November 3, 2022
A federal judge in Nevada is allowing most of a putative class action against the hospitality giant MGM Resorts International to move forward, rejecting the company’s bid to escape claims that it mishandled customers’ personal data and essentially let hackers steal that information in 2019.
The ruling on Wednesday, by U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro, will force MGM Resorts to face allegations of negligence and breach of contract, as well as claims that it violated a host of consumer protection statutes, while sparing it from an accusation of negligent misinterpretation.
In a 43-page decision, Judge Navarro rejected the company’s stance that it cannot be accused of negligence since the consumers suffered only financial harm, noting that hackers stole their names, addresses, contact information, dates of birth and, for some, their government-issued ID numbers. That negates MGM’s argument under the so-called economic loss doctrine, the judge held, calling it “difficult to conceive how the dissemination of an individual’s [personally identifiable information] does not necessarily diminish their control over their digital and physical identity.”
. . .
The plaintiffs are represented by Miles N. Clark of the Law Offices of Miles N. Clark LLC, Don Springmeyer of Kemp Jones LLP, E. Michelle Drake, Michael Dell’Angelo, Jon Lambiras and Reginald Streater of Berger Montague PC, Douglas J. McNamara, Andrew N. Friedman, Geoffrey A. Graber and Paul Stephan of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, David M. Berger and Eric H. Gibbs of Gibbs Law Group LLP, and by John A. Yanchunis, Jean S. Martin and Marcio Valladares of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.
Read the complete article on Law360.