Settlement of Desjardins Class Actions Related to 2019 Personal Information Breach
Update: October 18, 2022- Court Approves Settlement of Class Action
For more information about the Settlement Agreement approved by the Superior Court of Québec and how to file a claim, you can contact RicePoint free of charge, the Court-appointed Claims Administrator, at 1-888-886-7164. Live agents are available to answer your questions.
A website has also been set-up with respect to the Settlement Agreement in order to better answer Class members’ questions. We invite you to consult this website for more information on the Settlement Agreement, how to file a claim and the deadlines for doing so: https://www.reglementdesjardins.com/
The Settlement Agreement entered into with the Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec with respect to the class actions filed in connection with the data breach at Desjardins was approved by judgment of the Court on June 14, 2022. You can also obtain a printable version of the Claim Form.
The claim period for members of the Class started on July 21, 2022. From July 21, 2022 to mid-October 2022, explanatory Notices were sent directly to a large portion of the Class members via Accès D or by letter, to inform them of the steps to follow in order to file a claim. These notices contained a hyperlink (for Notices sent by Accès D) or unique reference number (for Notices sent by letter) intended for the member of the Class, allowing them to more easily file a claim. Class members must wait to receive their explanatory Notice with hyperlink (by Accès D) or unique reference number (by letter) before they can file a claim.
The hearing of the Application for Approval of a Settlement Agreement and Class Counsels’ Fees was held on May 24 and 25, 2022 at the Québec City Courthouse, located at 300 boulevard Jean-Lesage, in room 3.14 at 10:00 a.m.
Members of the Class or the public are not required to attend the Hearing. However, class members who want to attend the Hearing are strongly encouraged to do so virtually given the current COVID situation. If you want to attend the Hearing virtually, please send us a request by email to the following address: infodesjardins@kklex.com, and a member of our team will send you the link so that you can attend the Hearing virtually.
Today, the Court rendered a judgment authorizing the class action for settlement purposes only, authorizing the issuance of notices to class members, and other preliminary orders.
An email was sent to class members who had communicated with us in order to advise them of recent developments with respect to the Desjardins data breach class actions.
In summary, we are very pleased to report that a settlement agreement has been reached with the Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec in this class action. The settlement agreement will be submitted to the Superior Court of Québec for approval in 2022, at a date to be determined. It will not come into effect unless it is approved by the Court.
The settlement agreement will, if approved, provide for simple, timely and fair compensation to class members. The settlement agreement provides, among other things, for compensation for loss of time related to the personal information breach, as well as compensation for identity theft. The settlement agreement also provides that all class members who have not yet registered for Equifax’s credit monitoring service offered by Desjardins can register and will thus be able to obtain, at no cost, Equifax coverage for 5 years, and the extension by at least 5 years of the other protective measures implemented by Desjardins following the breach.
You can read more in the by visiting www.desjardinssettlement.com, the website set up by RicePoint Administration Inc., the entity that the parties will ask the court to appoint as the Claims Administrator in connection with the settlement agreement, or by calling RicePoint’s toll-free number at 1-888-886-7164.
An email was sent to class members who has communicated with us to date in order to advise them of recent developments with respect to the Desjardins data breach class action.
In summary, on January 20, 2020, the attorneys for class members (Siskinds and Kugler Kandestin) filed with the Court a joint Application for permission to file an amended application for authorization to institute a class action. The purpose of the amendments, which appear in the Amended application for authorization to institute a class action, are to take into account the numerous developments that have occurred in this matter since we first filed our initial Application for authorization on June 21, 2019, to amend the different claims for damages that are being sought on behalf of class members, and to add two proposed representatives of the class.
The Court will have to determine whether the amendments will be permitted, and a hearing will be scheduled for this purpose. The attorneys for the class have also asked the Court to fix the dates for the authorization hearing (for the purpose of determining whether the Court will allow the action to proceed as a class action) as soon as possible. We do not currently know when this hearing will take place.
An email was sent to class members who had communicated with us to date in order to respond to questions with respect to the class action.
The application for authorization to institute a class action alleges that the defendants failed to adequately protect class members’ personal data and seeks payment of substantial compensatory and punitive damages.
On June 21, 2019, Kugler Kandestin, in conjunction with LPC Avocats Inc., filed an application for authorization to institute a class action against the Fédérations des Caisses Desjardins du Québec and the numerous “Caisse Desjardins” credit unions in connection with the massive and unprecedented data breach that Desjardins publicly reported on June 20th.
It is reported that the personal data of 2.7 million people and 173,000 businesses – comprising names, addresses, birth dates, social insurance numbers, email addresses, and information about their transaction habits – was improperly and unlawfully accessed by a former Desjardins employee and disclosed to third parties.
The proposed class action, which includes all Desjardins members whose personal data was breached, alleges that Desjardins did not have a sufficient system or adequate measures in place to adequately protect its members’ personal and highly sensitive information and claims significant compensatory and punitive damages.