Failure To Allege Harm Narrows Data-Breach Suit

When a company's computer systems are raided by hackers, all too often it must brace itself for being victimized a second time by the class action bar. Plaintiffs frequently target such companies for class actions on behalf of the consumers whose data might have been exposed as a result of the potential data breach.
The fact that the consumers rarely have experienced any real harm can be the Achilles' heel of these data-breach class actions. "World of Warcraft" creator Blizzard Entertainment Inc. was able to capitalize on this vulnerability when a court dismissed most of a putative class action against the company, finding that plaintiffs had failed to allege sufficient harm as to a number of claims. See Bell v. Blizzard Entertainment Inc. (pdf), No. 2:12-cv-09475 (C.D. Cal. July 11, 2013).