The lead plaintiff is not liable for any fraudulent charges, the retailer argues

Feb 15, 2014 09:31 GMT  ·  By

In mid-January, shortly after Neiman Marcus admitted to having suffered a data breach, a class action was filed against the high-end retailer. The company has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in which Melissa Frank is named as lead plaintiff.

The suit accuses the retailer of failing to protect its customers’ personal information. Frank says her debit card data has already been used for fraudulent charges. She also fears that the compromised information could be misused in the future for identity theft.

Neiman Marcus argues that Frank doesn’t allege in the complaint that the fraudulent charges are connected to the data breach suffered by the retailer, SC Magazine reports.

Furthermore, the company says she has not suffered any specific harm, and her payment card has zero fraud liability which means she will not be held accountable for any fraudulent charges.

Finally, since social security numbers, dates of birth and PINs have not been obtained by cybercriminals, there’s no risk of identity theft.