14 DAY TRIAL // A Southern District of California judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against Sony by customers who were displeased with the way the company protected their private details.
Back in April 2011, the breach that affected Sony’s PlayStation Network made a lot of headlines. Soon afterwards, a number of unhappy users teamed up to file lawsuits against the organization, accusing it of negligence.
In this particular lawsuit, the plaintiffs underscored the fact that although the company knew that the PS3 console had been jailbroken and the instructions for performing the task were freely available online, Sony didn’t take any measures to reinforce its security systems.
However, Judge Anthony Battaglia has rejected the plaintiffs' claims. According to court documents provided by Courthousenews.com, the judge’s decision is based on several factors.
First of all, the plaintiffs were not subscribed to premium PlayStation Network services. Furthermore, in its Privacy Policy, Sony clearly states that there is no such thing as perfect security, so they cannot ensure that their customers’ information is securely stored.
The claims for injunctive relief and violation of consumer protection law were dismissed because the consoles had already been purchased when the users signed the privacy policy.
The claim for bailment was dismissed because Sony wasn’t involved in the data breach in any way. Instead, as the plaintiffs admit, this was a result “of a criminal intrusion of Sony’s Network.”
“Finally, because the only allegation against Sony regarding the theft of Plaintiffs’ Personal Information was that Sony was negligent or otherwise engaged in unfair or fraudulent practices, Plaintiffs’ claim for bailment is duplicative of its claims for negligence and violations of California’s consumer protection statutes,” the judge wrote in the 36-page order.
The plaintiffs have until November 9, 2012 to file an amended consolidated complaint.