District Court Won't Dismiss VPPA Claim Aspect of Streamer Data-Sharing Case
Despite granting a dismissal of several claims, the U.S. District Court for Northern California refused to toss allegations of violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in its ruling Monday in a class-action case against streaming service Mubi.
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"Plaintiffs allege that MUBI discloses users’ PII via the Meta Tracking Pixel without obtaining proper consent," said Judge Eumi Lee. "Accordingly, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have stated a plausible claim under the VPPA and denies the motion to dismiss this claim."
Case 24-00638 began when the plaintiffs alleged streaming service Mubi uses tracking pixels on its website to share individuals' video viewing history with third parties, including Meta, TikTok, Google, and X, without user consent. In addition, the plaintiffs claimed Mubi violated the state’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), the California Invasion of Privacy Act and California Civil Code § 1799.3.
The court denied the motion to dismiss claims of California Civil Code § 1799.3 violations since "MUBI has not demonstrated that it gave Plaintiffs reasonably conspicuous notice of its terms of use or privacy policy, or that Plaintiffs unambiguously manifested their assent to those terms," meaning "MUBI cannot show that Plaintiffs provided written consent to the disclosure of their PII to Meta or any other third party."
However, Lee said the plaintiffs failed to allege "an inadequate remedy at law" and "facts showing a risk of future injury," so the motion to dismiss claims of injunctive relief and UCL were granted.
The judge added the plaintiffs have 21 days to file an amended complaint "to plead facts that support a UCL claim and establish Article III standing for injunctive relief."