This week’s Update features two stories detailing fintech’s growing influence on online travel. Regular readers of our Update know that we’ve featured a number of fintech and payment related stories this past year, with...more
For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving this week, happy holidays. This week’s Update features a wide variety of stories, including PhocusWire’s annual list of the 25 hot travel startups. Enjoy....more
A number of claims have been made against companies’ directors and officers alleging a breach of fiduciary duty for failing to adequately oversee data security programs. To date, the defendants’ oversight of the programs and...more
The news regularly reports on data breaches and cybersecurity. While we read about the biggest breaches – Home Depot, Target, Anthem, JP Morgan, Wyndham – probably every business has been hacked and will be hacked again. ...more
In a surprising development, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation settled a long running dispute last week with the Federal Trade Commission that arose from three data breaches Wyndham suffered between 2008-2010. After an...more
On December 9, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Wyndham Worldwide Corp., Wyndham Hotel Group LLC, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, LLC, and Wyndham Hotel Management, Inc. (“Wyndham”) had agreed to settle FTC...more
The Third Circuit interlocutory decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation was widely reported as a big win for the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). But on closer examination, it was a split...more
What makes data privacy law interesting for academics, challenging for lawyers, and frustrating for businesses its shape-shifting structure in the face of rapidly changing technology. The recent change in the invalidation of...more
In the span of two days, mobile device users learned of two data breaches that could compromise their personal data. In one, Experian (a credit reporting agency) reported that it was hacked, potentially putting 15 million...more
In a closely-watched cybersecurity case, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (No. 14-3514) that the Federal Trade Commission...more
In a much anticipated decision, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce actions against companies who have been subject to a data breach. The FTC sued...more
On August 24, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedential opinion in the matter of Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, et al., No. 14-3514 (3d. Cir., Aug. 24,...more
Companies can be fined by the federal government for failing to properly safeguard consumer data, according to a decision this week by Pennsylvania's federal appellate court....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit this week affirmed the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) to enforce against companies that lack reasonable cybersecurity practices. Prior to...more
Since at least 2005, the Federal Trade Commission has asserted that it may regulate lax data security practices as an “unfair” business practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act. The Wyndham hotel chain was the first to...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit released its much-anticipated ruling in Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp. on August 24, 2015, unanimously upholding the FTC’s authority to regulate companies’...more
Shortly after the massive 2013 Target data breach, shareholders filed four derivative lawsuits against the company’s directors and some of its officers (13 CARE 624, 3/20/15). The shareholders alleged that the defendants had...more
We (and others) often comment on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) increased enforcement activity of data security issues, particularly with the Wyndham and LabMD cases, and the fact that it is enforcing data security...more
authoOn March 3, the Third Circuit heard oral argument in FTC v. Wyndham, a case that is being closely followed by the privacy and data security community. Wyndham is challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”)...more
Historically, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been the most active federal regulator of data privacy and security. Since its creation, it has pursued hundreds of cases against companies that violated privacy statutes...more
On March 3, 2015, a judicial panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral arguments in a challenge brought by Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (“Wyndham”) against the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”)...more
In 2012, the FTC sued Wyndham and three of its subsidiaries after hackers broke into Wyndham’s corporate computer system as well as systems at several of its individual hotels from 2008 to early 2010, resulting in exposure of...more
On October 20, 2014, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation won dismissal of a shareholder derivative suit seeking damages arising out of three data breaches that occurred between 2008 and 2010. Dennis Palkon, et al. v. Stephen P....more