Skip to main content

US judge says that Yahoo must face lawsuits over data breaches

US judge says that Yahoo must face lawsuits over data breaches

/

Yahoo argued that victims of the breaches didn’t have the legal standing to sue

Share this story

Yahoo stock 2

A US court has ruled that lawsuits against Yahoo concerning a pair of massive hacks can move forward, according to Reuters.

The lawsuit concerns two major breaches: one that occurred in 2013 that impacted more than a billion users, and another in late 2014 that affected at least 500 million accounts. in December, a judicial panel consolidated five putative class action suits that sought to represent account holders who had e-mails, passwords, and other sensitive information compromised.

Yahoo sought to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that victims didn’t have the legal standing to bring the case, an assertion that US District Judge Lucy Koh rejected. In her decision, she wrote that “All plaintiffs have alleged a risk of future identity theft, in addition to loss of value of their personal identification information.” Koh did dismiss some claims, and is giving the plaintiffs the opportunity to amend their complaint against Yahoo.

The ruling is a blow to Verizon, which now owns Yahoo. Verizon reduced its acquisition offer by $350 million following the disclosure of the breaches, purchasing the site for $4.48 billion in cash.