Missouri Federal Court Takes on T-Mobile MDL

Last Friday, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (“JPML”) transferred and centralized over 40 data event and cybersecurity class actions brought against T-Mobile in the Western District of Missouri.  In re: T-Mobile Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, MDL No. 3019.  The centralized cases will undoubtedly be one of the must-watch data privacy litigations in 2022.  Read on to learn more.

As a reminder, multidistrict litigations (“MDLs”) are a way of handling multiple civil actions at once for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings, and can be formed when separate actions in different federal district courts share a common question of fact.  28 U.S.C. Section 1407(a) provides that:

When civil actions involving one or more common questions of fact are pending in different districts, such actions may be transferred to any district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings.  Such transfers shall be made by the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation authorized by this section upon its determination that transfers for such proceedings will be for the convenience of parties and witnesses and will promote the just and efficient conduct of such actions . . . .

28 U.S.C. §1407(a).  On a motion filed by either party, those separate actions can be flagged to the JPML.  The JPML then decides whether the litigations should be consolidated and transferred into one federal court for consolidated pretrial proceedings.

Which brings us to T-Mobile.  Earlier this year, T-Mobile disclosed that it had been targeted in a cyberattack that resulted in the compromise of some current, former and prospective customers’ SSN, name, address, date of birth and driver’s license/ID information.  According to T-Mobile, “the breach did not expose any customer financial information, credit card information, debit or other payment information.”  Following T-Mobile’s disclosure of the data event, over 40 putative class actions were filed by Plaintiffs who alleged that their personal…