The question of who qualifies as a “consumer” under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) is no longer academic. In late March and early April 2025, two federal appellate courts issued starkly conflicting rulings in Gardner...more
Welcome to the twentieth installment in our monthly data privacy litigation report. We prepare these reports to provide updates on how courts in the United States have handled emerging data privacy trends. After our expansive...more
It is hard to believe that we are starting the 25th year of the 21st century. The rapid evolution that technology, privacy and data security have undergone these last 25 years is mindbending. Yet, as we enter 2025, it still...more
Welcome to the nineteenth installment in our monthly data privacy litigation report. We prepare these reports to provide updates on how courts in the United States have handled emerging data privacy trends. We are covering...more
To date, 19 states have adopted comprehensive data privacy laws, but Massachusetts is not among them. Thus, Massachusetts residents whose web browsing activities result in an unexpected loss of privacy sometimes base their...more
Data breaches made headlines throughout 2024, affecting governments, health care groups, and telecoms. Follow-on litigation has kept pace. Nearly 4,000 class actions involving data privacy issues are estimated to be filed in...more
The Second Circuit’s decision in Salazar v. NBA, No. 23-1147 (2d Cir. Oct. 15, 2024) creates significant risk for companies that offer videos for viewing on their websites and significantly expands potential liability under...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated a proposed class action by Michael Salazar against a professional sports organization on October 15, 2024, alleging violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act...more
Keypoint: California district courts continue to split over whether “knowledge” is required to plead liability under Section 631(a)’s fourth prong while two decisions show courts taking different approaches to VPPA claims at...more
Businesses continue to be subjected to a steady stream of consumer class action lawsuits alleging improper collection or disclosure of information from their websites. A variety of laws and legal claims are used to support...more
Keypoint: Courts have started to issue Pixel-based wiretapping decisions, the Seventh Circuit weighs in on when a manufacturer can be forced to pay arbitration fees, and three courts showed different approaches to dismissing...more
Keypoint: Courts reject personal jurisdiction arguments and suggest the Shopify decision will be overturned; Courts continue to show differing approaches to VPPA claims at the pleading stage with a large VPPA class action...more
Keypoint: The Central District of California issued several wiretapping decisions in May while two decisions on the VPPA illustrate how claims fail or succeed at the pleading stage. Welcome to the fourteenth installment in...more
Keypoint: The Central District of California issues a major victory for website owners facing CIPA-arbitration demands, two decisions address whether a plaintiff consented as a defense to wiretapping claims, three courts in...more
Anyone following trends in consumer class action litigation will know that consumer privacy was a primary focus of the plaintiff’s bar in 2023. And there are no signs this uptick in consumer privacy claims is slowing any time...more
Keypoint: Courts resolved six motions to dismiss wiretapping claims based on session replay technology in January, while two VPPA decisions highlight balance struck by courts. A new privacy litigation theory based on “pen...more
Real estate businesses frequently operate multiple websites. These may include corporate websites, websites for each of their properties, and websites for their apps and ancillary service offerings. To maximize the...more
In 1988, Congress enacted the Video Protection Privacy Act (“VPPA”) in response to the confirmation hearing of Judge Robert Bork, where his video rental history was disclosed during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing....more
In the wake of recent lawsuits brought under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), companies with websites that display video content should evaluate their use of tracking technologies. Recently, creative class-action...more
Although a digital subscriber to an online newsletter may have standing to sue under the Video Privacy Protection Act ("VPPA"), 18 U.S.C. § 2710(b)(1), if the newsletter subscription contains no audio-visual content, that...more
In recent months, organizations have been dealing with an emerging wave of lawsuits from an unexpected source: the VPPA. The Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”), originally intended to prevent “wrongful disclosures” of...more
Keypoint: June 2023 maintained a trend of mostly favorable outcomes for defendants as courts continue to grant motions to dismiss in session replay and VPPA cases. This is the fifth installment in our monthly data privacy...more
The biggest data privacy litigation risk companies currently face is class action litigation based on the use of certain website advertising technology (adtech). Are you wondering what this means for your company? This alert...more
After years out of circulation, class-action lawsuits asserting claims under the Video Protection Privacy Act (VPPA) are now back in reruns. But early critical assessment is mixed, so it remains to be seen whether VPPA-driven...more
Keypoint: The Southern District of New York dismissed a VPPA claim after finding use of the Meta Pixel does not violate the VPPA when used to transmit information about a visitor’s general activity on a webpage, even where...more