Neiman Marcus class action claims retailer failed to protect customers from data breach

Neiman Marcus data breach class action overview: 

• Who: Plaintiff Marc Reichbart is suing Neiman Marcus and Snowflake.
• Why: Reichbart claims the company was negligent with its cybersecurity, leading to a data breach.
• Where: The Neiman Marcus class action lawsuit was filed in a Florida federal court. 

Neiman Marcus and Snowflake have been hit with a class action lawsuit claiming they mishandled customer information, leading to a major data breach.

Plaintiff Marc Reichbart filed the class action complaint against Neiman Marcus Group LLC and its cloud storage vendor, Snowflake Inc., on Aug. 1 in a Florida federal court, alleging violations of state and federal consumer protection laws. 

Reichbart alleges the companies failed to secure and protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of millions of customers, including names, emails, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, credit card details, transaction data, and employee identification numbers. 

Class action: Neiman Marcus failed to protect customer data

Neiman Marcus Group, which is known for its luxury retail brands Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, had entrusted Snowflake Inc. with its data storage, the lawsuit states.

The breach was part of a larger hacking campaign affecting hundreds of Snowflake’s clients, and exposing the PII of approximately 31 million customers, Reichbart says. 

He claims that Neiman Marcus required customers to provide their data during transactions, with the promise of safeguarding this sensitive information. 

“However, Defendant completely and utterly failed to protect its customers’ personal data and/or ensure that technical controls were implemented to prevent unauthorized access to the cloud database containing customer data,” the lawsuit says.

The breach was discovered on May 20, 2024. 

The hacker group ShinyHunters, responsible for numerous high-profile data breaches, claimed responsibility, the lawsuit states.

 In June 2024, Neiman Marcus disclosed the breach, admitting that unauthorized access to their cloud database, managed by Snowflake, had occurred. The announcement came after a threat actor using the handle “Sp1d3r” advertised the stolen data for sale on a hacking forum, demanding $150,000 for a trove of information including gift card numbers, transaction records, and customer shopping details.

Investigations revealed that the breach exploited Neiman Marcus’s failure to implement multi-factor authentication for cloud database access, Reichbart says. 

Increase in spam 

Reichbart says he received a data breach notification from Neiman Marcus in July 2024, over a month after the breach was detected. He has since seen an increase in spam calls, texts, and emails, indicating his data had been compromised.

His class action seeks to represent all U.S. residents whose data was acquired in the breach reported in June 2024. Reichbart is suing for negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, and invasion of privacy. He demands class certification, damages, fees, costs, and a jury trial.

Meanwhile, multiple class action lawsuits have recently been filed against companies due to data breach incidents. The class action lawsuits argue that companies, including Intuit, Ticketmaster, Live Nation, AT&T and several others failed to adequately safeguard and secure consumers’ data in such a way that would have prevented the data breaches. 

Were you affected by the Neiman Marcus data breach? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Andrew J. Shamis of Shamis Gentile and Paul J. Doolittle of Poulin | Willey | Anastopoulo.

The Neiman Marcus data breach class action lawsuit is Marc Reichbart v. Neiman Marcus Group LLC et al., Case No. 0:24-cv-61389-XXXX in the U.S. District Court for the Sourthern District of Florida. 

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