Los Angeles, CA: A consumer fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against video game developer Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and its parent company, Activision Blizzard, Inc., on behalf of millions of American customers who have been harmed by Blizzard' negligent and deceptive practices related to its customers' account security.
Filed in the Central District of California, the lawsuit alleges that Blizzard Entertainment and its parent, whose titles include the popular franchises World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, fails to disclose to consumers that additional products must be acquired after buying the games in order to ensure the security of information stored in online accounts that are requisites for playing.
This deceptive upselling, coupled with Blizzard' negligence in maintaining proper security protocols, compromised millions of customers' email addresses, passwords, answers to personal security questions, and other items of sensitive information.
According to a press release posted on Blizzard' website on August 4, 2012, hackers infiltrated the company' internal network and obtained account information for players on Battle.net' North American servers, which includes gamers in North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.
The case is titled Benjamin Bell et al v. Blizzard Entertainment Inc. et al (Case No. 12-cv-09475). Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include any US customer of Blizzard' who purchased one of its products after the company introduced the Battle.net authenticator, along with any US customer who had an active Battle.net account during the data breach occurring on or about August 4, 2012.
Plaintiffs are represented by Carney Williams Bates Pulliam & Bowman, PLLC.
