Recruiting platform faces lawsuits

Mercor, a recruiting platform that supplies contractors to artificial intelligence companies, is facing a cluster of class-action lawsuits after a March data breach. (hrdive.com) HR Dive reported that at least four cases appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this month, all tied to complaints filed on April 1. One of the cases, *Esson v. Mercor.io Corporation*, appears on the court docket as case No. 3:26-cv-02839. (hrdive.com) (justia.com) The plaintiffs are independent contractors who used Mercor to get work training artificial intelligence models and chatbots, according to HR Dive. The complaints allege negligence, unjust enrichment, breach of implied contract, breach of privacy, and violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law. (hrdive.com) Mercor told TechCrunch on March 31 that it was “one of thousands of companies” affected by a supply-chain attack involving LiteLLM, an open-source tool that connects apps to multiple artificial intelligence models. In plain terms, a supply-chain attack hits a vendor or shared software component first, then spreads into customers’ systems through routine updates or integrations. (techcrunch.com) That matters here because Mercor sits between job candidates, contractors, and major artificial intelligence labs, collecting resumes, interview data, payment details, and other records needed to match people to projects. Mercor’s own privacy policy says it uses personal information to match workers with employers, evaluate interviews with artificial intelligence and third-party services, communicate with users, and secure the platform. (mercor.com 1) (mercor.com 2) The lawsuits say the breach exposed sensitive personally identifiable information, though HR Dive said the exact number of affected people remains unclear. Plaintiffs in the cases told the court the proposed class includes more than 100 affected employees and customers. (hrdive.com) The business fallout started quickly. Wired reported that Meta paused work with Mercor while it investigated the incident, and TechCrunch reported that Mercor had raised a $350 million Series C in October 2025 at a $10 billion valuation. (wired.com) (techcrunch.com) The case lands as courts are already testing how much responsibility hiring-technology vendors carry when their systems affect workers and applicants. In a separate case last year, a federal judge allowed a collective-action discrimination suit against Workday over its applicant-recommendation tools to move forward. (hrdive.com) Mercor did not immediately respond to HR Dive’s request for comment. The plaintiffs are asking the court for class certification, injunctive relief, and reimbursement for costs tied to fraud monitoring, identity-theft prevention, and recovery. (hrdive.com)