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Over the past year, there have been a growing number of lawsuits, including class actions, filed against website operators in various states — including California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania — for violations of state wiretapping laws or the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA).

At a high level, these wiretapping lawsuits claim that the website intercepts website user and visitor information via session replay technology and other tracking technology in violation of certain state wiretapping laws. The states in which…

Continue Reading Increasing Litigation Related to Website Technology and Data Sharing

Did you know that there was a class-action lawsuit after Super Bowl XLV?  The game was played at Cowboys Stadium (now known as AT&T Stadium) in Dallas, Texas, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers. The litigation arose out of a temporary-seating debacle: the full complement of temporary seats was not installed in time, resulting in some ticketholders being left without seats and others being relocated. There was also another group of ticketholders who complained about a restricted view from their seats even though they did not receive the lower, restricted-view ticket price. On the field, the Packers defeated the Steelers 31-25. In the courtroom, the plaintiffs’ bid for class certification suffered the same fate as the Steelers. A look at the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in Ibe v. Jones, 836 F.3d 516 (5th Cir. 2016), provides some valuable insights.…

Continue Reading Super Bowl Class Action

The Eighth Circuit’s recent decision in Schumacher v. SC Data Center, Inc. provides guidance on when alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act do not constitute a concrete injury sufficient to confer standing under the Supreme Court’s TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez decision. Given class-action plaintiffs’ fondness for claims seeking statutory damages, the potential ramifications of TransUnion — which was issued last summer and cast further doubt on whether plaintiffs have standing to recover statutory damages for technical violations of the FCRA and other statutes — have been a hot topic among the class-action bar.  In fact, an entire panel discussion at this year’s ABA National Institute on Class Actions was devoted to TransUnion.

TAKEAWAY: While the full impact of TransUnion remains to be seen, Schumacher shows that plaintiffs may not have standing to pursue violations of the FCRA’s requirements that employers provide information to prospective employees.…

Continue Reading Plaintiffs’ Standing to Assert FCRA Violations Dealt Another Blow