As reported in news outlets, including Law360, Sony and its insurers have settled their data breach coverage litigation, two months after the New York appellate division heard oral argument.
Sony had sought coverage for numerous data breach class action lawsuits filed against it following the 2011 data breach into its PlayStation network. Its general liability policies provided personal and advertising injury coverage for oral or written publication, in any manner, of material that violates a person’s right to privacy. The trial court held that the insurers had no duty to defend because coverage applied only for violations of privacy committed by Sony, as the policyholder, and not by third parties who hacked into Sony’s network and stole personally identifiable information (“PII”).