PetSmart Sued in ADA Class Action Over POS Devices

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On April 21, PetSmart Inc. was sued in a proposed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) class action lawsuit in Colorado federal court, a suit which alleges the mega pet store retailer committed ADA violations by requiring consumers to enter their debit PINs on a touchscreen keypad that is inaccessible to blind and visually impaired consumers.

Six named blind consumers residing in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Texas together with the National Federation of the Blind filed this PetSmart ADA class action lawsuit. This is just one many ADA lawsuits in the last several months against major nationwide retailers that have also allegedly not provided visually impaired consumers with point-of-sale machines they can easily use.

Because of the lack of POS machines that a visually impaired person can use, these PetSmart consumers allege they are forced to tell store employees their debit PINs in order to complete their card transactions. According to the PetSmart ADA class action lawsuit, telling store employees their PIN compromises a PetSmart customer’s debit card security and furthermore constitutes as a ADA violation.

“Blind people are just as concerned about the security of our financial accounts and information as our sighted peers, so having to verbally provide our debit card PIN to PetSmart’s sales personnel is not acceptable,” the plaintiffs argue in the PetSmart ADA class action lawsuit. “Nor is it an answer to say that we can pay with cash or a credit card instead; blind people must have all of the same options for payment as the sighted as a matter of equal treatment, and the benefits of using debit cards, such as the ability to receive cash back, apply equally to the blind.”

This ADA class action lawsuit against PetSmart comes about a year after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement in Florida federal court establishing the government’s official position that under the ADA, retailers are required to provide blind and visually impaired consumers with physical keypads to punch in their PINs for debit card transactions.

The proposed PetSmart class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class that would include “all individuals in the United States who were unable to independently make a debit card purchase, obtain cash back from a debit or credit card purchase, or otherwise complete a transaction independently in a nonvisual manner using a touchscreen POS Device at any PetSmart retail store because of a visual disability, at any time during the applicable limitation period through the duration of any injunctive relief ordered by the Court.”

PetSmart is not the only retailer currently facing litigation for ADA violations. Kay Jewelers, Apple Inc., Office Depot Inc., Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. and other retailers have been sued over the past year because of POS devices that are inaccessible by visually impaired consumers.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jana Eisinger and Douglas Lambalot of the Martinez Law Group PC, Scott LaBarre of LaBarre Law Offices PC and Kevin Williams of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition Legal Program.

The PetSmart ADA Class Action Lawsuit is National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Inc., et al. v. PetSmart Inc., Case No. 1:15-cv-00839, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.