Boorstein v. Men's Journal, LLC

Procedural History

In Boorstein v. Men's Journal, LLC, as well as several companion cases, the Plaintiffs brought class action lawsuits against various magazine publishers alleging violations of California's Shine The Light law. These publishers collect personal information from their subscribers, including names, addresses, email address, telephone numbers, gender, birth dates, and credit cards numbers. According to the Plaintiffs, some of this information is then sold to third party marketing companies. Because the publishers collect and then disclose personal information, they are required to comply with the STL.

Plaintiffs, who are subscribers to the defendant's magazines, allege that the publishers violated the Shine The Light law by failing to properly provide contact information for customer inquiries about STL matters.

The case was originally brought in state court, then transferred to federal court pursuant to a law regulating class action lawsuits. The District Court for the Central District of California dismissed the case, stating that the Plaintiffs had not sufficiently shown that they had been injured by the publishers. The Court ruled that in order for the lawsuit to go forward, the Plaintiffs needed to show not just that the publishers had violated the STL law, but that their violation caused an injury to the Plaintiffs. Failing to properly provide contact information was merely a "procedural injury" because the Plaintiffs did not allege that they attempted to find or use the missing contact information.

In January 2013, the Plaintiffs appealed the district court's ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Background on California's Shine The Light law

California's Shine The Light law ("STL") is a consumer protection statute aimed at informing customers about how online services use their personal information. The statute, CAL. CIV. CODE § 1798.83 et. seq., applies to businesses that collect personal information and then disclose it to third parties. If requested by a customer, these businesses must disclose how they shared the customer's information during the previous year. Alternatively, businesses can give the customer the right to opt-out of personal information sharing with third parties. The law also requires businesses to publish contact information so that customers know where to submit requests.

Any business that violates the STL may be sued for damages and prevented from unlawfully using customer information. In addition to damages for actual injuries, businesses violating the law must also pay civil penalties for each infraction. See CAL. CIV. CODE § 1798.84.

The law "does not make sharing consumer marketing information with third parties unlawful. Rather, it was designed to 'shine the light' on information sharing practices by requiring businesses to establish a procedure by which the consumer can obtain information about such practices." Boorstein v. Men's Journal, LLC, 2012 WL 2152815, at *1 (C.D. Cal. 2012).

Privacy Interest

Data protection laws like California's Shine The Light law are important tools for consumers to use to educate themselves on how their information is being used. While the law does not automatically prevent the disclosure of customer information, it does give the customer the ability to request to opt-out of future disclosures. In addition, because they have to disclose how they use consumer information, businesses are deterred from abusing customer's sensitive personal data.

The STL establishes that a consumer can suffer an "informational injury" when their data is used inappropriately without their knowledge. Such injuries are now cognizable under the law and can result in civil penalties for businesses that are not good corporate stewards of their customers' data.

Legal Documents

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Resources

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