PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Inquirer may soon be facing a consolidated class action lawsuit, which alleging the newspaper disclosed some of their subscribers’ personal information to Facebook without their consent, in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
Jason Braun of Lafayette Hill and Jim Cummings of Pennsauken, N.J. (on behalf of all others similarly-situated) first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Oct. 19 versus Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC.
“Plaintiffs bring this action in response to defendant’s practice of knowingly disclosing its subscribers’ personally identifiable information – including a record of every video clip they view – to Facebook without first obtaining its digital subscribers’ express consent in a stand-alone consent form that complies with the VPPA’s statutory requirements,” the suit said.
“The Philadelphia Inquirer used first-party and third-party cookies, software development kits, pixels, Facebook’s Business Tools, including Advanced Matching and Conversion API, to purposely track, record, collect, and transmit its digital subscribers’ interactions with inquirer.com. Defendant purposely sent its digital subscribers’ viewing history and personally identifiable information to its third-party business partners, including Facebook.”
The suit added the defendant “knowingly installed the Facebook Pixel tool onto inquirer.com and controlled which types of information and data would be tracked and transmitted to Facebook.”
“Importantly, defendant shared its digital subscribers’ Personal Viewing Information – i.e. digital subscribers’ unique FIDs and viewed video content – together s one combined data point. Because a digital subscriber’s FID uniquely identifies their individual Facebook user account, Facebook, or any other ordinary person, can use it to quickly and easily locate, access, and view a digital subscriber’s corresponding Facebook profile. Put simply, defendant shares its digital subscribers’ viewed video media in a manner that allows third-parties to know each and every video an individual has viewed on inquirer.com. Defendant profited from its practice of disclosing digital subscribers’ Personal Viewing Information to Facebook, and it did so at the expense of its digital subscribers’ privacy and their statutory rights under the VPPA,” the suit stated.
“Because defendant’s digital subscribers were not informed about this dissemination of their Personal Viewing Information – indeed, the transmission of data is automatic and invisible – they could not exercise reasonable judgment to defend themselves against the highly personal ways The Philadelphia Inquirer has used their data for its own benefit. Defendant chose to disregard plaintiffs’ and hundreds of thousands of other digital subscribers’ statutorily protected privacy rights by releasing their sensitive data to Facebook. Accordingly, plaintiffs bring this class action lawsuit for legal and equitable remedies to redress defendant’s practices of intentionally disclosing its digital subscribers’ Personal Viewing Information to Facebook in knowing violation of VPPA.”
UPDATE
A Dec. 5 stipulation filing sought to consolidate the instant case with a similar one brought by plaintiff Stephanie Carter against The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“The following actions pending in this District should be consolidated for all purposes, including pretrial proceedings, trial, and appeal, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a). All papers filed in the consolidated action must be filed under Case. No. 2:22-cv-04185, the number assigned to the first-filed case, and must bear the following caption: Braun Et.Al v. The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. The case file for the consolidated action will be maintained under the Master File Case No. 2:22-cv-04185. The clerk is directed to administratively close the following related case: Carter v. The Philadelphia Inquirer LLC,” the stipulation stated, in part.
“Any action subsequently filed, transferred, or removed to this Court that arises out of similar facts as the consolidated action may be consolidated by the Court based on notice of such filing filed with the Court by plaintiffs’ counsel or defendant’s counsel and the passage of 10 calendar days. If any party objects to such consolidation or otherwise wishes to seek alternative relief, they must do so before the expiration of that period. Any counsel who has filed an action in this consolidated action may file an individual or joint application for consideration as interim class counsel no later than 14 calendar days from entry of the Court’s order approving this stipulation. Each attorney’s individual or joint application shall not exceed 10 pages double-spaced addressing the factors set forth in Rule 23(g) and may include a firm resume(s). Counsel may file a two-page double-spaced response (including attachments), no later than five business days from the filing deadline of the initial applications.”
For counts of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act and unjust enrichment, the plaintiffs are seeking the following reliefs:
• An order declaring that defendant’s conduct, as described herein, violates the VPPA;
• For defendant to pay $2,500 to each plaintiff and class member, as provided by the VPPA;
• For punitive damages, as warranted, in an amount to be determined at trial;
• For pre-judgment interest on all amounts awarded;
• For an order of restitution and all other forms of equitable monetary relief; and
• For an order awarding plaintiffs and the class their reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses and costs of suit.
The plaintiffs are represented by Arthur M. Stock and Gary M. Klinger of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman in Knoxville, Tenn. and Chicago, Ill., plus Adam E. Polk, Jessica Doker, Kimberly Macey and Simon S. Grille of Girard Sharp in San Francisco, Calif.
The defendant is represented by Angelo A. Stio III and Avrohom C. Einhorn of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:22-cv-04185
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com