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Your League's Board of Directors recently voted unanimously to join the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), several other state Leagues and a number of individual credit unions in a class action lawsuit against Home Depot for its massive 2014 Data Breach. In outlining the action taken, your League's President John Murphy explained, "We believe by becoming a named plaintiff in this litigation, we are taking another proactive step to demonstrate to merchants that credit unions should not be expected to absorb the costs associated with mishandling of members' data."
Your League's action coincides with active legislative efforts underway in Congress with companion data security bills introduced in the House (H.R. 2205) and the Senate (S.961), which your League has issued Call To Actions for to encourage each member of Maine's Congressional Delegation to join as co-sponsors and support the bills.
According to your League, thousands of credit union members' cards were exposed in the Home Depot breach. Nationwide, Home Depot itself has admitted that 56,000,000 milion credit and debit cards were compromised in the breach. Murphy said that accountability and financial burden also figured prominently into your League's action, as did the cumulative effect that breaches have had on Maine's credit unions. "Over the past several years, Maine's credit unions alone have spent millions of dollars to reissue replacement debit cards and to address fraud losses. This and other class action lawsuits seek not only damages but also injunctive relief, which if successful, will compel the retailers and merchants to improve data security standards."
Resources:
Memo Announcing Home Depot Lawsuit