Hacked Class Can Sue Pre Injury

Last week, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held in Remijas v. Neiman Marcus Group LLC that individuals whose debit and credit card numbers were stolen by cyberthieves who had hacked into Neiman Marcus's computer networks have standing to sue the retailer, even though the plaintiffs had not yet experienced any fraudulent charges on their cards. In doing so, the 7th Circuit became the first federal appellate court to address the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 Clapper v. Amnesty International opinion on standing to sue following a data breach. Although Remijas appears to neutralize a common attack on the pleadings in cases arising out of data breaches - at least in the 7th Circuit–it is unlikely to be the last word on an issue that may ultimately be resolved by the Supreme Court.