As aptly put by a Davis, Wright, Tremaine blog post, “[f]or those of us waiting to see how the CCPA’s statutory damage provision would impact the value of data breach class actions, the wait continues.”  Suits against Hanna Andersson and Salesforce.com were consolidated in the Northern District of California and then settled.  The blog continues:

A settlement averaging less than $2 per class member is likely not what Alastair Mactaggart envisioned when he first campaigned to put what ultimately became the CCPA on the ballot in 2018. Plaintiffs attempt to justify the size of the settlement fund by estimating a claims rate of 3 percent, but there were likely other avenues available to provide class members with relief. Indeed, the preliminary approval papers reveal that defendants have a contact email for every class member because each made an online purchase with Hanna Andersson.

The attorneys’ fees and costs recovery is also not likely what the plaintiffs’ bar imagined upon passage of the CCPA. While the anticipated recovery of $120,000 in fees is far from insubstantial given that the case never progressed beyond the pleading stage, counsel claims to have incurred more than twice that amount based on the time and costs invested in the case, which seems likely given that multiple firms were involved.

. . .

Ultimately, the CCPA claim did not seem to greatly impact the settlement in this case. Indeed, the Hanna Andersson settlement looks a lot like the settlements in other data breach class actions. To the extent this settlement provides guidance moving forward relating to the valuation of CCPA claims, that guidance favors the defendants. At least for now, the value of data breach cases has not increased.