Condé Nast Settles Subscribers’ Privacy Class Action for $13.75M

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Condé Nast will settle a privacy class action lawsuit for $13.75 million that was filed by customers who claimed the mass media company unlawfully sold customer data to third party buyers.

Allegedly, this practice violates the Michigan Preservation of Personal Privacy Act.

The customers expressed approval of the settlement deal and their lawyers stated that the settlement “provides for a greater per class member recovery than most prior [Preservation of Personal Privacy Act] settlements,” noting that Class Members who make valid claims will receive around $75 each.

The settlement deal was made after meetings and a mediated discussion in the spring and summer of 2017, and settlement negotiations following that session.

A memorandum that was submitted in support of the settlement deal’s preliminary approval pointed to the fact that similar class action lawsuit settlements had been approved.

One such case cited was a settlement in which Consumer Reports agreed to pay a $16.38 million in April to consumers who claimed the company violated Michigan privacy law.

Plaintiff Suzanne Boelter filed the Condé Nast class action lawsuit in July 2015. She claims that she subscribed to the Condé Nast publications Bon Appetite and Self, and that she began to receive junk mail and phone calls from other companies.

She alleges that she received the junk mail and phone calls because Condé Nast sold her personal information used in her subscriptions, as well as consumer data about her, to third parties.

According to Boelter, Condé Nast’s practice of selling her information, as well as the information of many other consumers represented a violation of Michigan’s Video Rental Privacy Act (or the Preservation of Personal Privacy Act) and the federal Video Privacy Protection Act.

Class Members of the Conde Nast privacy class action lawsuit include all Condé Nast subscribers who had magazines delivered to a Michigan address between July 2009 and July 2016.

This week’s settlement deal comes after an attempt to dismiss the consumer data class action lawsuit by Condé Nast.

The company attempted to say that Michigan had amended the Preservation of Personal Privacy Act to require consumers to show that an alleged violation had resulted in “actual damages” done, and as Boelter had not shown this, the claims should be invalid.

However, the court rejected the move to dismiss because Boelter had filed her Condé Nast privacy class action lawsuit before Michigan required individuals to show “actual damages” when alleging that the PPPA had been violated.

After their bid to dismiss failed, Condé Nast made an interlocutory appeal (an appeal of a trial ruling made before the trial has been concluded).

However, at this point a federal judge did not grant the appeal saying that the media company did not have a solid case to make the PPPA amendment that could be applied retroactively – the judge stated that the law was clear that it did not apply retroactively.

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The Condé Nast subscribers are represented by Joseph Marchese, Scott Bursor and Phillip Fraietta of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Condé Nast Customer Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Boelter v. Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. d/b/a Condé Nast, Case No. 1:15-cv-05671, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.