Los Angeles, CA: SuperValu Inc. is facing a data breach class action lawsuit, following its recent announcement that hackers accessed customers' credit and debit card data at nearly 200 stores throughout the US. The proposed class action, McPeak et al. v. Supervalu Inc., case number 3:14-cv-00899, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, alleges the supermarket chain failed to take precautions to protect customers' personal financial information.
Filed by lead plaintiffs Steve McPeak, Katherin Murray, Timothy Roldan and Darla Young, the complaint alleges SuperValu did not take the necessary measures to protect customer information and filed to notify consumers in a timely manner following the breach.
"By failing to take commercially reasonable steps to safeguard sensitive private financial information, defendant has knowingly divulged customers' private financial information that was carried and maintained on defendant' remote computing service solely for the customer' payment verification purposes,"the complaint states.
Because SuperValu did not notify plaintiffs about the extent of the security breach in a timely manner, the company caused consumers to suffer financial loss, the complaint states.
According to the information released by SuperValue, it was store systems under the brand names Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher', Shop 'n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy that were hacked, totaling about 200 stores.
The lawsuit further alleges that thousands of stores have been impacted by the data breach, including retail stores recently sold by the SuperValue. Plaintiffs also claim that the retailer didn't follow credit card security standards or Federal Trade Commission standards for collecting and storing personal information.
"Defendant failed to adequately analyze its computer systems for vulnerabilities that could expose cardholder data," the complaint states. "Defendant further failed to fix the vulnerabilities in its computer systems, which allowed plaintiffs' and class members' personal information to become compromised."
Plaintiffs state that it' the consumers who will be responsible for out-of-pocket expenses in order to respond to the identify theft and who will have to spend time replacing their credit and debit cards.
The plaintiffs are claiming violations of the Stored Communications Act, negligence, breach of implied contract and violations of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, in addition to violations of other state statutes where SuperValu conducts business.
The proposed class action lawsuit seeks to represent all people who shopped at SuperValu locations whose personal information was subject to the security failures and who suffered damages as a result, and they ask for the maximum statutory damages in addition to the cost for three years of credit monitoring services.
The plaintiffs are represented by John J. Driscoll of The Driscoll Firm PC.
