Talbots Class Action Says Customers’ Info Sold

Talbots Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit by consumers who claim that the company sells their personal information without consent.

Plaintiffs Lois Piper and Brenda Ruark say that Talbots women clothing and apparel store sold their information to list brokers, who then sold the information to telemarketers and other “aggressive” advertisers.

Piper claims that every time she made a purchase at Talbots, she was asked personal information, including her name and address. She says she was not notified by Talbots that this information was going to be sold to third parties and the company never obtained her permission to do so.

Because her personal information was sold, she now receives junk mail and phone calls from telemarketers, which she says wastes her time, money and resources.

Due to the sold information, the plaintiffs say they are being inundated with junk mail and solicitations by telephone. They claim that Talbots has violated Virginia’s Personal Information Privacy Act (VPIPA.)

One of the list brokers that Talbots is accused of selling the plaintiffs’ personal information to is a company called NextMark, according to the class action complaint. The plaintiffs point to the NextMark website where the company offers to provide personal information of more than 1.8 million Talbots customers.

The VPIPA states that “No merchant, without giving notice to the purchaser, shall sell to any third person information which concerns the purchaser and which is gathered in connection with the sale, rental or exchange of tangible personal property to the purchaser at the merchant’s place of business,” according to the Talbots class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege that Talbots sells the personal information to third parties to supplement their revenue and performs these actions without obtaining permission.

The Talbots class action claims that anyone is able to purchase a customer list from Talbots that contains a myriad of information regarding the customer. For example, a third party can request information that contains the name and address of Talbots customers who wear a size 4 and who have spent more than $100 in items at the store.

Customer data feeds into a $26 billion industry for online advertisers, according to the Talbots class action lawsuit.

“In fact, an entire industry exists where companies known as data miners purchase, trade, and collect massive databases of information about consumers,” the plaintiffs claim.

In July 2012, the Co-Chairman of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus sent a letter to nine major data brokerage services, asking for information on how they collect, store and disseminate their data.

In addition, the Talbots class action lawsuit states that data mining is more troublesome when the data gets into the hands of direct-mail advertisers, as they sometimes lure unsuspecting consumers into numerous scams.

“Thus, when companies like Defendant share information with data miners and direct-mail advertisers, they contribute to the ‘[v]ast databases of names and personal information’ that are often ‘sold to thieves by large publicly traded companies,’ which ‘put[s] almost anyone within the reach of fraudulent telemarketers’ and other criminals,” according to the plaintiffs.

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The plaintiffs are represented by David S. Godkin and James E. Kruzer of Birnbaum & Godkin LLP and Joshua D. Arisohn and Philip L. Fraietta of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Talbots Personal Information Class Action Lawsuit is Lois Piper and Brenda Ruark v. The Talbots Inc., Case No. 1:20-cv-10297, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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