A class action lawsuit has been filed against Schnuck Markets over a security breach that may have compromised the credit card and debit card information of 2.4 million customers between December 2012 and March 2013.
In a suit filed April 25 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, Laverne Rippy of Granite City claims that in addition to having suffered compromised information, she and other members of a proposed class have incurred numerous hours canceling compromised cards, activating replacement cards and re-establishing automatic withdrawal payment authorizations from their old cards to their new cards.
The security breach has been well publicized in the St. Louis and Metro-East media markets.
Schnucks has said that only card numbers and expiration dates were stolen, not cardholders’ names, addresses or anything else.
In a timeline released to the media, Schnucks said it found out about an issue on March 15, formed a response team on March 19, contacted police on March 20, and began to identify the problem on March 28. It communicated its concerns to the public on March 30.
The suit claims that Schnucks failed to timely disclose the security breach to its customers, a violation of the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act.
The suit also seeks damages under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
St. Louis attorney Jeffrey A. Millar represents Rippy and the proposed class.
A motion to certify indicates the class would include Illinois plaintiffs who shopped at Schnuck’s Illinois locations five years preceding the data breach. The motion also states that Schnucks violated a state statute by not advising their customers of their rights to obtain consumer protection help from the Federal Trade Commission.
St. Clair County case number 13-L-218
Class action filed against Schnucks over security breach
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