Court Rejects Neiman Marcus Data Breach Settlement Due To Injury-Based Class Conflicts

As previously noted in this blog, the Neiman Marcus payment card data theft class action reflects a lenient approach to the issue of standing in data breach cases.  In that case, the Seventh Circuit rejected arguments that customers claiming to have sustained only the theft of debit and credit card information had not alleged sufficient injury to have standing to sue.  See Remijas v. Neiman Marcus Group, LLC, 794 F.3d 688 (2015).  Now, however, differences in class members' claimed injuries have resulted in intra-class conflicts that have led to an order by the trial court rejecting a proposed class settlement of the lawsuit.  In so ruling, the court has highlighted why issues of injury and standing matter in data breach cases.