E-FILED Monday, 28 June, 2021 07:40:10 PM Clerk, U.S
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1:19-cv-01330-MMM # 72 Page 1 of 52 E-FILED Monday, 28 June, 2021 07:40:10 PM Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS PEORIA DIVISION NOREEN PERDUE, ELIZABETH DAVIS-BERG, ) DUSTIN MURRAY, CHERYL ELLINGSON, ) ANGELA TRANG, GORDON GREWING, and ) MELISSA WARD individually and on behalf of all ) others similarly situated, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) CASE NO. 1:19-cv-01330-MMM-JEH ) v. ) ) HY-VEE, INC., ) ) Defendant. ) ) ) DECLARATION OF JEANNE C. FINEGAN, APR, CONCERNING IMPLEMENTATION OF CLASS NOTICE INTRODUCTION 1. I am Managing Director and Head of Kroll Notice Media Solutions (“Kroll Media”) an affiliate company of Kroll Settlement Administration (“Kroll”) f/k/a Heffler Claims Group LLC. This Declaration is based upon my personal knowledge as well as information provided to me by my associates and staff, including information reasonably relied upon in the fields of advertising media and communications. 2. Pursuant to the Order Preliminarily Approving the Settlement and Certifying the Settlement Class (“Order”), dated January 25, 2021, Kroll Settlement Administration (formerly Heffler Claims Group) was appointed as the Settlement Administrator to provide notification and claims administration services in this case (referred to herein as the “Settlement.”) Specifically, Kroll Media was engaged by the parties to this litigation to develop and implement a legal notice program as part of the parties’ class action settlement. H0105971. -1- 1:19-cv-01330-MMM # 72 Page 2 of 52 3. The purpose of this Declaration is to provide a report to the Court concerning the successful implementation of the notice program for this settlement. 4. The notice program employed best-in-class tools and technology to reach approximately 81% of targeted Class Members in the eight states with Hy-Vee store locations1, on average approximately 3.5 times, through online display, search and social impressions with cross-device targeting on desktop, mobile and tablet, a press release, a settlement website and a toll-free number. 5. At the direction of counsel for the Defendant Hy-Vee, Inc., 57 officials, which included the Attorney General of the United States and the Attorneys General of each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States Territories, were identified to receive the CAFA notice. 6. Kroll maintains a list of these state and federal officials with contact information for the purpose of providing CAFA notice. Prior to mailing, the names and addresses selected from Kroll’s list were verified. 7. On January 22, 2021, Kroll sent 57 CAFA Notice Packages (“Notice”). The Notice was mailed by first class certified mail to 57 officials, including the Attorneys General of each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States Territories. The CAFA Notice Service List (USPS Priority Mail and UPS) is included hereto as Exhibit A. 8. The materials sent to the Attorneys General included a cover letter, which provided notice of the proposed settlement of the above-captioned case. The cover letter is included hereto as Exhibit B. 9. The cover letter was accompanied by a CD, which included the following: . Complaint, First Amended Complaint, and Consolidated Second Amended Complaint; 1 Hy-Vee has store locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. H0105971. -2- 1:19-cv-01330-MMM # 72 Page 3 of 52 . Motion for Preliminary Approval of Class Settlement Agreement; . Forms of Notice of Class Action Settlement; . Class Action Settlement Agreement; . Proposed Final Order of Approval; and A List showing the estimated number of Class Members per state as well as a list of the specific locations and time frames affected during the Security Incident. NOTICE PROGRAM SUMMARY 10 The notice program for this settlement was designed to inform Class Members of the class action settlement between Plaintiffs and Defendant. Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, §IV paragraph 1.26, the Settlement Class is defined as: All persons residing in the United States who used a payment card to make a purchase at an affected Hy-Vee point-of-sale device during the Security Incident, which as described in the definition of Security Incident occurred during the time frames and at the locations set forth in Exhibit C to the Settlement Agreement. 11. Pursuant to the Court’s Order, the notice program included the following components: Direct e-mail or first-class U.S. mail notice to reasonably and readily identifiable Class Members; Online display banner advertising specifically targeted to reach Class Members; Keyword Search targeting Class Members; Social media through Facebook and Instagram; A press release across PR Newswire’s US1 Newslines; An informational website was established on which the notices and other important Court documents are posted; and A toll-free information line was established by which Class Members can call 24/7 for more information about the Settlement, including, but not limited to, requesting copies of the Long Form Notice. DIRECT NOTICE 12. On or around, January 13, 2021 Kroll was provided with the Class Data Lists from Hy-Vee. There were three separate data files provided. The first file contained 488,957 records and the data file’s key components were First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State H0105971. -3- 1:19-cv-01330-MMM # 72 Page 4 of 52 and Zip. The second file contained 9,769 records and the data file’s key components were First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Fuel Saver Number and last digits of cards. The third file contained 23,260 records and the data file’s key components were First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Fuel Saver Number and last 4 digits of cards. The third file was used for an email campaign. After analyzing and de-duping the first two files, Kroll determined that 493,202 records would be mailed. All records from the third file were unique resulting in 23,260 emails being attempted. 13. Email Notice: On or around, February 2, 2021, Kroll received Word versions of the Email Notice from counsel. In preparation for the email notices, Kroll worked with the Parties to finalize the language for the Notice. Kroll prepared and formatted drafts of the materials that counsel reviewed and approved. In addition, Kroll prepared a file that contained records for which an email address was provided in the Class List. Kroll prepared email samples for the Parties to review and approve. Upon approval of the proofs by Kroll and the Parties, Kroll initiated the email campaign as directed in the settlement documents. On February 22, 2021, Kroll initiated an email blast to 23,260 Class Members. 14. As part of the email campaign process, the email provider notifies each of the major ISPs that Kroll is about to begin a large email campaign. This greatly reduces the risk that the ISPs will incorrectly identify Kroll-originated emails as junk mail and intercept them or otherwise divert them from recipients’ inboxes. Our email service provider also reviews the proposed email subject line and body content for potential spam filter triggering words and phrases and provides recommendations for any trouble spots. When the email campaign began, Kroll tracked and monitored emails that bounced. Kroll attempted to re-send hard and/or soft bounced emails in an effort to deliver as many emails as possible. Kroll reported to the Parties the number of records that had a successful notice delivery, and a count for the records that delivery failed. Kroll updated its administration database with the appropriate status of the email campaign. H0105971. -4- 1:19-cv-01330-MMM # 72 Page 5 of 52 15. If the email notice was delivered successfully, no further action was taken with respect to the record. 16. If the email not was not successfully delivered, and if a physical address is provided for the record, Kroll sent a notice via mail as detailed below. 17. Mailed Notice: Kroll received physical addresses for individuals on the Class List. In preparation for the notice mailing, Kroll ran the addresses on the Class List through the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) National Change of Address (NCOA) database. The NCOA process provided updated addresses for Class Members who have submitted a change of address with the USPS in the last 48 months, and the process also standardized the addresses for mailing. Kroll then prepared a mail file of Class Members that were to receive the notice via First Class Mail. 18. Also, in preparation for the notice mailing, Kroll worked with the Parties to format the Postcard Notice for mailing. Kroll prepared and formatted drafts of the materials that counsel reviewed and approved. Postcard proofs were provided for the Parties and Kroll to review and approve. The approved Postcards Notices were sent via First Class mail to 493,202 Class Members as directed in the Court documents. 19. As of June 24, 2021, Kroll has received 5 Notices returned by the USPS with a forwarding address. Kroll has re-mailed 5 of the forwarded Notices to the updated addresses provided by the USPS. 20. As of June 24, 2021, Kroll has received 1,460 Notices returned by the USPS as undeliverable as addressed. Kroll has updated the records in the database to identify these as undeliverable. Kroll sent 1,406 records through a skip trace process with LexisNexis and obtained 1,078 updated addresses. As of June 24, 2021, Kroll has re-mailed Notices to the 1,406 addresses obtained through the skip-trace process. 54 undeliverable notices were not skip traced or remailed since they were received recently but Kroll will process these undeliverable notices accordingly. H0105971. -5- 1:19-cv-01330-MMM # 72 Page 6 of 52 21.