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Judge Asked to Certify Microsoft Store Class Action Lawsuit
By Anne Bucher
UPDATE: A federal judge denied certification of the Microsoft Store Data Collection Class Action Lawsuit on October 9.
California woman has filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corp., accusing the company of illegally collecting her personal information from a credit card transaction. On August 30, she told a California federal judge that class action certification would be the only fair way to adequately resolve the dispute.
Plaintiff Pamela Gossoo filed the class action lawsuit in California state court in February, accusing Microsoft of violating the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act. She alleged that Microsoft’s retail stores regularly request and record consumers’ personal identifying information at the point of sale during credit card transactions. She claims that this data collection policy allows Microsoft to create a database of customers’ information, which the company uses to track their purchase history.
“As a result, consumers are not only barraged with unwanted marketing materials, but also extensively tracked, profiled, and monitored by Microsoft without their knowledge,” the proposed class action lawsuit says.
According to the class action lawsuit: “Microsoft stores accept credit cards for payment, and their point-of-sale software system is specifically designed to facilitate the requesting and recording of customers’ personal information during transactions, including names, email addresses, phone numbers and street addresses, prior to the completion of the sale and provision of the receipt.”
Gossoo claims that Microsoft does not tell its sales clerks to inform customers that providing the information is optional. Further, they do not tell customers why the information is collected.
Microsoft currently operates 11 retail stores in California and operates numerous other locations throughout the United States. These stores sell technology products to consumers. The stores accept credit card payments, and their point-of-sale software system is “specifically designed to facilitate the requesting and recording of customers’ personal information during transactions, including names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and street addresses, prior to the completion of the sale and provision of the receipt,” the proposed class action lawsuit says.
During the discovery process, Microsoft produced more than 10,000 policy documents, none of which included instructions requiring sales clerks to inform customers that providing personal information is voluntary, why it is collected and how it will be used.
In March, Microsoft removed the class action lawsuit to federal court. In June, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied Microsoft’s motion to dismiss the case.
According to Gossoo, the judge should grant class action status because there are likely to be tens of thousands of customers who are affected by Microsoft’s data-gathering process. “Such cases are often negative-value cases — that is, the cost to litigate an individual case exceeds the expected return for an individual plaintiff. When these cases proceed as a class, economies of scale allow the aggregated cases to go forward in an efficient manner and litigation costs no longer exceed the expected return,” the Microsoft class action lawsuit says.
Potential Class Members include anyone who purchased merchandise at a California Microsoft store since February 13, 2012 who provided personal identifying information at the request of a sales clerk during a credit card transaction.
Gossoo is represented by Dimitrios V. Korovilas and Jason M. Wucetich of Wucetich & Korovilas LLP.
The Microsoft Store Data Collection Class Action Lawsuit is Pamela Gossoo v. Microsoft Corp., Case No. 2:13-cv-02043, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
One thought on Judge Asked to Certify Microsoft Store Class Action Lawsuit
I have been getting phone calls weekly from foreign people who barely speak english telling me that my Microsoft product is outdated and they need to update my information in order for my microsoft product to be able to update automatically. Last week I received 2 phone calls at 10:00 pm, waking my husband and my elderly mother. This is unacceptable. I upgraded my laptop from windows 7 to windows 8 for $14.95 because of the time of purchase and the date windows 8 was released and at the time of my upgrade I was asked for my credit card information and updated my computer online. Ever since this was done I cannot escape these calls, all coming from an unidentified number or my caller ID says 800 SERVICES, or UNKNOWN CALLER. I have told them not to call my house ever again, to remove me from their calling lists, put me on their no call list, and to never call my house after 8:00 because we have to go to bed early as my husband works 70-80 hours a week and commutes 90 minutes each way. This is rediculous! How can we get these calls to stop?