On September 13, 2023, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fourth Appellate District, covering Orange County and San Diego County and the southernmost areas of California, held that the Americans with Disabilities...more
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits private entities from discriminating against disabled individuals. Specifically, it prohibits a “place of public accommodation” from discriminating “on the...more
The California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, issued a decision on August 1 holding that websites without any connection to physical place of business are not “places of public accommodation” under Title III of...more
On August 1, 2022, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, in Martinez v. Cot’n Wash, Inc., resolved two outstanding issues in the website accessibility field in a way that limits the reach of the Unruh Civil...more
On August 1, 2022, the California Court of Appeal joined longstanding Ninth Circuit precedent in determining that online-only businesses are not “public accommodations” covered under Title III of the Americans with...more
After an explosion of “website accessibility” cases in recent years where plaintiffs sue internet-based companies under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) alleging that the websites are not accessible...more
The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fourth Appellate District, recently handed a potentially significant website accessibility win to the business community under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) when it...more
A California federal district court has held that the website of Domino’s Pizza violates the ADA, following a long saga that included the Ninth Circuit’s reversal of the district court’s prior dismissal of the case. ...more
Below is a summary of recent developments for the Food, Beverage and Hospitality industry in terms of Internet laws and regulations. Consumer Privacy and the CCPA - In June 2018, California enacted one of the most...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: California state courts are becoming an even friendlier jurisdiction for plaintiffs filing lawsuits about allegedly inaccessible websites....more
For the past decade, plaintiffs’ lawyers have been trolling the Internet for websites that are incompatible with screen-reader technology used by blind people to navigate the web. Businesses that fall short are accused of...more
The California Court of Appeals, Fourth Appellate District, recently reversed a lower court ruling against a visually impaired plaintiff who alleged that a credit union’s website was incompatible with screen-reader software....more
Late last year, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling with implications for online businesses going forward. In White v. Square, Inc., 7 Cal. 5th 1019 (2019), a bankruptcy attorney brought a claim against Square under...more
Is your website suitable for the blind or deaf? If not, you may well be sued in California even though your business is elsewhere....more
Seyfarth synopsis: California Court of Appeal affirms ruling that inaccessible restaurant website violated the Unruh Act and orders that restaurant website comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA....more
The California Supreme Court recently issued a ruling in White v. Square, Inc. that suggested standing to assert claims against websites for violations of the Unruh Civil Rights Act will be interpreted very broadly. In a case...more
In the first decision by a California appellate court addressing the application of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) to websites, the court in Thurston v. Midvale Corp. (Sept. 3, 2019) 2019 WL 4166620,...more
Special District Website Requirements - Every California independent special district is required to maintain a website by Jan. 1, 2020. Senate Bill 929 added Government Code sections 6270.6 and 53087.8 to provide the...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its highly-anticipated website accessibility opinion in Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, reaffirming the obligation to make retailers’ websites accessible and rejecting the due process and...more
On May 21, a California state court in Los Angeles held on summary judgment that the Whisper Lounge restaurant violated California’s Unruh Act by having a website that could not be used by a blind person with a screen reader,...more
On March 20, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero for the Central District of California in Robles v. Domino’s Pizza LLC, granted defendant Domino’s Pizza LLC’s motion to dismiss without prejudice and ruled that the...more
In recent weeks, numerous businesses have received letters asserting that their websites are not accessible to persons with disabilities, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Act. These...more