December 3, 2018
Cohen Milstein Among First Firms to File Action in Response to the Marriott Data Breach.
Lawyers have moved to coordinate suits into multidistrict litigation and questioned an arbitration clause in Marriott’s free internet monitoring program offered to its customers.
Lawyers rushed to bring about a dozen class actions over Marriott’s data breach—and with about 500 million people potentially impacted, they didn’t have to go far to find a plaintiff.
“There are so many people that have been potentially compromised, which means basically people could trip over a plaintiff if they just walk outside,” said Amy Keller, who filed one the lawsuits. Marriott announced Nov. 30 that hackers breached the reservations program of its Starwood properties, which include W Hotels and the Westin Hotels & Resorts.
Keller’s Chicago firm, DiCello Levitt & Casey, partnered in its case with Washington, D.C.-based Cohen, Milstein, Sellers & Toll and Hausfeld. That team brought a motion Monday to coordinate all the Marriott consumer cases into multidistrict litigation.
Keller said she expected hundreds of lawsuits against Marriott, which the suits allege failed to protect the personal information of its guests for four years. The suits also challenge Marriott’s response to the breach, both in delaying its announcement by several months and offering a free internet monitoring service for one year that they consider insufficient.
Read With Plenty of Plaintiffs, Lawyers Flood the Courts Over Marriott’s Massive Breach.