A data breach compromised the personal credentials of Kroger customers who have filed for a class action claim settlement. Cloud-based transfer giant Accellion is a third-party vendor of Kroger and its database was hacked causing a leak of confidential Kroger data alongside those of various institutions around the globe such as Washington’s state auditor, Harvard’s business school, and New Zealand’s central bank. The settlement is expected to end all claims filed against Kroger in Ohio, North California, and Indiana.
Eligibility for Making Claim: A valid claim can be made by a current or former employee of Kroger’s or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or parent companies residing in the United States. It can also be filed by a Kroger customer whose personal credentials such as name, contact information, social security number, birth date, and salary information in some cases were accessed by hackers in the December 2020 data breach.
Proof of Purchase: Not Applicable
Potential Claim Amount:
- Non-California resident class members are eligible to get an average cash payment of $91 whereas California resident class members are eligible to get $181 or
- Two years of insurance and credit monitoring services or
- Up to $5000 reimbursement payment in documented losses and
- Change in business practices and prospective relief attributable to the settlement.
Case Summary: The Kroger Co. was held accountable with a class action claim courtesy of the damages caused by the large and preventable Accellion data breach. The plaintiffs have claimed that Kroger came to know about the incident on 23rd January 2021 but refrained from notifying its former and current employees for the two following months. As per the suit, the data breach occurred in December 2020 wherein the FTA secure file transfer servers of Kroger’s third-party vendor Accellion were accessed by unauthorized parties. The complaint alleges that Kroger was fully aware that Accellion’s data security was not up to the mark. According to the suit, Accellion has encouraged Kroger to shift to a more secure transfer platform from its outdated FTA file transfer product. Personal information of Kroger employees was exposed in this data breach making them more vulnerable to various forms of cybercrimes and identity theft.
Claim Form: https://www.krogerftadatabreachsettlement.com/
Settlement Pool: $5,000,000
Case Name: Buck v. The Kroger Co.
Case No. 1:21-CV-00279
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
Western Division at Cincinnati