Technology

Delivering a significant win for businesses hit with website wiretapping lawsuits, a California federal judge granted a defendant’s motion for summary judgment under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) in Gutierrez v. Converse Inc., 2024 WL 3511648 (C.D. Cal. Jul. 12, 2024). 

The website tool at issue in this case, like hundreds of other cases, was a third-party-enabled chat feature that businesses install on their websites to connect customers with live customer service agents.  Plaintiff Nora Gutierrez alleged that she visited Defendant Converse’s website with this chat feature installed, and that the chat provider stored her chat communications with Converse’s customer service agents on its servers.  Gutierrez characterized this practice as “wiretapping” and she asserted a claim against Converse for aiding and abetting the alleged wiretapping in violation of the first and second clause of CIPA section 631(a).Continue Reading California Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment to Defendant in CIPA Website Wiretapping Case

On August 2, 2024, Illinois’ governor signed into law S.B. 2979, a significant amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The bill states that an entity that, in more than one instance, obtains the same biometric identifier or biometric information from the same person using the same method of collection, in violation of BIPA’s notice and consent requirement has committed a single violation. As a result, each aggrieved person is entitled to, at most, one recovery for a single collective violation.Continue Reading Illinois Enacts BIPA Amendment Limiting Violation Accrual

Hundreds of lawsuits have accused businesses of using website analytics tools to “wiretap” their customers’ interactions with their website, but these lawsuits often overlook a basic pleading requirement of any wiretapping claim: the collection of a “communication.”  A California federal judge last week added teeth to this requirement, dismissing a wiretapping lawsuit filed against Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. (“Great Wolf”) because the plaintiff failed to plead what “communication” she had with the Great Wolf website in the first place.  See Augustine v. Great Wolf Resorts, Inc., 2024 WL 3450967 (S.D. Cal. July 18, 2024).Continue Reading California Federal Court Puts Teeth Behind “Communication” Element of Website Wiretapping Claims

Earlier this year, we covered the dismissal of a putative class action asserting Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) claims against the operators of a Texas Longhorns email newsletter. A judge in the Western District of Texas has now dismissed those claims, along with a newly asserted Wiretap Act claim, with prejudice. See Brown v. Learfield Commc’ns, LLC, 2024 WL 1477636 (W.D. Tex. June 27, 2024).  Continue Reading District Court Again Rejects VPPA, Wiretap Claims Against University Newsletter Service

In a putative class action in the District of Delaware against Match Group, Inc., a magistrate judge has recommended that a motion to dismiss be granted based on finding that alleged misrepresentations were non-actionable puffery, opinion, and/or forward-looking statements.  The opinion offers a useful analysis, with examples, of how these concepts are appropriately applied.

Match Group owns and operates several online dating services, including Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, and OkCupid. Plaintiffs, including a shareholder seeking to recover on behalf of all Match Group investors, brought claims under the Securities Exchange Act alleging that Match Group made material misrepresentations and omissions regarding a) the integration of Hyperconnect (a “social discovery and video technology” company acquired by Match Group); and b) the performance of two new Tinder product offerings, Explore (an interactive social discovery interface, seeking to match users based on similar interests) and Tinder Coins (an in-app currency).

The magistrate judge agreed with Match Group that the complaint should be dismissed because the statements in question were either accurate and non-contradictory, or non-actionable puffery, opinion, and/or forward-looking statements. See Bardaji v. Match Group Inc. et al., No. 1:23-cv-00245 (D. Del. June 27, 2024).Continue Reading District of Delaware Magistrate Finds Dating App Misrepresentation Claims Non-Actionable

A federal judge in the Northern District of California recently dismissed a class action complaint accusing Google of unlawfully wiretapping calls to Verizon’s customer service center through its customer service product, Cloud Contact Center AI.  See Ambriz v. Google, LLC, No. 3:23-cv-05437 (N.D. Cal. June 20, 2024).Continue Reading California Federal Court Dismisses Complaint Accusing Google of Wiretapping Customer Service Calls

Last week, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in NVIDIA Corp. v. E. Ohman J:or Fonder AB to address two important questions on the standard for pleading securities fraud claims under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“PSLRA”): (1) whether plaintiffs seeking to allege scienter under the PSLRA based on allegations about internal company documents must plead with particularity the contents of those documents, and (2) whether plaintiffs can satisfy the PSLRA’s falsity requirement by relying on an expert opinion to substitute for particularized allegations of fact.Continue Reading Supreme Court to Review Securities Pleading Standard

An Ohio federal district court recently dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a class action complaint asserting claims arising from a data breach experienced by defendant Associated Materials, LLC.  See Marlin v. Associated Materials, LLC, 2024 WL 2319115 (N.D. Ohio May 22, 2024).Continue Reading Ohio Federal Court Dismisses Data Breach Lawsuit for Lack of Article III Standing

We recently posted about a trend of plaintiffs trying to keep certain class actions, including wiretap cases, in California state court and highlighted potential avenues for removal to federal court. Another federal court has weighed in, declining to remand because the plaintiff did not establish that CAFA’s mandatory local controversy exception applied. Miramalek v. Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, 2024 WL 2479940 (N.D. Cal. May 23, 2024). This recent case offers another potential ground for opposing a motion to remand, though it also underscores the attendant risk of jurisdictional discovery.Continue Reading N.D. Cal. Court Declines Remand of California-Focused Wiretap Class Action

A federal judge in the Western District of Washington recently dismissed a class action complaint accusing Overlake Hospital Medical Center of unlawfully disclosing the health data of patients who accessed its websites to third parties.  See Nienaber v. Overlake Hosp. Med. Ctr., 2024 WL 2133709 (W.D. Wash. May 13, 2024).  Plaintiff Jacq Nienaber, an Overlake patient, alleged that the hospital shared her private data with Meta and other third parties through the use of the Meta Pixel and Meta’s Conversions Application Programming Interface on its public website and private patient portal. Continue Reading Washington Federal Court Dismisses Privacy Claims Involving Hospital Website