Court documents reveal the utility company and plaintiff reached a settlement, voluntarily dismissing the case.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A class-action lawsuit launched against Duke Energy over a 2024 data breach has been settled.
Federal filings in the Western District of North Carolina revealed that the utility company and Matthew Saunders, who launched the class action, settled out of court and jointly agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning Saunders cannot refile the same claims. Details about the settlement were not outlined in the court documents.
The original suit, filed in December 2024, claimed the data breach caused harm to Saunders and others who signed onto the suit by compromising personal information, such as names, Social Security numbers, and birth dates. Saunders and others sought damages and injunctive relief to prevent future breaches.
Saunders specifically sued Duke Energy Carolinas, which is headquartered in Charlotte.
Recent data breaches in North Carolina have involved the theft of student and teacher data stored by PowerSchool. The December 2024 breach exposed the information of 62.4 million people across the country, including about 4 million students and teachers in the Tar Heel State. PowerSchool is used by public schools across all 100 counties in the state. Compromised information included Social Security numbers, addresses, names of minors, as well as medical and disciplinary records.
In 2024, the state Department of Justice received 2,258 breach reports from businesses, hospitals, government agencies, and other organizations. These security incidents affected approximately 6.7 million North Carolina residents.
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