CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – A Pennsylvania man is suing a digital learning toys manufacturer following a data security breach.
Justin Donnell and minors A.D. and T.D., individually and for all others similarly situated, filed a class-action lawsuit Dec. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against VTech Electronics North America and VTech Holdings Limited, alleging violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, breach of implied warranty and negligence.
VTech manufactures digital learning toys that allow children to browse the Internet and communicate with each other.
When consumers buy VTech products, they must provide the company with private information of themselves and their children, including photographs, names, dates of birth, email addresses, IP addresses and home addresses, the complaint states.
VTech represents to consumers that this information is kept private and secure. However, the suit claims VTech's product was vulnerable to a structured query language (SQL) "injection attack." On Nov. 14, hackers obtained personal information from more than 2.8 million children and parents in the U.S.
The suit states the security breach occurred because VTech's security was poorly designed and implemented.
The plaintiffs and others in the class seek actual and statutory damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, equitable relief, interests, attorney fees and other costs of the suit.
They are represented by attorneys Edward A. Wallace, Amy E. Keller and Tyler J. Story of Wexler Wallace in Chicago; attorney Steven W. Teppler of Abbott Law Group in Jacksonville, Florida; attorneys Michael W. Sobol and Roger N. Heller and Jason L. Lichtman of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein in San Francisco and New York; attorney John A. Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan in Tampa, Florida; attorney Gregory F. Coleman of Greg Coleman Law in Knoxville, Tennessee; and attorney Gary E. Mason of Whitfield Bryson & Mason in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Case number 1:15-CV-11280