By
Bhushan Akolkar
June 18th, 2020
The sum of the damages Marriott potentially faces is not yet clear. The court will decide on the per capita sum. Besides, it will take into consideration the existence of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The U.S. largest hospitality corporation Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ: MAR) is now facing a new lawsuit in the UK. The reason for the class action lawsuit is a vast data breach that affected 339 million customers worldwide. The hack may be the biggest in history.
Despite the news about the lawsuit, Marriott stock is 1.42% up, trading at $95.78 per share as of press moment.
How It All Began
Back in 2018, Marriott announced the breach of the Starwood guest reservation system (Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016) that ran from July 2014 to September 2018. The hackers got access to such information as guests’ names, email and postal addresses, telephone numbers, gender, and credit card data. As a result of the hack, the world’s largest hotel operator lost control of 339 million global customers.
The U.S. and Canada customers have earlier filed lawsuits against Marriott regarding the breach. Now, the UK resident, Martin Bryant who runs a Manchester-based consultancy Big Revolution, has filed another class-action lawsuit. He wants to protect the interests of millions of hotel guests domiciled in England and Wales. They all made reservations at hotel brands globally within the Starwood Hotels group.
Bryant said:
“I have filed a data breach group action in the High Court of England and Wales against Marriott International. The action seeks compensation on behalf of millions of hotel guests who made reservations at hotel brands within the Starwood group. This action follows the data breach of hundreds of millions of guest records between July 2014 and September 2018.”
He continued:
“I hope this case will raise awareness of the value of our personal data, result in fair compensation for those of us who have fallen foul of Marriott’s vast and long-lasting data breach, and also serve notice to other data owners that they must hold our data responsibly,”
Michael Bywell, a partner of Hausfeld law firm that represents Bryant, said:
“Over a period of several years, Marriott International failed to take adequate technical or organizational measures to protect millions of their guests’ personal data which was entrusted to them.”
The sum of the damages Marriott potentially faces is not yet clear. The court will decide on the per capita sum. Besides, it will take into consideration the existence of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This framework determines major fines for data protection violations.
