Hulu Video Privacy Class Action Dropped in 9th Circuit

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A putative Hulu class action lawsuit has been dropped by a group of consumers that originally claimed the media streaming company violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by reporting customer viewing habits to the social networking giant Facebook.

Both Hulu and the group of plaintiffs filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the appeal on Friday, without explanation. However, court records indicate that the parties met through the Ninth Circuit’s mediation program before agreeing to drop the privacy class action lawsuit.

The Hulu video privacy class action lawsuit was granted summary judgment in April by U.S. District Judge Laurel Beeler who concluded that Hulu was unaware that Facebook could use its data to match-up customers by the television and videos they watched.

Hulu’s attorney argued that the online video streaming service had no knowledge of how Facebook was able to show consumers’ faces. Judge Beeler stated that in order for it to be a clear violation of the VPPA, the law requires “mutual understanding that there has been a disclosure.” Beeler found that the group of plaintiffs came up lacking the evidence needed to prove that Hulu knew what Facebook would do with the data it received.

The Hulu privacy class action lawsuit was filed in 2011 by consumers who alleged Hulu gave user identities and video watching information to Facebook which they claim violated the VPPA. Judge Beeler concluded that Hulu did not knowingly violate the video privacy law because they sent the information in separate transactions which indicates that Facebook would have had to combine the information on its own.

The Video Privacy Protection Act was passed by Congress in 1988 in order to prevent video tape service providers from disclosing customer rental information with fines up to $2,500 per violation. The act was signed into law after the media gained access to the video store rental history of former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

Judge Beeler found that the Hulu class action lawsuit allegations are not the same as a video store clerk handing over the information. She states, “If I hand someone a slip of paper with John Doe‘s name above a list of recently rented videotapes, the connection between the two will generally be apparent.”

The plaintiffs argued because customer images would appear on Hulu’s Facebook page when they hit “Like,” the company was clearly aware that Facebook was able to identify customers with their video selections.

Judge Beeler conceded that Hulu may have known that Facebook’s cookies could identify users only in relation to advertising tracked by Nielsen not because of the “Like” button.

The plaintiffs are represented by David C. Parisi and Suzanne Havens Beckman of Parisi & Havens LLP, Scott A. Kamber, David A. Stampley and Grace E. Tersigni of KamberLaw LLC, Brian R. Strange and Gretchen Carpenter of Strange & Carpenter and Joseph Malley of the Law Office of Joseph H. Malley.

The Hulu Video Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Garvey, et al. v. Hulu LLC, Case No. 15-15774 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.