Canadian users can receive up to $375 from a class-action lawsuit against Yahoo! Inc. and Yahoo! Canada Co.
The lawsuit comes in relation to multiple data breaches between 2013 and 2016 due to inadequate data security measures in place to protect the personal information of its users.
Yahoo’s lead counsel Pomerantz and Glancy Prongay & Murray says on Sept. 22, 2016, Yahoo disclosed that hackers had stolen information in late 2014 from more than 500 million accounts.
The first breach took place in 2013 and Yahoo gave notice on Dec 14, 2016. The second one took place in 2014 and the notice was issued on Sept. 22, 2016. The third breach took place in 2015 and 2016 and the notice was issued in Feb, 2017.
“The Settlement has been approved by the Ontario Superior Court and the claims period has now begun. The defendants Yahoo! Inc. and Yahoo! Canada Co. (collectively, “Yahoo” or the “Defendants”) deny that they have violated any laws and deny that they have engaged in any wrongdoing,” the notice said.
As a result, Canadian residents are eligible to submit a claim to receive some extra cash. To be eligible, you must be a Canadian resident who had a Yahoo account from Jan. 1, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2016.
There are two types of claims Canadians can apply for:
Category A claims are for cash reimbursements for documented out-of-pocket costs that users
incurred within four months of receiving any of the three notices. Users can also claim a maximum of five hours of time spent “mitigating the impact of each of the three data breaches (up to a combined total of 15 hours).” You will be able to receive $25 an hour to a maximum of $375.
Additionally, users who paid Yahoo for advertisement-free or premium email services and if users paid for Yahoo or Aabaco Small Business services between Aug. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2016, they can claim 25 per cent of the cost of those services.
To submit a claim in Category A, users must submit an attestation that the costs were incurred due to one of the data breaches, documentation of the costs or expenditures, your Yahoo email address, and documentation of the fees paid for the Yahoo services.
Under Category B, users can claim up to five hours of wasted time and inconvenience responding to any of the three data breaches. Users can receive $24 per hour up to a total of $375 or $125 for each data breach.
To submit a claim, users must complete a wasted time claim form with their Yahoo email address.
Users must submit their claim by Dec 27, 2024. Claims can be submitted online here or users can request a paper claim form to be mailed to them by calling 1-866-808-8075 and returning it to the address on the form.
