stewart argue Francesca’s compounded the damage caused by the data breach by allegedly failing to disclose the incident until almost eight months after it discovered it occurred.

“This outrageous delay gave the date thieves a tremendous head start and prevented the class members from being able to mitigate their damages in a timely manner,” the Francesca’s class action states. 

Doherty, Jiminez and Stewart claim Francesca’s is guilty of negligence, invasion of privacy, breach of implied contract, and unjust enrichment. 

The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial and requesting declaratory and injunctive relief along with an award of actual and statutory damages for themselves and all class members. 

A similar class action lawsuit was filed against DNA testing firm 23andMe earlier this month over claims it failed to safeguard and secure the sensitive information entrusted to it by customers, during a data breach. 

Were you affected by the Francesca’s data breach? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Joe Kendall of Kendall Law Group PLLC and Mason Barney and Tyler Bean of Siri & Glimstad LLP. 

The Francesca’s data breach class action lawsuit is Doherty, et al. v. Francesca’s Acquisition LLC, Case No. 4:23-cv-03881, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Coinbase lawsuit claims company failed to protect her from hack
• Blackbaud to pay $49.5M settlement over 2020 ransomware attack
• Caesars loyalty members file class action over September data breach
• Oklahoma City University data breach lawsuit dismissed