Ikea Seeks to Toss ZIP Code Class Action Lawsuit

On Nov. 13, Ikea USA West Inc. asked a California federal court to dismiss a ZIP code class action lawsuit claiming the plaintiffs could not prove that asking customers for ZIP code and other personal information was a company-wide Ikea policy.

According to the Ikea class action lawsuit, lead plaintiff Rita Medellin failed to prove that Ikea store employees uniformly collect ZIP codes and other private information from all Ikea consumers. The company further claims she cannot simply rely on the presence of the ZIP code prompt in all of the home décor retailer’s machines as proof.

In its motion to dismiss the ZIP code class action lawsuit, Ikea claimed, “No violation is shown by the presence of the prompt. In the absence of a uniform policy, uniformly applied, the mere existence of a process that is seldom followed proves nothing of absent class members’ claims. There is no glue to hold the claims together.” Ikea further argues that just because ZIP codes appear in the Ikea transaction logs does not definitively prove an Ikea employee asked a consumer for this private information.

According to two Ikea cashier employees, they rarely asked customers for their ZIP codes. When prompted to enter a ZIP code into the system, the cashiers claim they would enter the store’s ZIP code or make one up.

Ikea states, “Additionally, it cannot be determined from the transaction log, and plaintiff has failed to prove, whether individual transactions designated as involving a particular payment method (VISA, MC, AMEX, or DISC) are in fact consumer credit card transactions which are covered by the Act, or are transactions involving another form of payment (such as a signature debit card, a prepaid card, or a corporate card) which are not covered by the Act.”

According to the retailer, because the plaintiffs cannot establish that the alleged practice of collecting ZIP codes universally for all potential absent and present Class Members in this Ikea ZIP code class action lawsuit, the court must enter summary judgment in favor of the company.

Medellin jointly filed this ZIP code class action lawsuit against Ikea in 2011 accusing the home décor retailer of violating the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 by uniformly requesting ZIP code information from consumers paying with credit cards and storing these ZIP codes into Ikea’s electronic database.

Back in March, Ikea attempted to decertify the ZIP code Class, though Judge Hayes denied this action. However, the judge did trim the Class definition to exclude self-checkout kiosk customers, agreeing with Ikea’s argument that these consumers were given the option to not provide their ZIP code information.

The court has yet to make a decision on the future of the Ikea ZIP code class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are represented by Timothy G. Blood and Paula M. Roach, Leslie E. Hurst and Thomas Joseph O’Reardon, II of Blood Hurst & O’Reardon LLP and Gene J. Stonebarger, Elaine W. Yan and Richard D. Lambert of Stonebarger Law APC.

The Ikea Zip Code Class Action Lawsuit is Yeoman, et al. v. Ikea U.S.A. West Inc., et al., Case No. 3:11-cv-00701, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.