022 was another record-setting year for data breach class actions. Here’s our take on the key developments and trends we have seen over the past year, as well as what we should watch for in 2023.
We count 43 major data breach class actions filed this past year, treating multiple cases filed against a single defendant as one major class action. [1] This continues the upward trend, from 25 in 2020 to 36 in 2021, even though we have narrowed our definition of major cases each year. Of the new cases, four are subject to MDL proceedings, 30 are consolidated or have pending motions to consolidate, and nine are proceeding as individual actions.
Read our client alert and view all of the articles in our Privacy Litigation Year in Review series.
[1] In gathering cases, we defined major data breach litigation as cases in which: 1) the breach impacted at least 200,000 individuals; and 2) multiple actions were filed regarding the same incident. This is a more limited definition than we used in our 2021 year-in-review, when we counted all cases in which multiple actions were filed.