MGM sues the US Federal Trade Commission following data hack

The operator is suing to block the commission’s probe into data security following MGM’s data hack last year.

MGM Resorts is suing the US Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to block a probe into the impact of the data hack that heavily impacted the operator last year. 

The probe into MGM’s data security following the hack resulted in a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Washington. In the lawsuit, MGM argues that, due to not being a financial institution, it was not required to follow through with the commission’s demands for information regarding its consumer financial data. Such a demand, therefore, went against its fifth-amendment rights.  

The operator also pointed to the US Federal Trade Commission’s Commissioner, Lina Khan, stating that the Chair was a guest at one of MGM’s Vegas properties during the hack and was inconvenienced when ‘with no IT systems available to check Chair Khan into the hotel, an MGM employee asked her to write her credit card information on paper,’ said the report.  

Khan went on to ask the worker how MGM was managing the issue of data security, a significant question when asking the Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission to write down their banking information on paper. MGM went on to state later in the lawsuit that ‘Chair Khan’s personal involvement in the facts under investigation create an appearance of a conflict of interest and upon information and belief, an actual conflict of interest.’ 

Rounding out the lawsuit, MGM presented four counts against the commission. These were:  

• Absence of mechanism for recusal or disqualification violates the Fifth Amendment 
• Failure to recuse or disqualify violated MGM’s Fifth Amendment rights 
• FTC’s deadline violated the Fifth Amendment 
• Reliance on facially inapplicable rules iolated the Fifth Amendment 

MGM asked the court to stop Khan and the commission from enforcing the data probe, to declare such an act unconstitutional, and to declare MGM as a body not subject to the Safeguards Rule and Red Flags Rule, among other requests. 

This latest legal case follows several others by notable operators, including the ongoing feud between Fontainebleau and Wynn after the latter accused the former of poaching executives, which Wynn requested a Clark County District Court judge to issue last week.  

Beth Turner

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