Data Breach: Hackers Are The "Real Villains" & Minimal Harm To The Class

In a recent development in data breach class actions in Canada, Justice Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, while approving the class settlement in Lozanski v The Home Depot, Inc., denied payments sought by the representative Plaintiffs (the "Honoraria") and substantially reduced counsel fees payable pursuant to the settlement. He did so given his findings that the class had suffered minimal damages, that the action itself was "speculative" and "weak", and that the real villains were the hackers and not the defendant.

Background to the Case

In this case, the Defendants (a consortium of Home Depot entities, collectively referred to as "Home Depot") were the subject of a data-breach wherein criminal intruders hacked into Home Depot's payment card system using custom-built malware. Certain types of customer information, including credit card information, were potentially impacted by the breach. Upon discovering the breach, Home Depot: