Playboy Enterprises Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Sharing of Subscriber Data Without Consent [UPDATE]
Last Updated on June 23, 2020
Kokoszki v. Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
Filed: January 30, 2019 ◆§ 2:19-cv-10302-BAF-RSW
A consumer alleges in a proposed class action that Playboy Enterprises unlawfully shared his magazine subscription information with third-party data companies.
Michigan
Case Updates
June 23, 2020 – Lawsuit Settles for $3.85 Million
The lawsuit detailed on this page has settled for $3.85 million. The deal received preliminary approval from Senior U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman on February 7, 2020.
According to the plaintiff’s unopposed January 31 motion for settlement approval, the agreement allows each class member to automatically receive a pro-rata cash payment in the neighborhood of $110 without having to submit a claim form.
The deal was reached with the help of a mediator and described in court papers as “the best result ever achieved on a per-class member basis” in a case filed over alleged Michigan Preservation of Personal Privacy Act violations.
Playboy Enterprises is on the receiving end of a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a consumer who claims the company disclosed personal information about his Playboy magazine subscription to “data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, and list brokers,” who in turn shared those details with “aggressive advertisers, political organizations, and non-profit companies,” without written consent to do so. The plaintiff, a Michigan resident, alleges in the 32-page lawsuit that the defendant’s conduct, which the cases ties to the period between January 30 and July 30, 2016, violates the state’s Preservation of Personal Privacy Act.
From the complaint:
“To supplement its revenues, Playboy rents, exchanges, or otherwise discloses its customers’ personal information—including their full names, titles of magazines subscribed to, and home addresses (collectively ‘Personal Reading Information’), as well as myriad other personal, lifestyle, and demographic information such as gender, age, ethnicity, income, religion, parental status, and political affiliation—to data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, and other third parties without the written consent of its customers.”
As the plaintiff tells it, Playboy’s customers remain unaware that the publication rents and exchanges their personal information on the open market. The man additionally claims that as a result of the defendant’s apparent conduct, he’s received a barrage of unwanted junk mail.
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