Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, a restaurant chain based in Dallas, has settled a class-action suit by agreeing to pay $2.35 million to people impacted by a data security breach. In the breach, hackers were able to access customer’s payment card information.
The breach took place between April 2019 and late October 2020. Attorneys say the restaurant’s customers who paid with credit and debit cards during that time period are eligible to receive money and credit monitoring.
Affected consumers can submit a claim here. The deadline is April 23, 2023.
Conservice
Conservice, a utility management company, has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a class-action suit filed by a Maryland consumer. The suit charges, among other things, that the company collected debts from Maryland consumers without having a proper license.
Even though it isn’t a debt collection firm, Conservice provides that service for the utilities serving multi-family communities and other residential and commercial properties.
Under the terms of the settlement, class members can receive an equal share of the net settlement fund. Maryland residents can file a claim here.
Apple
The clock is ticking for affected Apple MacBook customers to file a claim for part of a $50 million settlement. The class-action suit, filed last year, claims that MacBook laptop computers sold between 2015 and 2019 were equipped with defective butterfly keyboards. It followed an initial suit filed in 2018.
The suit claims the defect resulted in "characters repeating unexpectedly; letters or characters not appearing; and/or the keys feeling "sticky" or not responding in a consistent manner."
Eligible class members will receive up to $395 but court documents say the payout will be awarded based on a tier system. More information is available on the MacBook settlement website.
A record year
It turns out that 2022 was a record year for class-action lawsuits and consumers who received compensation. The legal publication Duane Morris Class Action Review analyzed 635 class action judgments last year. It found the total value of the judgments was more than $63 billion.
One reason for the record amount is the settlements are getting larger. In the last year, there were 15 class action cases that produced $1 billion or more in settlements.