Class Action: Eddie Bauer Improperly Records Customer Calls

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Last week, a class action lawsuit was filed against Eddie Bauer LLC alleging that the company recorded incoming calls from customers without informing them they were being recorded, violating California State law.

Lead plaintiff Yevgeniya Granina alleges in her class action lawsuit that company-wide, Eddie Bauer records phone calls from prospective consumers, but does not provide a warning or message to those consumers prior to the phone call that their call would be recorded. Granina alleges she called Eddie Bauer several times in December and during those conversations she disclosed sensitive information, including her credit card number, address, and first and last name. She alleges she was unaware of Eddie Bauer’s recording policy.

“Plaintiff did not give, and could not have given, consent for the telephone communications to be recorded because she was entirely unaware that defendants were engaged in that practice during the telephone communications,” according to the Eddie Bauer class action lawsuit.

“On information and belief, these inbound telephone communications were recorded by defendants, without plaintiff’s knowledge or consent,” alleges Granina in the Eddie Bauer class action lawsuit. She argues that Eddie Bauer has violated California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, which “prohibits the intentional recording of any communication without the consent of all parties where at least one of the parties to the communication is using a cellular or cordless telephone,” according to the class action lawsuit.

Further, the California Invasion of Privacy law “is violated the moment the recording is made without the consent of all parties … regardless of whether it is subsequently disclosed,” according to the Eddie Bauer class action lawsuit. “There is no requisite intent on behalf of the party doing the surreptitious recording to break California law, or to invade the privacy rights of any other person,” says the plaintiff in her class action lawsuit.

Granina argues that California enacted the law because “[p]eople are apt to moderate what they say and how they say it when they know their conversations are being recorded,” in her call recording class action lawsuit. “Furthermore,” she continues, “businesses can take unfair advantage of consumers if they do not disclose that the calls are being recorded, by ‘selectively disclosing recordings when disclosure serves the company’s interest, but not volunteering the recordings’ existence (or quickly destroying them) when they would be detrimental to the company,’” citing California case law.

Granina seeks to represent a statewide Class of consumers who called Eddie Bauer using a cell phone and spoke to a company representative and had the conversation recorded without their knowledge. The Eddie Bauer call recording class action lawsuit seeks an injunction and statutory damages of $5,000 for each potential Class Member.

The attorney representing Granina has brought similar allegations against other businesses in California, including on in 2012, where the attorney filed a call recording class action lawsuit against Allergan Inc., which was also accused of improperly recording customer calls. The plaintiff alleged that Allergan has a “companywide policy and practice of recording all inbound telephone conversations with consumers.” These types of call recording class action lawsuits have cropped up against companies in California recently.

Granina is represented by the Law Offices of Zev B. Zysman.

The Eddie Bauer Call Recording Class Action Lawsuit is Yevgeniya Granina v. Eddie Bauer LLC, Case No. BC569111, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

UPDATE: On Aug. 9, 2016, a California judge ruled that Eddie Bauer will continue to face a demand for thousands of dollars in statutory damages for each alleged violation of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act.

UPDATE 2: February 2018, the California Eddie Bauer call recording class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.