A professional association is seeking damages from its internet service provider after an outage allegedly disrupted online services and resulted in substantial financial losses. The Society for Human Resource Management filed a complaint on April 3, 2026, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., alleging breach of contract related to an internet service failure that occurred in February 2025.
According to the complaint, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), described as a nonprofit professional association with over 340,000 members worldwide, relies heavily on online platforms to deliver education, research, and advocacy programs. SHRM reports that it first engaged Zayo Group Holdings as its internet service provider in September 2013 through a Master Service Agreement and subsequent service orders. After terminating the original agreement in May 2018, SHRM entered into a new order form with Zayo on May 25, 2022. Under this arrangement, Zayo agreed to provide standard 10-gigabit internet service for $1,500 per month.
The dispute centers on an incident beginning at 10:47 a.m. on February 21, 2025, when SHRM alleges that Zayo experienced an internet service outage affecting the Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland area. The outage lasted until February 22, 2025. According to SHRM’s filing, Zayo attributed the disruption to a fire in an underground vault located on premises allegedly owned or controlled by Zayo. SHRM claims that this event prevented its members and staff from accessing critical network resources during the period of disruption.
The complaint states: “Asaresult of Defendant’s internet service provider outage, SHRM’s 340,000-plus members nationwide, as well as its own staff, were unable to access critical network resources, resulting in significant loss of profit and revenue that SHRM reasonably expected to earn from the sale of its online resources.”
SHRM asserts that it fulfilled all obligations under the contract by paying required monthly fees but alleges that Zayo failed to provide continuous internet service as promised under the terms of their agreement. The organization claims it incurred at least $385,000 in lost profit and revenue due to the outage and states that efforts to seek reimbursement from Zayo have been unsuccessful.
In its legal arguments, SHRM references provisions from both past and current agreements with Zayo governing termination rights and contractual obligations. The complaint highlights language from both parties’ contracts specifying how assignments or terminations should be handled and what constitutes binding effect between them.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages “in an amount sufficient to place Plaintiff in the position it would have occupied (and, in any event, at least $385,000) had Defendant performed its contractual obligations.” In addition to compensatory damages for lost profits and revenue during the period of interruption, SHRM also requests pre-judgment and post-judgment interest as well as attorneys’ fees and other costs associated with pursuing relief through the court.
The attorneys representing SHRM are Samantha L. Brooks (VSB No. 91928), Daniel P. Hart (to be admitted pro hac vice), and Mitchell A. Robinson (to be admitted pro hac vice) from Seyfarth Shaw LLP. The case is identified as Civil Action No. 1:26-cv-00914.
