US supreme court to allow lawsuit against Amazon’s Zappos to go ahead
The online retailer tried unsuccessfully to appeal against the case, dealing a blow to businesses that want to make it harder to sue for data breaches
Washington — The US supreme court turned away an appeal by Amazon.com’s Zappos unit, letting a lawsuit proceed over a 2012 hack that exposed the personal information of 24-million customers. The online shoe and clothing retailer argued unsuccessfully that the customers could not sue without proof of concrete injury, such as the impending misuse of their information. The suit, allowed by a San Francisco-based federal appeals court, seeks class-action status. The rebuff is a setback for business groups, which urged the court to hear the appeal and tighten the rules for data-breach lawsuits. The US chamber of commerce said companies face similar suits over alleged vulnerabilities in internet-connected cars, home-security systems, children’s toys and medical devices. “The factual scenario this case presents — a database holding customers’ personal information is accessed, but virtually no identity theft or fraud results — is an increasingly common one,” Zappos argued. The company says o...
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