Yahoo argued that victims of their breaches didn’t have the legal standing to sue, but a judge said the company must face nationwide litigation brought on behalf of well over 1 billion users who said their personal information was compromised in three massive data breaches. While the breaches were spearheaded by hackers, Yahoo still demonstrated negligence for not immediately disclosing the situation. Verizon, which paid $4.76 billion for Yahoo’s Internet business in June, will not be pleased.



In a 93-page decision, Koh rejected Yahoo’s contention that breach victims lacked standing to sue, and said they could pursue some breach of contract and unfair competition claims. “All plaintiffs have alleged a risk of future identity theft, in addition to loss of value of their personal identification information,” the judge wrote. Koh said some plaintiffs also alleged they had spent money to thwart future identity theft or that fraudsters had misused their data. Others, meanwhile, could have changed passwords or canceled their accounts to stem losses had Yahoo not delayed disclosing the breaches, the judge said.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – US Judge: Yahoo Must Face Lawsuits over Data Breaches