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Article Date: 01/06/2007
Article Title: TK Maxx is being sued
The US parent of stores group TK Maxx is being sued in the US by one of its shareholders after it reported that details of some of the credit cards its customers had used had been hacked. The shareholder has issued proceedings in Delaware for internal documents relating to the hacking in what may be a pre-cursor to an action against the company or its board. An indication that the board might be the target could be the specific request that the company disclose its board minutes.
A recent review of class action litigation in Europe by Eversheds shows that changes are taking place. The review of 30 European jurisdictions shows that whilst only 9 currently recognise class actions or their equivalents many more jurisdictions are considering changes to their rules. In some of those other countries representative or group actions similar to the US case could be brought - these actions are increasingly likely to be brought by consumers in Europe too because of the statutory right to damages which exists in many countries following a data protection breach. In the UK the new Companies Act 2006 is likely to make things tougher for directors too.
There is more information on security breach generally here:
http://www.eversheds.com/documents/ACCAdocOnDataSecurity.pdf
and copies of our work on class actions can be requested from Richard Matthews at Eversheds - richardmatthews@eversheds.com
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