Foot Locker class action alleges retailer eavesdrops on website communications

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Foot Locker website class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Plaintiff Ruth Martin filed a class action lawsuit against Foot Locker Retail Inc. 
• Why: Martin claims Foot Locker breaks the law by allegedly secretly wiretapping the personal conversations of consumers who use the chat feature on the company’s website. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court. 

Foot Locker Retail covertly wiretaps the personal conversations of consumers who use the chat feature on its online website, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Ruth Martin claims Foot Locker harvests the data it allegedly collects from its website visitors in real time to benefit itself financially. 

Martin argues Foot Locker does not obtain consent prior to allegedly wiretapping visitors to its site, in an alleged violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). 

“Compliance with CIPA is easy, and the vast majority of website operators comply by conspicuously warning visitors when their conversations are being recorded or if third parties are eavesdropping on them,” the Foot Locker class action states. 

Martin wants to represent a California class of consumers who have visited Foot Locker’s website and had their electronic communications using its chat feature recorded, stored or shared by Foot Locker or a third party without consent. 

Foot Locker embeds code into website to covertly wiretap visitors using chat feature 

Foot Locker allegedly embedded code into its website’s chat feature so it could wiretap visitors using it, in what Martin argues is “not incidental to the act of facilitating e-commerce, nor are they undertaken in the ordinary course of business.” 

“To the contrary, Defendant’s actions violate both industry norms and the legitimate expectations of consumers,” the Foot Locker class action argues. 

The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and requesting injunctive and declaratory relief along with an award of statutory and punitive damages for herself and all class members. 

Similar class action lawsuits were filed against shoe retailers Saucony and Journeys last year by a consumer privacy advocate arguing the companies broke the law by allegedly recording the private conversations of consumers using the chat features on their respective websites. 

Have you had your electronic communications recorded and shared without your consent? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Scott J. Ferrell of Pacific Trial Attorneys APC. 

The Foot Locker website class action lawsuit is Martin, et al. v. Foot Locker Retail Inc., et al., Case No. 3:23-cv-00319, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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