Remember last year, when Sony’s PSN was breached taken down by hackers – resulting in the semi-public dissemination of up to 77 million user accounts – including sensitive user data like credit card info, addresses and other things you probably don’t want people to know? People were unhappy – and sued Sony as a result.
That case has now reached its conclusion – and US District Judge Anthony Battaglia has pretty much dismissed the charges – including negligence, restitution and unjust enrichment – siding with Sony. Furthermore, the company’s been found to not have broken Californian consumer protection laws “because none of the named plaintiffs subscribed to premium PSN services, and thus received the PSN services free of cost."
Sony’s also been cleared, because they…uh…didn’t hack themselves. "…plaintiffs freely admit, plaintiffs’ personal information was stolen as a result of a criminal intrusion of Sony’s Network. Plaintiffs do not allege that Sony was in any way involved with the Data Breach."
As for customers being deceived by Sony misrepresenting the quality of its security protocols? no such thing happened, says Battaglia, as the terms of use contained "clear admonitory language that Sony’s security was not ‘perfect,’" therefore "no reasonable consumer could have been deceived."
I think Sony really could have, and should have had better security. The company could also have at least notified consumers that hacks were taking place as soon as possible instead of sheepishly admitting to it far too late. Beyond that, I’d say the ruling’s petty fair.
sucks for those of you who were hoping to squeeze more from Sony than a few free games though.
Last Updated: October 24, 2012
