A proposed $1.8 million settlement could end a federal lawsuit against Bloomington-based Afni for a data breach that affected more than 260,000 people, according to a recent court filing.
The class action lawsuit accused the customer relations firm of exposing people’s personal information after a June 2021 discovery of a breach of Afni’s computer system. People impacted by the breach were not notified of the problem until a year later, according to the complaint.
The settlement agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing or liability on Afni’s part.
Payouts under the agreement include a cash payment of $60, based on a proration of class members, and two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Class members may be eligible to receive reimbursements of up to $5,000 for losses related to the breach.
The proposed agreement submitted to U.S. District Court Judge James Shadid notes that “Afni has made improvements, and planned for future implementations, to improve its cybersecurity since the data incident to help mitigate the risk of similar data incidents.”
Costs related to the new measures will be paid from funds separate from the settlement fund.
Attorneys’ fees and court costs will be paid by Afni from settlement funds, under the proposal.
If approved, the agreement would resolve the claims filed in five lawsuits that were consolidated in October 2022 into one class action complaint. Afni was accused of violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
