The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether a state law barring merchants from collecting personal information from consumers in connection with credit card purchases applies to online retailers. The state high court granted the individual petitions of Ticketmaster LLC, Apple Inc. and dating site eHarmony Inc. All three are facing separate proposed class actions, filed by the same plaintiff's firm, alleging that they violated California's Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 (Civil Code § 1747 et. seq.). The lawsuits alleged that the companies collected addresses and phone numbers from consumers during online credit card transactions involving purchases that did not need to be shipped, and therefore, plaintiffs argue, did not require the collection of this information.

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