Honey Baked Ham sued over alleged data tracking despite cookie opt-outs

Honey Baked Ham class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Consumers Cristi Colley and Nina Harris filed a class action lawsuit against Honey Baked Ham Co. LLC.
• Why: Colley and Harris claim Honey Baked Ham misleads consumers into believing they can opt out of having their personal data tracked and shared.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Georgia federal court.

Honey Baked Ham is facing a new class action lawsuit alleging it misleads consumers into believing they can opt out of having their personal data shared with third parties.

Plaintiffs Cristi Colley and Nina Harris claim Honey Baked Ham’s website places cookies and other tracking tools on consumers’ devices before they have the chance to interact with a cookie banner or select their preferences.

“Users were misled by [Honey Baked Ham’s] Cookie Banner and Cookie Settings into believing that their data would only be shared through continued use and interaction with the website and with user consent,” the Honey Baked Ham class action lawsuit says.

Colley and Harris want to represent a nationwide class of consumers who visited the Honey Baked Ham website during the applicable limitations period, interacted with the website’s cookie settings and rejected all non-essential cookies, and had their electronic communications intercepted, disclosed and/or transmitted to third parties.

Honey Baked Ham class action claims users stripped of privacy rights

The lawsuit alleges that Honey Baked Ham misled visitors about its privacy tools, claiming the company’s “opt-out” options for data sharing and sales did not actually work as described. 

“However, even after users affirmatively reject all but ‘strictly necessary’ cookies, regardless of which mechanism is used to achieve that goal, the website continues to utilize and deploy tracking tools which transmit users’ data,” the Honey Baked Ham class action lawsuit says.

By misrepresenting these features, the suit argues that the company stripped users of their privacy rights and created a deceptive sense of security regarding how their personal information was handled. 

Colley and Harris claim Honey Baked Ham is guilty of violating the Wiretap Act, California Invasion of Privacy Act, Florida Security of Communications Act and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and request declaratory and injunctive relief and an award of statutory damages and any other relief deemed proper by the court.

Last year, a California federal jury ordered Google to pay more than $425 million in damages in a class action lawsuit alleging the company unlawfully collected data from 98 million cellphone users who had opted out of app activity tracking.

Do you believe Honey Baked Ham misleads consumers into believing they can opt out of having their personal data tracked? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by John C. Herman and Candace N. Smith of Herman Jones LLP and Mark S. Reich, Gary Ishimoto and Mark Jensen of Levi & Korsinsky LLP.

The Honey Baked Ham class action lawsuit is Colley, et al. v. Honey Baked Ham Co. LLC, Case No. 1:26-mi-99999-UNA, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

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