The Home Depot Inc. has been given until July to respond to allegations that its massive data breach was caused by the company failing in its obligation to comply with security standards and to protect its customers' personal information.

That was one of the results of the first court hearing in which dozens of class-action lawsuits filed against Home Depot over its data breach have been consolidated into one court battle in federal court in Atlanta. At the Jan. 16 hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrashestablished two separate tracks for the litigation, one for consumers and a second for financial institutions.

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