Do Gift Cards Keep on Giving How the Law Affects the Consumer, the Retailer and the State
On June 2, 2022, the Second Circuit issued a decision in Calcano, et al. v. Swarovski North America Ltd., et al., affirming dismissal of five consolidated cases brought by visually impaired plaintiffs who alleged various...more
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring equal access to places of public accommodation, has often been abused by plaintiffs and attorneys looking to turn any conceived minor violation of building standards...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Businesses get another win in a lawsuit demanding gift cards with Braille....more
A New York federal court has granted motions to dismiss in four separate cases alleging that the failure to offer gift cards in Braille violates the ADA. The rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory H. Woods (Southern...more
Last week, a Southern District of New York judge held that retailers cannot be sued under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) for not offering Braille gift cards. The Court’s thorough and well-reasoned...more
In handing down the first decisions of their kind, a federal district court in New York rejected two plaintiffs’ claims that retailers, restaurants, and other places of public accommodation were required to offer Braille gift...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a first-in-the-nation decision, Judge Gregory Woods of the Southern District of New York ruled that Title III does not require public accommodations to manufacture or sell Braille gift cards....more
Seyfarth synopsis: ADA Title III lawsuits flooded federal courts in 2019 and will likely continue to do so in 2020 with new theories for the courts to consider. ...more
Over the last few years, restaurants, retailers and other businesses have been inundated with lawsuits regarding the accessibility of their websites and mobile applications and the need to comply with the Americans with...more
For businesses growing weary of the seemingly perpetual wave of serial ADA claims (e.g., website accessibility; gift card accessibility), thanks to a recent decision issued by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of the...more
Over the last several weeks, a variety of major retailers, restaurant groups, pharmacies and other merchants have been hit with a deluge of putative class action lawsuits alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities...more
It is a little-known fact that, in 1994, Blockbuster video was the first store to display pre-paid gift cards for sale. Unlike VHS rentals, the gift card industry has only grown in popularity. Gift cards from major retailers...more
While the seemingly endless wave of website accessibility cases filed by serial plaintiffs shows no signs of abating (a situation not helped by the United States’ Supreme Court’s denial of Domino’s Petition for Certiorari...more
Multiple retailers and restaurant groups are facing a spate of recently filed class actions alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for their failure to offer gift cards containing Braille that are...more
Retailers that issue gift cards should be aware of a recent wave of class action lawsuits filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) at the end of October. Thirty-three class action lawsuits were filed against a...more
Since October 24, 2019, blind and vision-impaired individuals have filed more than ninety lawsuits claiming that the public accommodations provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Title III) and its state and local...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Enterprising plaintiffs in New York are suing more than 100 businesses under a new theory – – that ADA Title III requires Braille gift cards....more
Restaurants and retailers working to ensure their physical locations and websites are accessible and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may now have another issue to contend with – gift cards. Recently,...more
In addition to concerns surrounding the accessibility of a business’ website, retailers now have a new concern – the accessibility of their gift cards. Plaintiffs have recently filed a number of lawsuits alleging that the...more
Court Rules That ADA Applies to Website - In what is believed to be the first court to hold a trial on the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to a retailer’s website, a federal court judge in...more