In any case involving a data breach of customer or employee
information, the first line of defense for the defendant is to
assert that the plaintiff(s) lack standing to bring suit. In
Remijas v. Neiman Marcus Group, the Seventh Circuit
became the first United States Court of Appeals to tackle the issue
of standing in the context of data breach litigation since the
Supreme Court's pronouncement on standing in Clapper.
In an opinion written by Chief Judge Wood, the Seventh Circuit
ruled that the potential class of plaintiffs affected by the Neiman
Marcus data breach had standing to sue based on a combination of
actual and threatened injury. Constitutional standing has three
elements: injury-in-fact, causation and redressability. In
Clapper v. Amnesty International, the Supreme Court held
that allegations of future harm can establish Article III standing
if the harm is "certainly impending." Although Neiman
Marcus also contested the causation and redressability
