Yahoo, and its parent company Verizon, will now have no choice but to face the US lawsuits against it over the company’s multiple data breaches. California Judge Lucy Koh has denied Verizon’s bid to have numerous claims in lawsuits dismissed, including negligence and breach of contract.
Plaintiff’s claims demonstrate that they would have “behaved differently” if they had known about Yahoo’s email security issues, Judge Koh said. She further added that Yahoo’s attempts to limit liability were “unconscionable” given the fact that how much the company knew about its security issues and how little it did to prevent issues from happening.
This isn’t the first defeat Yahoo and Verizon faced. Previously, Judge Koh shot down attempts by both companies to dismiss unfair competition claims. While attempting to take down most claims, Yahoo maintained that the lawsuit was based on “20/20 hindsight” and didn’t change that the company continuously faced security threats.
This ruling, along with previous judgement, could put Yahoo and Verizon for a massive payout if the lawsuit is successful. Previously, it became clear that all of Yahoo’s 3 billion users in 2013 were affected by the two other breaches between then and 2016. Of all the users, only a fraction were Americans, but nonetheless, if this lawsuit succeeds, this could lead to a big payout.
