that every member of its rewards program agreed to resolve disputes against it only ‘ individually [and] without any class action’ pursuant to the company ’ s rewards program terms & conditions. Id. at 685. The Fourth Circuit reasoned that the district court erred because it could not certify a class without first addressing whether the putative class members were bound by terms and conditions that included a waiver of class action rights, thus barring the entirety of the class action against Marriott. The Fourth Circuit vacated the lower court ’ s certification order and remanded the case back to the district court to address the enforceability of the class action waiver and plaintiffs’ contention that Marriott had waived the defense. On remand In Re Marriott International Customer Data Security Breach Litigation , 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212728 (D. Md. Nov. 29, 2024), the court re-examined its previous class certification order involving eight classes of putative plaintiffs, encompassing millions of class members spanning six states, who were purportedly impacted by the breach. After remand, the court examined the class action waiver provision in the Terms & Conditions of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program. The provision stated that disputes would be handled individually without any class action, governed by New York law, and exclusive to New York courts. The court observed that the provision's content and placement in the agreement were significant. The court also found that Marriott had waived the class action waiver provision by its actions during the litigation, including consolidating the cases into the MDL and moving to change venue. The court questioned whether the provision conflicted with Rule 23 and concluded as a matter of federal law that parties' waivers could not override the court's discretion to certify a class or consolidate proceedings. For these reasons, the court ruled that Marriott had waived the class action waiver provision and re-certified the classes.
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Duane Morris Data Breach Class Action Review – 2024
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