GameStop Suit Under VPPA Dismissed
GameStop and the plaintiffs in a class-action suit alleging violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) agreed to dismiss the lawsuit, the parties announced in a joint stipulation of dismissal at U.S. District Court of New York Monday.
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The plaintiffs sued GameStop in August 2022 after purchasing a video game containing a cut scene from GameStop, according to the complaint. GameStop then uploaded the plaintiffs' personally identifiable information (PII) to Facebook using the Facebook Tracking Pixel, which the plaintiffs alleged was in violation of the VPPA.
The VPPA was originally intended to protect the privacy of an individual’s video store rentals, but the definition of a videotape service provider has been expanded to include “any person, engaged in the business, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, of rental, sale, or delivery of prerecorded video cassette tapes or similar audio visual materials,” the complaint said. The providers are prohibited from “knowingly disclos[ing], to any person, personally identifiable information concerning any consumer of such provider.”
In February, GameStop motioned to dismiss the suit, which the court denied. “In its Motion to Dismiss, GameStop argues that Plaintiffs fail to state a claim under the VPPA because they have failed to allege facts indicating that (1) that GameStop is “video tape service provider” and (2) that GameStop knowingly disclosed the PII of any consumer,” said Judge Laura Taylor Swain in the memorandum opinion and order. Neither argument had merit, she said, because the court determined that cut scenes were “similar audio-visual material” as defined in the VPPA, and that GameStop enabled the Facebook Tracking Pixel to transmit PII to Facebook.