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Tag Archives: class action

First Reported Shine the Light Suit Dismissed for Failure to State Cognizable Injury

By Andrew Hoffman on Posted in Motion to Dismiss, Privacy and Security Litigation

Last week, a plaintiff’s putative class action alleging a violation of California’s Shine the Light law, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83, was dismissed without prejudice. See Boorstein v. Men’s Journal LLC, No. 12-cv-00771-DSF-E, 2012 WL 2152815 (C.D. Cal. June 14, 2012). The suit, one of several other similar pending suits, is the first reported decision applying the Shine the Light Law.

Class Certification Ruling Suggests that a Plaintiff’s Membership in a Retailer’s Pre-Existing Rewards Program May Not Excuse a Retailer’s Request for Personal Information at the Register

By Andrew Hoffman on Posted in Class Certification, Lawsuit, PII, Privacy and Security Litigation

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California recently granted class certification in a Song-Beverly Credit Card Act case, refusing to exclude from the class individuals who joined the retailer’s rewards program months after the alleged Song-Beverly violation. See Yeoman v. IKEA U.S. West, Inc., No. 11CV701, 2012 WL 1598051 (S.D. Cal. May 4, 2012). The Court’s discussion suggests that a retailer may also face Song-Beverly liability even if it requests personal information at the register that it already holds by virtue of the customer’s membership in its rewards program.

California Federal Court Dismisses Bulk of Privacy Suit Against Facebook

By InfoLawGroup LLP on Posted in Privacy and Security Litigation

In late 2010, David Gould and Mike Robertson filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook for disclosing users’ personal information to third-party advertisers without users’ consent. The Plaintiffs asserted eight causes of action against Facebook, including violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”) and California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”). Expressing skepticism about the actual… Continue Reading

California Court Rejects Class Action Based on Data Collection for PII Aggregation Purposes

By Tanya Forsheit on Posted in PII, Privacy and Security Litigation

On Friday, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, certified for publication its October 8 opinion in Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma, the most recent in a string of decisions regarding California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971, California Civil Code § 1747.08. On first glance, Pineda appears uneventful. The Court merely reiterated its December 2008 holding in Party City v. Superior Court, 169 Cal.App.4th 497 (2008), that zip codes are not personal identification information for purposes of the Act, right? Not so fast. In fact, the Pineda court added a couple of new wrinkles that are worth a second look. First, the court reaffirmed its Party City holding even though Pineda specifically alleged that Williams-Sonoma collected the zip code for the purpose of using it and the customer’s name to obtain even MORE personal identification information, the customer’s address, through the use of a “reverse search” database. Second, the court held that a retailer’s use of a legally obtained zip code to acquire, view, print, distribute or use an address that is otherwise publicly available does not amount to an offensive intrusion of a consumer’s privacy under California law.