A man who signed up for CBS Interactive’s fantasy football and provided personal information, can’t sue the network for damages because he can’t discover which direct marketers bought the information from CBS.
California’s Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles dismissed the lawsuit by David Boorstein, saying he had no standing to pursue the claims under either the Shine the Light law or under the unfair competition law.
The Shine the Light Law (STL) was passed to open business information-sharing practices by requiring them to set up procedures for consumers to obtain information about the practices. If a company shares customers’ personal information with direct marketers then the firm must disclose, on the customer’s request, the names and addresses of the third parties that received it.
But businesses are exempt from that requirement if they instead offer consumers an opportunity to opt in, or out, of the disclosure of information.
Boorstein signed up for cbssports.com fantasy football, baseball and basketball. In doing so he provided his name, email, date of birth and zip code to CBS Interactive. He sued CBS accusing the firm of sharing his personal information for marketing in violation of the STL statute.
He accused CBS of failure to provide a link on its home page detailing privacy rights and about how to request disclosure information.
The appeals court sided with CBS saying Boorstein never alleged that his personal information was actually disclosed for marketing and if it was never shared then CBS has no obligation to provide disclosure information to him.
Boorstein confirmed during oral arguments that he had never requested and STL disclosures from CBS.
Because it was undisputed that Boorstein made no disclosure request the dismissal of his suit was upheld, according to the court.
In addition, the court said that because Boorstein cannot show he was injured, he has no standing to file suit.
Boorstein filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in 2012 against the Men’s Journal and it too was dismissed.
Finally, the state appeals court ordered Boorstein to pay CBS Interactive’s costs for the appeal.
Case: Boorstein v. CBS Interactive, Inc., No. B247472
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