“Dining out tonight”: Canadians laugh as LifeLabs sends out meagre settlement payments

If you were impacted by the 2019 LifeLabs cyberattack and submitted a claim in the subsequent class action, you should check your bank account.

Hackers stole the information of around 8.6 million people in the cyberattack on LifeLabs’ database of customers’ health information.

The company settled a class action lawsuit for $9.8 million and said eligible claimants could receive $50 to $150 if they filed claims by April 6, 2024.

All Canadians who were LifeLabs customers on or before December 17, 2019, and were living in Canada as of October 23, were considered eligible unless they were an officer, director, or executive level employee of LifeLabs

Over a month after the deadline closed, Canadians are getting paid, but the amount is nowhere near the initial $50 minimum.

“Given the large number of valid claims received (901,544), all class members who made valid claims will receive an e-Transfer of $7.86 or a cheque of $5.86 (which includes the deduction of a $2 cheque processing fee),” reads the settlement page. “The amounts have been calculated in accordance with the Court-approved terms of distribution.”

It looks like $7.1 million was used to pay class members; therefore, it’s likely that the remaining $2.7 million was spent on legal fees and other administrative expenses.

Canadians are upset and wondering why the payment amount is so low even though 8.6 million people were affected and considered from the get-go, and the claims make up only a fraction of that number.

“What a joke! No offence to the many good lawyers I know and have known, but I bet they were paid just a bit more than that,” one payout recipient wrote on X.

People are getting pretty sarcastic about the amount.

“I got my $7.86, which isn’t even enough to buy a ‘LifeLabs exposed my personal information, and all I got was this lousy $7.86’ T-shirt,” said BC-based lawyer Jen Stewart on X.

“The big question is, where do I spend $7.86? Decisions, decisions,” said another X user.

I just received my $7.86 e-transfer for the class action settlement against LifeLabs over all our data being hacked a few years ago. Glad to know the details of my identity are so highly valued,” Kim Goldberg quipped.

“Gosh. I’m dining out tonight,” wrote Vancouver resident Robert Ford.

Oh well, something is better than nothing.

If you chose Interac e-transfer as your mode of payment when submitting the claim, make sure your auto deposit is turned on or approve the payment ASAP via online banking.

According to the email sent to claimants, the e-transfer will expire 30 days after being issued and, therefore, cannot be deposited. Review the transfer in your banking app if your auto-deposit feature is turned off.

“Be also advised that the e-transfer will not be reissued,” the email warned.

Did you submit a claim? What are you planning to do with your $7.86 windfall? Let us know in the comments, or email us your thoughts at [email protected].

With files from Irish Mae Silvestre and Simran Singh

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