A federal judge in Texas preliminarily approved a $2.35 million settlement against Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc. This decision came after lengthy negotiations to settle this class action lawsuit between counsel for Plaintiffs (including the settlement class) and counsel for Defendant, Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc. This lawsuit stemmed out of a data breach reported in 2020 that occurred in over 100 Dickey’s BBQ restaurants.
What Happened:
Payment card information from customers of the restaurant chain were stolen by cyber criminals. Cyber criminals then attempted to sell consumers’ Private Information (such as credit card numbers) on the dark web from May 2019 to September 2020 before being discovered. A majority of the stolen Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) of consumers came from California and Arizona. 
Settlement Details:
Some details of the settlement include that class members in the state of California are eligible to claim $100, and Class members outside of California may claim $50 as a result of the breach. The restaurant chain ignored obvious warnings of data breaches of this kind in the retail and restaurant industry. This in turn made them vulnerable to the attack. As a result, Dickey’s will have to incorporate changes to its’ computer systems to prevent a future cyberattack of this kind. Had Dickey’s systems previously been adequate for protection and updated properly, the data breach could have been avoided. D
ickey’s will have to take appropriate measures to ensure that their systems are secure. These changes will cost the company around $875,000 to ensure the safety of consumers’ Private Information.
