Key v. DSW

Citation: Key v. DSW, Inc., 454 F. Supp. 2d 684 (S.D. Ohio 2006).

Factual Background
The plaintiff filed a class action suit against DSW for negligence, breach of contract, conversion and breach of fiduciary duty due to a data security breach that DSW had suffered. She claimed that as a result of DSW’s failure to secure the personal financial information of its customers (including the plaintiff), “unauthorized persons obtained access to and acquired the information of approximately 96,000 customers.” She alleged that as a consequence of DSW’s actions she and the class members were subjected to “a substantially increased risk of identity theft, and have incurred the cost and inconvenience of, among other things, canceling credit cards, closing checking accounts, ordering new checks, obtaining credit reports and purchasing identity and/or credit monitoring.”

District Court Decision
The court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the plaintiff lacked standing to sue since she had identified no actual injury suffered as a result of DSW’s conduct.