Ruling shows difficulty of winning tort actions in data breach cases



Computerworld - The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a lawsuit brought against BJ's Wholesale Club by dozens of credit unions over a 2004 data breach.



The court held that the credit unions could not seek restitution from BJs on their claims that the wholesaler had breached a third-party contract and had misrepresented facts about its compliance with payment industry security standards.



The ruling last Friday is similar to numerous others that have been handed down by courts in recently and highlights the challenges that plaintiffs face in winning tort actions against companies that suffer massive data breaches.



Just last week, a federal court in New Jersey threw out a shareholder lawsuit against Heartland Payment Systems that disclosed a major data breach in January. The court essentially said that the data breach by itself did not demonstrate Heartland's lack of commitment to maintaining a high level of security.



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