Judge dismisses Urban Outfitters class action alleging customer tracking

Update: 

• A Pennsylvania federal judge tossed a class action lawsuit claiming Urban Outfitters unlawfully used “spy pixels” to track its customers via email. 
• The judge determined the consumer behind the complaint failed to show the company violated recording laws in Arizona and thus lacked standing for their claims.
• The consumer argued the store violated Arizona’s Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act. 
• Urban Outfitters argued the consumer didn’t show the company’s use of trackers for promotional emails constituted an invasion of privacy. 
• The judge ruled the consumer willingly subscribed to Urban Outfitters emails on their own accord. 
• The judge further ruled consumers should not expect to have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” for other information Urban Outfitters allegedly procured.

Urban Outfitters class action overview: 

• Who: Urban Outfitters is facing a class action lawsuit claiming the company broke the law by embedding trackers in marketing emails. 
• Why: Trackers that are used without permission violate Arizona’s Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act, the lawsuit says.
• Where: The Urban Outfitters emails lawsuit was filed in federal court in Pennsylvania.

(Dec. 18, 2023)

Urban Outfitters is facing a class action lawsuit claiming the company broke an Arizona law by embedding trackers in marketing emails.

Arizona’s Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act was violated because Urban Outfitters did not receive permission from customers before it embedded the tracker and received information from users’ email, the lawsuit claims.

Many companies don’t follow the law, with a 2018 Princeton study on email tracking of more than 12,000 emails from 900 senders related to mailing list subscriptions found that 70% contained trackers, the Urban Outfitters email lawsuit says.

Urban Outfitters uses Inbox Monster, an email tracking system, which operates with Salesforce, another email tracking system, the lawsuit claims.

“Defendant embedded spy tracking pixels in marketing emails defendant sent to plaintiff and defendant utilized the tracking system provided by Inbox Monster and Salesforce to track when the time and place of where the email was opened,” the Urban Outfitters class action says.

Class is asking for $1,000 per tracked email and damages, lawsuit says

Lead plaintiff Tomi Hartley, an Arizona resident, frequently opened emails from Urban Outfitters between August 2022 and November 2023 and information from the tracker was sent to the company, the lawsuit claims.

The class is asking for actual damages, compensation for profits made by Urban Outfitters from the emails, $1,000 for each email that was tracked without permission, reasonable attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs, the lawsuit says.

Urban Outfitters underpays its servers and bartenders at its home and garden restaurants and claims a tip credit for work that is ineligible to be tipped, a 2021 class action lawsuit alleges.

Have you received marketing emails from Urban Outfitters? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Kenneth J. Grunfeld of Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert and Yitzchak Kopel of Bursor and Fisher PA.

The Urban Outfitters class action lawsuit is Hartley v. Urban Outfitters Inc., Case No. 2:23-cv-04891, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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