BELLEVUE, Wash.–Eddie Bauer has asked a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit against it filed by a credit union that is seeking class action status.
The suit was filed by Iowa-based Veridian Credit Union over a data breach the company reported occurred between Jan. 2 and July 17, 2016.
According to Law360.com, Eddie Bauer has responded to the suit by saying Iowa law should be applied due to Veridian’s location, and that the allegations don’t pass muster under that state's laws.
“Veridian has filed suit in Washington, apparently in an effort to avoid the effects of the unfavorable law of its home state,” Law360.com reported the defendants responded. “But applying Washington choice of law rules, the court should find Iowa law governs and that Veridian has no remedy under the law of Iowa,” the retailer said. “Should this court decline to apply Iowa law and instead apply the law of the forum (i.e. Washington law), Veridian’s claims still fail.”
In its suit, Veridian said that due to the breach affecting 350 of Eddie Bauer’s stores in the U.S. and Canada, it has had to replace cards and that it suffered losses that include reimbursement of fraudulent charges or reversal of customer charges, lost interest and transaction fees, and administrative expenses and overhead charges.
“Veridian makes no claim that it or any of its members are Washington residents or that it reissued even one credit or debit card to a Washington resident,” the retailer said, according to Law360.com. “Washington has less interest than Iowa in protecting an Iowa-chartered and headquartered credit union whose rules restrict membership to persons who live or work in Iowa and a few counties in Nebraska and who claims to have suffered economic loss that, if it was incurred at all, it was in Iowa.”
Eddie Bauer further argued that VCU’s negligence claims are barred by the economic-loss rule, which precludes recovery when the plaintiff has suffered only economic loss, as is the case here.