ATLANTA—Home Depot has denied allegations that it sent out misleading notices to potential class members in litigation over its massive 2014 customer data breach.
The company claimed that lawyers for the financial institutions suing the Atlanta-based home improvement chain have made “significant factual misstatements and misrepresentations” about Home Depot’s role in the communications, Property Casualty 360 reported.
“Home Depot did not send or authorize and was not even aware of” notices announcing a settlement with MasterCard International Inc. that were sent to financial institutions that are either plaintiffs or potential plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation, wrote lawyers at Atlanta’s Alston & Bird defending Home Depot. They asked U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. to disregard a Nov. 30 motion by the financial institutions for what Home Depot’s lawyers claim is a “Draconian order” that would limit how Home Depot communicates with financial institutions and order significant disclosures about the apparent settlement.
Previous reports had indicated that financial institutions involved in the lawsuit recently received letters stating that a deal had been reached between MasterCard and Home Depot on how much to reimburse financial institutions for costs suffered as a result of the breach.
Attorneys representing the FIs suing Home Depot over the data breach in a court filing indicated notices had been sent about the potential settlement, calling them "misleading and coercive."
"Most tellingly, Home Depot began sending the communications hours before the Thanksgiving holiday, when class counsel and putative class members would be otherwise occupied, requiring putative class members to take action as soon as December 2, two days hence, without providing even the most basic information regarding settlement terms," the financial institutions' attorneys said in the court filing.
But Home Depot lawyers contended that the financial institutions’ motion was “replete with factual inaccuracies” and that the plaintiff banks and credit unions “don’t purport to have actual support for the allegations that Home Depot was responsible in any way” for the settlement notices, which were sent out over the Thanksgiving holiday. Home Depot’s motion did not address whether it has reached a settlement with MasterCard. But Home Depot spokesman Steve Holmes confirmed that the home improvement chain has reached “a tentative settlement” with MasterCard that he says is contingent on its acceptance by a certain number of the financial institutions, Property Casualty 360 reported.