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Save Mart sued over data worries
| Thursday, Jan 4 2007 7:35 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jan 4 2007 7:47 PM
A class-action lawsuit filed against Save Mart Supermarkets accuses the company of failing to protect credit card customers from potential identity theft.
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Modesto-based Save Mart is accused of presenting credit card customers with forms that included a line for telephone numbers, a violation of state law.
Sacramento law firm Lindsay & Stonebarger, which brought the suit, estimates as many as 300,000 customers may have had their personal information compromised during the yearlong period, between 2003 and 2004, covered in the suit.
"A lot of people were put at significant risk, unnecessarily and illegally," said James Lindsay, a principal in Lindsay & Stonebarger and the firm's lead attorney in the case. "There have been clear violations of law in this case."
Save Mart has two supermarkets in Bakersfield and operates five additional stores in Bakersfield under its FoodMaxx brand name. Save Mart and FoodMaxx have a total of 10 stores in Kern County, for an 18 percent share of the market, according to ACNielsen research.
Steve Boutin, an attorney for Sacramento-based law firm Boutin Dentino Gibson Di Giusto & Hodell, which is representing Save Mart, acknowledged that "there was a line (for a phone number) on some forms in some stores at some times."
But Boutin said Save Mart was not aware the form violated state law and the forms in question were pulled from stores shortly after the lawsuit was filed in July 2004.
"Save Mart has never intentionally violated any statute, including the one in this case," Boutin said, adding that the statute allows for unintentional mistakes. At one time, he said, it was legal to give customers a form with a line for a telephone number.
The lawsuit was certified as both a class-action and subclass-action suit by a judge late last month. The class action covers those who were given the form but did not enter their phone number, while the subclass consists of those who provided their phone number.
Boutin said no customers have come forward alleging that they were victims of identity theft as a result of the forms.
"We would not be fighting this thing for 21/2 years if we thought it had merit," he said.
No trial date has been set yet for the case.
Lindsay said the pre-printed form contained every piece of information an identity thief would want: full credit card numbers, account type and expiration date -- all of which may be collected legally. The forms, he said, were stored in a warehouse in Merced where numerous employees had access to the information.
"I don't necessarily think it was malicious," Lindsay said. "But it's clear to me that Save Mart knew it was improper to do this and did it anyway. It certainly was reckless."