In April 2021, Osler represented GitHub Inc. in a proposed class proceeding concerning an alleged data breach involving the information of credit card applicants. The plaintiffs added GitHub Inc. after the plaintiffs' counsel won the carriage of the proposed class proceeding. GitHub responded with a jurisdiction motion, on the basis that, among other things, no tort was committed in Ontario because no personal information of class members was published on GitHub's site. The action was discontinued against GitHub Inc. prior to the certification motion.
GitHub Inc., subsidiary of Microsoft Canada, is a provider of Internet hosting for software development and version control using Git. With over 60 million users, it offers the distributed version control and source code management functionality of Git, plus its own features.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP advised GitHub with a team led by Deborah Glendenning and Lauren Tomasich, including Lauren Harper and Elie Farkas (Litigation).