Allegiant Class Action: Airline Violated Customer Privacy with Mass Email

Allegiant Air LLC faces a class action lawsuit alleging they violated consumer privacy with a mass email sent to 400 email addresses.

On Nov. 8, Allegiant Air allegedly sent an email informing consumers with support animals of their updated Emotional Support Service or Psychiatric Service Animal policy.

However, the email was sent to more than 400 email addresses which often contained the names of the involved consumers and were viewable to each recipient.

One email recipient, Debra Douglas, immediately responded privately to Allegiant, letting them know that their email was “very disturbing” and an invasion of privacy.

“Do you have any idea how many hundreds of people that you have embarrassed and upset by including email addresses of everyone you were trying to reach concerning an Emotional Support, Service or Psychiatric Service Animal?” Douglas asked. “Does your legal department have any clue as to what the HIPAA law provides to patients relating to their health records or information?”

HIPAA, which stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is a federal law which protects the private medical information of patients and dictates what information can be shared by those privy to the sensitive data.

Less than an hour after Douglas’ email, Allegiant sent out another message, still listing the 400 email addresses to be viewed by other consumers, saying that “ACAA would like to recall the message ‘Allegiant’s NEW Emotional Support and Service Animal Policies’.”

However, the damage had already been done, prompting Douglas to file a class action lawsuit against the airline company.

Douglas argues that any reasonable recipient of the email could infer that each of the other recipients, whose information was plainly visible, had submitted some sort of medical or psychiatric documentation to Allegiant in relation to a service or support animal. This, along with the release of email information, allegedly constitutes a breach of contract and invasion of privacy.

“The exposure of hundreds of email addresses of people who properly submitted medical or psychiatric information to Allegiant constitutes an invasion of privacy and a breach of contract with Allegiant,” Douglas argues in her Allegiant class action lawsuit.

Douglas also brings claims of negligence in her Allegiant Air class action, arguing that the airline should have sent a blind copy email rather than including its entire data base in the email. She also argues that the company’s policy provides that “Allegiant Air is concerned about your right to privacy.”

“When you visit the Allegiant Air website, you can be assured that any information you share with us will be treated confidentially.”

However, this privacy policy was disregarded when they sent out a mass email containing personal information, the Allegiant Air class action states.

Douglas seeks to represent a Class of all persons whose personally identifiable information in the form of email addresses were disclosed in a group email from Allegiant dated Nov. 8, 2018.

The Allegiant class action lawsuit seeks injunctive relief, compensatory damages, consequential damages, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Douglas and the proposed Class are represented by Charles G. Douglas III of Douglas Leonard & Garvey PC.

The Allegiant Air Mass Email Class Action Lawsuit is Douglas v. Allegiant Air LLC, Case No. 1:18-cv-01064, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.