Advance Auto Parts Class Action Says Website Terms Illegal

Advance Auto Parts Inc. faces a possible class action lawsuit over allegations that the limited liability within its website’s terms and conditions violates New Jersey consumer protection law.

Plaintiff Ryan Russell of New Jersey says the company’s retail website shop.advanceautoparts.com requires users submit to a set of terms and conditions that allegedly force customers to give up their rights to bring legal claims that could arise out of their use of the website, and to indemnify the company for any liability that could arise from such use. He says he had to agree to those limitations of liability in order to purchase a Tanner Select Chamois in January 2016.

Russell’s Advance Auto Parts class action lawsuit says these exculpatory clauses violate the New Jersey Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act. Contract provisions that require a consumer to give up certain consumer rights can themselves violate the TCCWNA, Russell argues. He says the TCCWNA’s statutory damages provision provides for a minimum award of $100 per violation.

According to the lawsuit, the language that would absolve Advance Auto Parts from its legal duty of care would violate consumer rights under both New Jersey common law and the state’s Products Liability Act. Russell says New Jersey law forbids exculpatory clauses like those because they undermine the ability of tort law “to deter careless behavior by a party in the best position to prevent injuries in the first place.”

Consumers also have contractual rights under the Uniform Commercial Code that would be waived under Advance Auto Parts’ exculpatory language, Russell says. The language also requires the user to give up any right to collect damages, a right Russell says consumers have under the New Jersey Punitive Damages Act.

Russell also argues that Advance Auto Parts’ language that would absolve it from liability from the acts of third parties creates an unacceptable risk of identity theft for customers who make purchases via the website. He says the company is under a duty to provide customers a safe environment in which to shop, and that duty extends to cover the company’s retail website.

The Advance Auto Parts class action lawsuit proposes to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons in New Jersey who were exposed to the terms and conditions on Advance Auto Parts’ website during the applicable statute of limitations period.

He seeks a damage award for himself and the Class Members of not less than $100 for each violation of the TCCWNA, plus court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees. He is also asking the court for an order terminating the controversial limitation of liability language on Advance Auto Parts’ website and requiring the company to remove that language from the website.

The plaintiff is represented by Gerald H. Clark, William S. Peck and Mark W. Morris of Clark Law Firm PC; and Scott J. Ferrell and Victoria Knowles of Newport Trial Group.

The Advance Auto Parts Class Action Lawsuit is Ryan Russell v. Advance Auto Parts Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-02685, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.