AMC Theatres Hopes to Keep MOVEit Cyberattack Cases Out of Boston

A theater chain is asking a judge to rule on the venue for MOVEit-related data breach lawsuits that may involve questions about arbitration.

American Multi-Cinema wants U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs to keep one case filed against it, Newman v. American Multi-Cinema, and a similar case, Cooper v. American Multi-Cinema, out of a multidistrict litigation process in Boston that’s managing pretrial proceedings for most federal MOVEit lawsuits, including several against major financial services firms like Genworth and TIAA.

AMC has been trying to shift the cases into arbitration.

If Burroughs gets jurisdiction over the cases, she would have to “analyze AMC’s arbitration provision based on Kansas state law,” and resolving AMC’s motion to compel arbitration would probably take longer, AMC said in a motion filed in late December.

What it means: How Burroughs responds to the AMC motion will show how a federal court handles a collision between arbitration agreements, data breach suits, and the federal multidistrict litigation framework.

By now, most financial professionals and most clients have been affected by data breaches, and most are involved in activities covered by agreements or terms of service that include arbitration provisions. That means that, ultimately, how the AMC motion is handled could affect other financial services litigation involving data breach victims who may be subject to arbitration agreements.

The MOVEit attack: The MOVEit multidistrict litigation is the result of a big cyberattack that hit in May.

Hackers got into computers used to operate the MOVEit data transfer service.

The attack may have affected about 26 million U.S. life, pension and annuity client accounts.