Tokyo, Oct. 27 (Jiji Press)–A lawyer has announced a decision to file a lawsuit against the operators of the Times Car vehicle-sharing service for up to about 50,000 yen in damages per victim of customer data breaches that hit the service. The lawyer, Yuki Makino, said at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday that he plans to file the lawsuit with Tokyo District Court “by the end of this year,” adding that he will advance necessary procedures. Makino, who is calling on victims of the data breaches to lodge a group lawsuit against the operators, said that the number of people who registered with a dedicated website for the planned lawsuit, has topped 100,000. The lawsuit will target Times Mobility Co., the Times Car service operator, and its parent, Park 24 Co., as well as the presidents of the two Tokyo-based companies. Personal information of Times Car service members has been compromised due to unauthorized computer access. The planned lawsuit will demand 50,000 yen each for people who suffered breaches of images of their identity documents, such as driver’s licenses, and 30,000 yen for victims of breaches of other personal data. For those who have reported the data breaches to credit information agencies or filed for their driver’s licenses to be reissued, the amounts equivalent to the actual expenses will be added to the damages to be sought. A fee for participating in the collective lawsuit will be about 1,000 yen, according to the lawyer. Makino claimed that the companies breached their duties to ensure safety. He also pointed to the company presidents’ gross negligence, saying that they failed to fulfill their duties to establish and operate an information security system. Also citing customer complaints, such as those on loan applications using stolen driver’s license numbers, Makino said that a lot of core information for identity verification was breached and that the Times Car incident is therefore more serious than other recent personal data breach cases. Park24 has announced the breach of around 6.62 million sets of information, such as the names of Times Car service members and their addresses and phone numbers. The company also said it plans to pay 3,000 yen in consolation money for about 1.46 million cases for which image data, such as driver’s licenses, were accessed and traces of the data being externally transmitted were confirmed. Park24 refrained from commenting on the expected damages lawsuit while saying, “We will continue to respond sincerely to our customers.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
