A federal judicial panel has chosen the Northern District of Texas as the venue that will hear a consortium of lawsuits brought against AT&T by consumers over a recently-disclosed data breach.
The lawsuits were filed in various district courts across the country after AT&T affirmed the personal information of more than 70 million current and former subscribers was available on a shadowy portion of the Internet referred to as the “dark web.”
The information apparently originated from a database used by AT&T back in 2019. It wasn’t clear when AT&T was made aware of the breach, but it disclosed the incident to customers in a notice sent in late March.
Around 65 million former AT&T subscribers were impacted by the breach, AT&T said. Another 7.9 million current customers are also affected.
More than two dozen consumer lawsuits followed, with common complaints that blamed AT&T for lackluster security practices regarding the collection and storage of customer information that opened the door for hackers to steal, and later leak, the data.
Last week, a federal panel tasked with weighing in on multidistrict matters said the lawsuits would be consolidated into a single case, which will be heard in the Northern District of Texas. The venue was chosen because AT&T’s headquarters are based in Dallas, which falls within that court’s jurisdiction. Fierce Network was the first to report on the action.
AT&T has offered credit monitoring to current and former customers who were impacted by the breach. The lawsuits, now consolidated into a single class-action case, could also open the door for financial remuneration if AT&T is found liable or the case is settled.
