Williams v. DDR Media, LLC

District Court, N.D. California·Decided February 28, 2023·No. 3:22-cv-03789·Unknown

Opinion

LORETTA WILLIAMS, Case No. 22-cv-03789-SI

Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ v. JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL ARBITRATION DDR MEDIA, LLC, et al., Re: Dkt. No. 29 Defendants.

On February 17, 2023, the Court held a hearing on defendants’ joint motion to compel arbitration. For the reasons set forth below, the Court DENIES the motion. On June 27, 2022, Loretta Williams filed a class action complaint against defendants DDR Media LLC and Lead Intelligence Inc., d/b/a/ Jornaya, alleging that defendants violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act, Cal. Penal Code § 631,1 and California’s Unfair Competition Law, and invaded Williams’s and class members’ privacy rights under the California Constitution. Williams alleges that defendants unlawfully recorded her electronic communications or interactions with DDR Media’s website “SnappyRent2own.com” when she used the website on or around December 10, 2021. Compl. ¶¶ 20–24 (Dkt. No. 1). According to the complaint, Jornaya offers a product called “TCPA Guardian” to lead generators and telemarketers. Id. ¶ 5. The product is “designed to allow these lead generators and 1 The California Invasion of Privacy Act criminalizes the use of a recording device to “read[], or attempt[] to read, or to learn the contents or meaning of any message, report, or telemarketers to attempt compliance with the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act by documenting alleged evidence of prior express consent to receive telemarketing calls provided on websites.” Id. One feature of TCPA Guardian is a “visual playback” function, which records, in real time, a person’s interactions with a website that is using TCPA Guardian. Id. ¶ 6. DDR Media installed TCPA Guardian by embedding Jornaya’s code onto the SnappyRent2own.com website. Id. ¶ 11. Williams alleges that when she visited SnappyRent2own.com on December 10, 2021, “the Jornaya TCPA Guardian replay function created a video that captured Williams’ keystrokes and clicks on the website.” Id. ¶ 21. TCPA Guardian also captured the date and time of the visit, her IP address, and her geographic location, as well as Williams’ name, address, and phone number. Id. ¶¶ 21–23. Williams alleges that the recording was done without her consent, and that defendants did not inform website visitors that their strokes and clicks would be recorded. Id. ¶ 24. On December 15, 2022, defendants filed a joint motion to compel arbitration based upon an arbitration agreement contained in the Terms of Use on the SnappyRent2Own.com website. Defendants have submitted pictures of the website, which they implicitly represent is the version of the website that Williams accessed.2 See Swaminathan Decl., Ex. 1 (Dkt. No. 29-2). The hyperlink to the Terms of Use is on lines sixteen and seventeen of twenty-one in a full-justified paragraph of text. 3 See id.; see also Appendix A. The paragraph states, By clicking the “Get Started” button, I am agreeing by my electronic signature to give SnappyRent2Own, NHAProgram, and its partners my prior express written consent and permission to send emails, as well as to call and send to me recurring text messages at the cellphone number(s) I provided above and to any other subscriber or user of these cellphone number(s), using an automated dialing system at any time from and after my inquiry to 2 The Court accessed the SnappyRent2Own.com website on February 22, 2023. On that day, the website differed from the version depicted in defendants’ briefing in significant ways, including the absence of a long paragraph— or any language—stating that by taking any particular action on the website, such as clicking a button, the user was agreeing to the Terms of Use.

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Williams v. DDR Media, LLC, (N.D. Cal. 2023).

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