Court Says Future Risk After Data Theft Not Actionable

A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled that a plaintiff who alleges increased risk of future identity theft or fraud as the result of a data breach does not have standing to pursue a claim. The plaintiff had filed a putative class action following an eBay breach in which credit card and bank information was taken. The court, in a decision it said was in accord with the majority of district courts, ruled that to be actionable a claim must be “concrete, particularized, and imminent.” This decision, explains Nixon Peabody attorney Kate A.F. Martinez, follows a standard handed down by the Supreme Court in the 2013 case Clapper v. Amnesty International USA.