Deadline to submit LifeLabs class-action claims is coming up. Who is eligible?

More than eight million Canadian users of LifeLabs services have until Saturday to submit a claim under a class-action settlement worth $9.8 million related to a massive cyberattack.

The April 6 deadline is for all eligible Canadian residents and LifeLabs customers whose personal information was compromised in the 2019 data breach.

Class-action members include any living Canadian residents who used LifeLabs services on or before December 17, 2019, were resided in Canada as of Oct. 25, 2023, and whose personal information is known to have been hacked as part of the 2019 cyberattack.

Officers, directors or executive-level employees of LifeLabs are not eligible for compensation under the class action.

People who submit a claim before the deadline will be paid between $50 and $150, LifeLabs estimated in a news release.

The class-action lawsuit was launched after LifeLabs, which provides medical testing services in Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, announced on Dec. 17, 2019, that its database had been hit by a criminal cyberattack.

The stolen information included health card numbers, names, email addresses, logins, passwords, dates of birth and medical lab results.

Approximately 8.6 million users had their personal information stolen and are part of the class action.

LifeLabs said it paid a ransom to the hackers, but did not disclose the amount. The company said the stolen data has not been identified on the dark web “or otherwise misused by anyone.”

The lawsuit alleged that LifeLabs was “negligent” in protecting customer data. LifeLabs denied the allegations.

In 2020, a joint provincial investigation by Ontario and B.C. privacy commissioners determined that LifeLabs failed to protect the personal health information of