Target To Pay $10 Million In Proposed Settlement For 2013 Data Breach 54
itwbennett writes Target has agreed to pay $10 million in a proposed settlement to a class-action lawsuit stemming from its massive 2013 data breach, which affected as many as 110 million people. Individual victims could receive up to $10,000. The proposed settlement also includes measures to better protect the customer data that Target collects, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.
Pocket change (Score:5, Insightful)
They're simultaneously trying to scam Canadian suppliers out of $1.5 billion in unpaid bills. They declared bankruptcy, and now they're trying to claim that they are their own biggest creditor, so all the money from their liquidation should basically go to themselves. All the while, the parent company is making billions in profit.
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There is this internet searching website and (Score:4, Informative)
it called Google :
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/target-lands-16-billion-tax-break-as-creditors-fight-for-payback/article23528282/
They even have a button for when you feel lucky!
Unpaid bills, and a tax break (Score:2)
What gets me is that they're declaring bankruptcy in Canada as a separate entity (meaning the parent corp isn't liable) whilst the parent corp in the USA is simultaneously declaring a loss for tax purposes as losses from that same bankruptcy. So really, both Canadians *AND* Americans are getting f***'ed here.
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The math doesn't work out. I guess that judge is a Republican since their kind can't do math.
Lol 'since their' i think you mean 'sense there'. Whom is the stupid one?
You are.
Captcha: educates
Actual sums received by members of the suit (Score:5, Informative)
http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/19/technology/security/target-data-hack-settlement/ [cnn.com]
(tldr -- lawyers are the winners)
Re:Actual sums received by members of the suit (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the lawyers are always the winners in these class action lawsuits. Years ago, I received a notice that I was the beneficiary of a class action lawsuit revolving around an airline ticket I had once purchased. It seemed like a gift to me because I didn't even know that I had been "damaged." So, the lawyers who brought the suit seemed to be doing me a favor.
As part of the settlement, I was to receive a coupon for a discount on a future ticket from the same airline. The coupon didn't have much face value, maybe $20. Even worse, there were a lot of restrictions on it. So, it was basically worthless.
The lawyers got paid in cash. I assume the lawyers and the defendant always structure these things to minimize the real cost to the defendant in return for maximizing the payout to the lawyers. And of course, compensating the "damaged" plaintiff doesn't really enter into it.
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You're missing the point.
Class action suits are not designed to provide compensation to the current class. It's to discourage FUTURE screw-ups.
Target knows if they get hit again in the future, another class action suit for the same thing will be much, much harder on them.
Class action suits are just about the only way to affect change regarding big business.
For reference, see tobacco, asbestos, and silicosis.
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Class action suits are not designed to provide compensation to the current class.
OK, IANAL, so help me out here. If that's the case, why do plaintiffs get anything at all? Why not just give all the compensation to the lawyers and let those naive plaintiffs go make themselves whole? Why in the heck should the legal system care about people who were damaged in the first place?
Actually, to me, it looks much more like a situation of the foxes being in charge of the hen house. That would neatly explain why the hens never always receive chicken feed as compensation. (My apologies if you
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Again, class action suits are not designed to benefit the injured. It's a volume deal that has very little, to no, impact on the class and a much larger impact on the defendant.
If we take $10 million and spread it out among the population of the class, most members of the class will not bother filing a claim.
The litigation's intent is to hurt the defendant and make them stop bad practices -- not to make millionaires of the members of the class.
No need to apologize in case I'm a fox ... the truth doesn't dep
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Well, it's because the purpose of the courts is to try to make yourself whole. Except in the case of a class action, where it's practically impossible.
You see, a class action lawsuit is designed for instances where t
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In my story above, the fact that I received a worthless coupon as "compensation" seemed to indicate that I was never actually part of the equation. The legal notice I received indicated that I could file my own claim (which I knew anyway), but as you suggest, it wasn't economical to do so. Nor did I feel at all damaged when I originally bought the airline ticket - until I received the worthless coupon and found out that the lawyers were getting all the money.
In cases like this, I would much prefer that al
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Well, it's because the purpose of the courts is to try to make yourself whole. Except in the case of a class action, where it's practically impossible.
FWIW, ever since I received that airline coupon, I have thought it would be nice if there was a law that stated that the lawyers and plaintiffs must receive compensation in the same form: if the lawyers get cash, the plaintiffs should get cash, and if the plaintiffs get coupons, the lawyers should get coupons.
If I had received just one dollar and the lawyers had received thousands of dollars, or, if I had received one coupon and the lawyers had received thousands of coupons, I wouldn't have felt cheated.
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Now, what kind of compensation do you want? I mean everyone was hurt only a little bit, so the actual "make whole" part is pretty small.
If I was harmed for $24, then I'd like triple that back to me... in cash...
$72 would be just fine...
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You're missing the point.
Class action suits are not designed to provide compensation to the current class. It's to discourage FUTURE screw-ups.
Target knows if they get hit again in the future, another class action suit for the same thing will be much, much harder on them.
Class action suits are just about the only way to affect change regarding big business.
For reference, see tobacco, asbestos, and silicosis.
Are you fucking kidding me? $10 million is pocket change for a company like Target.
That's like saying we discouraged the banks from fucking over the economy again because we "fined" them in the past. They fucking laughed and pulled out their change purse, and it didn't change a goddamn thing with regulation.
This won't encourage jack-shit in the way of any actual security innovation around protecting customer data. They'll find a scapegoat to fire over this, pay this slap-on-the-wrist fine, and continue
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$10,000,000 settlement / 100,000,000 plaintiffs = $0.10 per plaintiff.
What, you think the lawyers working on this class action don't deserve to get paid?!?!?!?
Re: Everybody gets a dime. (Score:4, Insightful)
The irony there is that it's these same member banks that have been avoiding a crypto upgrade for over 20 years, forcing Target to manage valuable strings of numbers.
Let's play "who's more wildly negligent here?" It'll be a tough call.
Meanwhile Iceland had marketable torts 1000 years ago and Americans still allow themselves to be screwed over by the class action system.
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Her jury award was 2.7 million. The judge reduced it to 640k, but the parties settled rather than appealing more, presumably for less than 640k. The coffee WAS way too hot. 40 degrees (f) above industry standard, so hot it could cause 3rd degree burns in 2 seconds.
This case is trotted out as an example of how the little guy keeps the poor multi-billion dollar corporations at bay using frivolous law
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The coffee WAS way too hot. 40 degrees (f) above industry standard
The facts of the case state it was between 180-190F.
-This is the minimum temperature coffee is brewed at. Most consider the ideal to be at or just over 200F.
-Starbucks has served me coffee, this year, right as it was brewed at 200F, without me asking for it hot.
-The large print that almost every place now has declaring that COFFEE IS HOT is FUCKING STUPID, and can be traced directly to this stupid case.
This is the story of how McDonalds nearly killed a woman
SHE spilled the coffee, not McDonalds. Hot liquids can be dangerous. A 79 year old woman should know this.
Re:Everybody gets a dime. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Pennies on the dollar (Score:5, Interesting)
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40 million customer credit cards exposed, 70 million customer records containing PII exposed. 10 million dollar settlement over a year later? This is a joke, and a good reason to not bother with security.
Yes, what I took from it is that it is profitable to ignore security.
I would have been happier with an actual trial that ordered the entire year of profits to be divided up and paid out to the customer's who had data stolen.
It might only be $10 or $20 per person, but it hurts Target far more and it gives all companies the incentive to do whatever it takes to secure data.
$10,000,000 vs Q4 profit of $520,000,000 (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Victims wont receive squat... (Score:3)
the lawyers will make out like bandits, but the victims will most likely get a 10% off coupon.
Do the math (Score:1)
What about Home Depot? (Score:1)