A federal judge said he doubted Target Corp.'s argument its customers weren't harmed after hackers stole charge-card data belonging to millions of people during last year's holiday shopping season.
"You have people here who were honest-to-goodness hurt, who were injured," U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson told the company's lawyer, Harold McElhinny, at a hearing Thursday in St. Paul. "Now, whether that's Target's fault is for another day."
Target is asking Magnuson to throw out about six dozen consumer lawsuits filed across the U.S. after last year's incursion and consolidated before him. McElhinny told the judge card-issuing banks reimburse customers for fraudulent charges.
The Minneapolis-based company is one of several retailers, including Barnes & Noble Inc., Home Depot Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group, that have been sued by customers after data thieves invaded their computer systems.
Federal judges in Chicago dismissed the cases against Neiman Marcus and Barnes & Noble, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Amnesty International couldn't challenge a U.S. government surveillance program unless those who feared they were being spied on at least faced "certainly impending" harm. Target has cited the same case.
The Neiman Marcus ruling is being appealed, and customers in the Barnes & Noble case have refiled their suit.
"We're not here today because Target got hacked," plaintiffs' attorney Vincent Esades told the judge Thursday. "We're here because of Target's conduct, the failure to stop it from happening."
