A California resident has filed a class action against Sabre
because of the credit card data breach in Sabre's SynXis hotel reservations
system.
The ten-count lawsuit alleges breach of implied contract,
negligence, several violations of California's unfair competition law, unfair
and deceptive business practices, constitutional invasion of privacy, breach of
the covenant of duty of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of state
data breach laws.
Sabre stated that it will "vigorously defend against
[the lawsuit's] many inaccuracies and factual and legal errors."
The suit was filed July 12 by the Wilshire Law Firm on
behalf of Sandra Smith of Los Angeles in U.S. District Court in California. According
to the lawsuit, Smith and other members of the class action booked reservations
during the period of the breach with hotels that use SynXis in the United
States.
This past spring, Sabre disclosed the breach of SynXis, a
res system used by about 36,000 hotels. The hotel brands disclosing that that
they have been affected by the breach include Club Quarters Hotels, Four
Seasons, Hard Rock, Loews and Trump Hotels.
Earlier this month, Sabre said it its investigation into the
breach was complete, and that it was contained to "a limited subset of
hotel reservations." Sabre said an unauthorized party gained access to credit
card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names from August 2016 to March
2017.
"As a result of Sabre's wrongful actions and inactions,
customer information was stolen," the lawsuit states. "Many of the
customers who booked hotel rooms have had their PII [personally identifiable
information] compromised, have had their privacy rights violated, have been
exposed to the risk of fraud and identify theft, and have otherwise suffered
damages."
The lawsuit states that plaintiffs face "years" of
reviewing personal and financial records. Smith claims there have been several
fraudulent charges on her credit and debit cards since the breach.
The class action seeks an award of actual and compensatory
damages "in an amount to be determined."