California Court Issues Mixed Ruling in Ledger Crypto Wallet Data Breach Case

On Tuesday, July 16, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a mixed ruling in a high-profile data breach case involving cryptocurrency hardware wallet company Ledger SAS.

The case originated from a 2020 data breach where hackers accessed personal information on over 270,000 customers of Ledger that had been collected by the company and stored by third-party vendors. This information, including names, emails, physical addresses and phone numbers, was subsequently published online. The plaintiffs, customers who purchased Ledger’s hardware wallets, alleged they suffered financial losses and other harms as a result of increased phishing attacks and scams targeting Ledger wallet owners.

In its ruling, the court denied in part and granted in part motions to dismiss that were filed in response to the plaintiffs’ second amended complaint. Regarding jurisdiction, the court found that it does have specific personal jurisdiction over Ledger and TaskUs, the customer support vendor implicated in the breach. However, the court upheld the enforceability of Ledger’s forum selection clause for claims not brought under California consumer law.

On the claims themselves, the court allowed several to proceed. It ruled that the named plaintiffs demonstrated standing to bring suit against Ledger, except for one plaintiff’s request for injunctive relief. The court also found that the unfair competition and certain negligence and deceptive trade practices claims against Ledger and TaskUs, respectively, were plausibly pled.

However, the court dismissed the California Consumer Subclass and struck claims against Shopify, another vendor, based on the forum selection clause. It also dismissed some issues with the unfair competition and negligence claims.

The mixed result leaves parts of the case moving forward while narrowing the scope of others. The plaintiffs will still have an opportunity for discovery and potential certification of classes for viable claims not dismissed by the court’s order.

Please contact BlockTribune for access to a copy of this filing.