Appeals Court Sides with Retailers in N.H. Driver Privacy Violations Case
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that retailers in three consolidated appeals of violations under the New Hampshire Driver Privacy Act did not violate the act when they transmitted customers' driver’s license information to a third party, affirming the district court’s orders from January 2024.
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“We hold that the Customers' driver's licenses, in their own possession, are not within the meaning of the prohibition in section IX(b),” said the ruling. “The Customers' reading is inconsistent with the NH DPA's other provisions and its purposes.”
In the cases, customers attempted to return items to a retail store without a receipt. As such, they were prompted to show their driver’s licenses to complete the return. The customers allege that the retailers in each of their cases violated the act when they disclosed driver’s license information to The Retail Equation (TRE), a third-party firm. TRE works with retailers to warn consumers when their methods of returning purchased items violate store policy.
Although the statute does not define “department records,” the consumers argue that their driver’s licenses count, as the New Hampshire Department of Safety would have a record of them. But the retailers argue that since customers are in possession of their licenses, they cannot be “department records.”
“Reading the statute as a whole -- rather than with an individualized focus on the provisions at issue -- makes clear that "department records" do not include driver's licenses in the Customers' possession,” the circuit judges said in the ruling. “The district court's reading best comports with New Hampshire's rules of statutory interpretation.”