Ruling upheld dismissing litigation against grocery chain in breach

A federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling Wednesday dismissing litigation filed by financial institutions against St. Louis-based supermarket chain Schnuck Markets Inc. in connection with a 2012 and 2013 data breach.

The case involved the hacking of 2.4 million cards containing unencrypted data that were swiped at 79 Schnuck Markets from Dec. 1, 2012, to March 30, 2013.

A unanimous three-judge appeals court panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld a ruling by the U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois, that dismissed the case, in Community Bank of Trenton et al. vs. Schnuck Markets Inc.

“We agree with the district court that neither Illinois nor Missouri would recognize any of the plaintiff banks’ theories to supplement their contractual remedies for losses they suffered as a result of the Schnucks data breach,” the ruling said.

Last year, a federal appeals court upheld dismissal of litigation filed by most of the plaintiffs who sued the SuperValu Inc. grocery distributor in connection with 2014 data breaches, but reinstated the case of one plaintiff who provided evidence his credit card was misused.