Class Action Lawsuit Filed in Wake of Supervalu Data Breach

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On Monday, four consumers filed a data breach class action lawsuit against the grocery store chain Supervalu Inc. in the wake of a security breach that allowed hackers to access customers’ personal information in more than 200 stores.

Supervalu confirmed last Friday that more than 200 of their brand name grocery stores, such as Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shop n Save, and Shoppers Food and Pharmacy, were hacked, thus exposing customers’ credit and debit card information. The grocery chain stated that immediately following the data breach, the hacked networks were secured and third-party data forensics experts and federal authorities were sent to investigate the nature and extent of the Supervalu data breach.

The four lead plaintiffs, Steve McPeak, Katherin Murray, Timothy Roldan, and Darla Young, allege that Supervalu failed to implement safety precautions and did not take sufficient protective measures to insure the security of customer information. They allege that Supervalu “failed to adequately analyze its computer systems for vulnerabilities …  [and] failed to fix the vulnerabilities in its computer systems which allowed Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ Personal Information to become compromised.”

By allegedly failing to follow credit card security standards, the grocery store chain violated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) laws governing how companies are allowed to collect and store customer personal information, the class action lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs also allege that following the data breach, Supervalue neglected to inform customers of the situation in a timely manner. According to the Supervalu data breach class action lawsuit:

“After learning of the security breach, Defendant failed to notify Plaintiffs and the putative Classes in a timely manner and failed to take other reasonable steps to inform them of the nature and extent of the breach. As a result, Defendant prevented Plaintiffs and the putative Class Members from protecting themselves from the breach and caused Plaintiffs and Class Members to suffer financial loss.”

The Supervalu data breach class action lawsuit claims that in order to properly protect themselves from the threat of identity theft, the consumers affected by the data breach will have to take significant time and money replace and secure credit and debit card accounts due to Supervalu’s security oversight.

Additionally, the data breach class action lawsuit alleges that the data breach is not just limited to the reported 200 Supervalu grocery stores. In fact, the plaintiffs claim that thousands of stores were allegedly impacted by this security breach, which could also feasibly include retail stores recently sold by Supervalu Inc.

In this data breach class action lawsuit, the lead plaintiffs seek to represent themselves and a Class of all persons who have ever shopped at any Supervalu location whose personal information was subject to the recent security breach and who consequently suffered damages. The plaintiffs are seeking the maximum statutory damages charge allowed in federal court and three years of credit monitoring service for the affected consumers to be paid by Supervalu.

Steve McPeak, Katherin Murray, Timothy Roldan and Darla Young are represented by John J. Driscoll of The Driscoll Firm PC.

The Supervalu Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is McPeak, et al. v. Supervalu Inc., Case No. 3:14-cv-00899, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.