Rosewood Hotels, Madame Tussauds Face ADA Class Action Lawsuits

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A blind woman has filed two separate class action lawsuits—one against Rosewood Hotels and Resorts LLC and the other against Madame Tussauds New York LLC—alleging the businesses are denying blind individuals equal access to their goods and services they provide to non-disabled customers on their websites.

Plaintiff Lucia Marett asserts that Rosewood Hotel and Madame Tussauds operate websites with access barriers “that make it difficult if not impossible for blind people to use the website.” According to the class action lawsuit, the companies’ websites violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“In fact, the access barriers make it impossible for blind users to even complete a transaction on the website,” the ADA class action lawsuit asserts. Marett claims that the companies exclude blind individuals “from the full and equal participation in the growing internet economy that is increasingly a fundamental part of the common marketplace and daily living.”

Marett accuses Rosewood Hotels and Madame Tussauds of failing to design and operate a website that can be independently used by blind people. According to the ADA class action lawsuits, the companies’ websites have access barriers that prevent blind individuals from independently navigating the websites and making a purchase or reservation with assistive computer technology.

The ADA class action lawsuit states that there are more than 8 million visually impaired people in the United States, including 2 million who are blind.

Marett argues that blind individuals enjoy shopping online as much as people who do not have visual impairment, and that there are plenty of options for assistive technology that allow blind people to engage with websites.

However, Rosewood Hotels and Madame Tussauds choose to operate websites that rely on an “exclusively visual interface,” which includes pop-up forms that are inaccessible, according to the ADA class action lawsuit.

Although blind people are able to browse, select, place an order and/or reserve a reservation on the websites, they must rely on others to assist them when completing a transaction online.

“By failing to make the website accessible to blind persons, Defendant is violating basic equal access requirements under both state and federal law,” Marett says in both of her ADA class action lawsuits.

The Rosewood Hotels class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of “all legally blind individuals in New York State who have attempted to access Roseweoodhotel.com and as a result have been denied access to the enjoyment of goods and services offered in The Carlyle Hotel, during the relevant statutory period.”

The Madame Tussauds class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of all legally blind individuals in the United States who attempted to use the MadameTussauds.com website and as a result were “denied access to the enjoyment of goods and services” that were offered at Madame Tussauds New York.

Marett is represented by C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of Lee Litigation Group PLLC.

The Rosewood Hotels ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Lucia Marett v. Rosewood Hotels and Resorts LLC, Case No. 1:16-cv-08877, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Madame Tussauds ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Lucia Marett v. Madame Tussauds New York LLC, Case No. 1:16-cv-08878, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.