LifeLabs class-action lawsuit payout coming for over 900,000 Canadians

Canadians affected by the massive 2019 cyberattack on LifeLabs are finally getting their money following a class-action lawsuit.

The 901,544 claimants across the country will receive $7.86.

KPMG, acting on behalf of the plaintiffs, says the payout amount is low because so many people filed claims. The initial payout was expected to be up to $150.

LifeLabs settled the suit for just under $10 million last fall. The original statement of claim filed five years ago accused the medical testing company of negligence, breach of contract, and violating their customers’ confidence as well as privacy and consumer protection laws.

The plaintiffs allege LifeLabs “failed to implement adequate measures and controls to detect and respond swiftly to threats and risks to the Personal Information and health records of the class members,” in violation of the company’s own privacy policy.

LifeLabs had previously said the data hack affected up to 15 million customers, almost all of them in Ontario and British Columbia. The compromised database included health card numbers, names, email addresses, logins, passwords, and dates of birth, but it was unclear how many files were accessed.

The lab results of 85,000 customers in Ontario were also obtained by the hackers, the company said.

In 2019, LifeLabs chief executive Charles Brown apologized for the breach, which led the company to pay a ransom to retrieve the data.