Supervalu Data Breach Lawsuit Dismissed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth District has dismissed a class action against Supervalu, which came from the grocer's 2014 data breach. Plaintiff David Holmes, of Belleville, Ill., said that he made purchases at a local Shop 'n Save store, and then noticed a fraudulent charge on his credit card and had to cancel it. 

The federal court found that Holmes didn't suffer sufficient harm.

“Holmes’s alleged injuries — the expenditure of time monitoring his account, the single fraudulent charge to his credit card and the effort expended replacing his card — do not constitute actual damage,” wrote Circuit Judge Jane Kelly. 

Holmes was one of a number of Supervalu customers who filed suits after the data breach, but all of the other cases had already been dismissed as having no standing. 

In 2018, United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) acquired Supervalu. Providence, R.I.-based UNFI delivers products to customer locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, ecommerce retailers and foodservice customers. Combined with Supervalu, UNFI is the largest publicly traded grocery distributor in the United States, and is No. 30 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.