Member Spotlight: Hausfeld’s James Pizzirusso on Landmark T-Mobile Settlement and Why Class Actions Matter
In August 2021, a massive cyberattack against T-Mobile led to the data breach of an estimated 76.6 million customers’ personal information, including names, addresses, birth dates, driver’s license data and Social Security numbers.
After almost a year of litigation, combining more than 40 proposed class-action lawsuits against T-Mobile for its negligence and failure to adequately protect its customers’ personal information, a federal judge recently approved a preliminary settlement. Under the terms of the settlement, T-Mobile agreed to pay $350 million into a settlement fund, as well as provide an additional $150 million to upgrade its data security–over and above the amount it previously budgeted for cybersecurity.
Class members who have not signed up to be part of the mass arbitration against the second-largest wireless carrier in the country are eligible to receive up to $25,000 to cover out-of-pocket losses, including two years of identity theft protection and access to fraud specialists. The deadline to file a claim is January 22, 2023. Notice will be issued in the coming weeks.
Public Justice recently sat down with Hausfeld LLP Partner James Pizzirusso, a member of the winning legal team, to discuss the significance of the settlement and why class actions are a key tool in ensuring access to justice for consumers everywhere.
How did you get involved with litigation?
We formed a coalition of firms early on and filed the one of the first cases in Seattle, Washington where T-Mobile is headquartered. One of the other attorneys in our group was from Kansas City, Missouri–where the multi-district litigation ultimately ended up consolidating the cases–so they knew the courts there very well, having practiced there for decades. Numerous firms were vying for leadership, but we were selected along with Norman Siegal of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP in Kansas City and Cari Campen Laufenberg of Keller Rohrback LLP in Seattle as Co-Lead Counsel. The court also added a number of great attorneys to the leadership group as a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.
Describe the importance of this settlement for consumers and consumer rights.
As one of the largest settlements ever reached in data breach litigation on a per-person basis, there are numerous benefits available to the 76 million class members who were impacted. We think this is an incredible settlement for future class action litigation in this space, as well, and a huge win for consumer rights.
While this case was being litigated, there was a separate mass arbitration being conducted with consumers who had mandatory binding arbitration clauses. How were you able to reach those customers and defeat some of those arbitration claims?
That’s a great question, and something we struggled with since many current T-Mobile customers likely have an ironclad arbitration agreement hidden in their terms of service. The case settled before T-Mobile moved to compel arbitration, but we would have argued that a good chunk of the class was not subject to arbitration since the data breach impacted not only current customers, but many former and prospective customers, including people who never signed a contract but still gave the company their information when they considered signing up. We believed those non-customers would not be subject to the arbitration clause, but we never got a ruling on that issue.
And specifically for current customers located in California, we also would have argued that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) would have voided the arbitration provision. Finally, many other current customers signed up under a “Friends and Family Plan,” where they never agreed to the terms and conditions unlike the primary account holder.
Why do class actions matter?
Class actions are really the only way to provide real accountability to corporations on behalf of financially injured plaintiffs and consumers. But they’re also important in other issues including civil rights, antitrust, environmental cases, and so on.
I’m a huge proponent of class actions and Public Justice’s work to preserve them and fight barriers to justice like forced arbitration that seek to make bringing class actions much harder.
We have seen time and time again how class actions cause companies to change their practices for the better, creating monumental and lasting change across industries. For example, bank fees used to be one of the most pernicious activities you would see, and now big banks like Bank of America and Capital One are dialing back and taking these fees away because of massive class actions they faced.
I’m a huge proponent of class actions and Public Justice’s work to preserve them and fight barriers to justice like forced arbitration that seek to make bringing class actions much harder.
In recent years, efforts from Congress to pass legislation (such as H.R. 985) to make bringing class actions virtually impossible have grown stronger. How would this kind of bill threaten consumer rights and access to justice more broadly?
Any legislative efforts to prevent or end class actions would be devastating and would really hurt consumers and employees. And it’s not just individuals. We do a lot of antitrust work, where we represent direct-purchase businesses that have been harmed by larger companies.
Class actions are really the only reasonable way to allow a large group of harmed entities to pursue justice, and without Rule 23, many more people and businesses would be harmed.
Class actions are really the only reasonable way to allow a large group of harmed entities to pursue justice.
Luckily, we’ve also seen legislation that seeks to strike down forced arbitration. For now, we’re not going to let these clauses stop us from trying to get justice for our clients. It is these kinds of cases that enable us to hold corporations accountable and prevent them from harming more consumers in the future.
How can the public support the fight to protect class actions?
First of all, if they’re a member of a class action, and they get a notice, they should participate. Often the criticism we hear is that the claims rates aren’t very high, so people should participate to show they care about these issues.
The second thing is to talk about these issues. Access to justice is hugely important and we need to generate more awareness. Share the importance of class actions on social media, across your networks, and with your representatives. And finally, as lawyers, we need to continue taking on these cases and settle them in a good and meaningful way.
To learn more and find out if you’re covered by the T-Mobile data breach settlement, visit www.t-mobilesettlement.com. To learn more about Public Justice’s efforts to preserve class actions and prevent corporate abuse, visit our Class Action Preservation Project.
Interested in being featured in the next Member Spotlight? Email Communications Director Lucy Sears at lsears@publicjustice.net.
