Thousands of Sony Pictures employees suffered in the recent hack, but now it turns out that they won’t gain much from their class action lawsuit, particularly after the lawyers are paid.
Sony has proposed a settlement, under which it will pay between $5.5m and $8m. This amounts to about $1,050 for each exposed class member and maximum of $10,000 to employees who had their identity stolen for sure.
This Sony Pictures hack was one of the largest in corporate history and forced Sony Pictures chairman Amy Pascal to resign after she was criticized over the content of her emails. But this particular story was only one of dozens after the hacking attack. The hackers also revealed information about the amount Jennifer Lawrence was paid for her Oscar-nominated work in American Hustle, and it turned out that it was just a fraction of what her male costars earned.
This means that if so many people apply for relief, the exposed class members won’t get anything at all, because all money will be paid to those who actually suffered. If few enough apply, the claims can be increased up to $2,000. At the same time, the fund of cash to be paid to people whose personal data has been provably used to defraud them isn’t limited and could increase the total payout to exposed employees to $4.5 million.
At the same time, plaintiffs in two other cases against Sony will have to agree to dismissal for the deal to go through. Moreover, the settlement states that the company won’t have to admit that it could have better secured its employees’ personal information. Sony Pictures will also provide 2 years of credit protection services for the affected customers of the PlayStation Network.
