The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit—one of the highest federal courts below the Supreme Court—recently affirmed a decision in Silverpop Systems, Inc. v. Leading Market Technologies, Inc. finding that all damages flowing from a vendor’s data breach were barred by a standard provision in IT service contracts, disclaiming all liability for consequential damages.

The court’s analysis could apply to almost any breach of data provided to a vendor under an IT service contract, and highlights the need to carefully scrutinize a proposed waiver of consequential damages when confidential or sensitive data is involved in the contract.