Meredith Sale of Magazine Subscriber Information California Class Action

California’s Right of Publicity Law (CRPL) gives individuals control over the use of their names and likenesses. The complaint for this class action alleges that Meredith Corporation, a publishing company, violates this law when it sells its subscribers’ “names and likenesses, along with other highly sensitive personal information…” It sells this information to parties like data aggregators, list brokers, and “aggressive marketing companies,” says the complaint. The complaint calls this a monetization of subscribers’ names and likenesses.

The class for this action is all California residents who, at any point in the applicable statutory period, had their names on or in a mailing list sold by or on behalf of Meredith without their consent.

The plaintiff in this case is a subscriber to Meredith’s Entertainment Weekly publication. Page 3 of the complaint shows a screenshot of an offer to sell information on that magazine’s subscribers, at the website of list broker NextMark, Inc., entitled “Entertainment Weekly Magazine Mailing List.”

Meredith sells not just the names and addresses of subscribers but also “a myriad of other personally identifying attributes and demographic information such as gender, age, and income” of each, for which it charges a base price of “$115.00/M” (per thousand), or 11.5 cents each.

The complaint alleges that the subscriber information Meredith sells is not limited to this Entertainment Weekly list. It also sells subscriber information from other Meredith publications, the complaint alleges, as well as a “Meredith Database—Masterfile Mailing List.” A screenshot of the offer of this Masterfile is shown on page 3 of the complaint.

Meredith sells its mailing lists without the consent of the subscribers whose information is on offer.

The complaint quotes the CRPL as saying, “Any person who knowingly uses another’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, in any manner, on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods or services, without such person’s prior consent … shall be liable for any damages sustained by the person or persons injured as a result thereof.”

The complaint alleges that Meredith violates this law by knowingly using its subscribers’ information “on or in” the mailing lists it sells; the mailing lists are “products, merchandise, or goods.” Meredith does not get its subscribers’ prior consent to sell their information. Meredith has therefore deprived its subscribers of their right to privacy by surreptitiously selling the mailing lists, the complaint claims.

The complaint has a further concern—that the sale of such information is dangerous, because it allows those who buy it to target particular kinds of people, “including vulnerable members of society, using their identities, interests, and other demographic data.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Right of Publicity, Your Privacy