LEGAL NEWSLINE

LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A Los Angeles resident is suing Forever 21 Retail Inc. for collecting personal identification information of customers to its California stores.

In July, Tamar Estanboulian went to Forever 21 Retail's store in Los Angeles, Calif., and proceeded to select merchandise that she intended to purchase from the store, according to a complaint filed Sept. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

After selecting the merchandise, Estanboulian proceeded to the cashiers' section of the defendant's store to pay for the selected merchandise through the use of a credit card, according to the suit.

"Defendant’s employee saw that plaintiff had selected products that plaintiff wished to purchase from defendant and, as part of defendant’s uniform policy, then requested personal identification information in the form of an e-mail address...without informing [her] of the consequences if [she] did not provide defendant's employee with [her] requested personal identification information," the complaint states.

Estanboulian claims she provided her email address because she believed she was required to do so to complete the transaction and receive her receipt.

"Defendant’s employee informed plaintiff of the amount due to defendant for the merchandise plaintiff had selected," the complaint states. "Plaintiff then utilized a credit card to complete the transaction."

Estanboulian claims at this point in the transaction, the defendant had her credit card number, name and email address recorded in its databases.

The defendant’s employee made no attempt to erase, strikeout, eliminate or otherwise delete her personal identification information from the electronic cash register after her credit card number was recorded, according to the suit.

"Plaintiff observed that other patrons were asked to provide their personal email addresses at the point of sale," the complaint states. "Defendant’s employee and plaintiff completed the transaction and plaintiff left defendant’s store with her purchased merchandise."

Estanboulian claims shortly thereafter, she received an email from the defendant promoting the store's merchandise.

Forever 21 violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 by collecting Estanboulian's personal identification information, according to the suit.

"The proposed class is defined as: all persons in California from whom defendant requested and recorded personal identification information in conjunction with a credit card transaction

Estanboulian claims the members of the class are so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable.

While the exact number of class members is unknown to the plaintiff at this time, such information can be ascertained through appropriate discovery, from records maintained by the defendant and its agents, according to the suit.

Abbas Kazerounian, one of the plaintiff's attorneys, said that the complaint speaks for itself where the facts are concerned.

Estanboulian is seeking class certification, statutory damages of $1,000 to her and all class members pursuant to the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 and pre-judgment interest. She is being represented by Kazerounian and Matthew M. Loker of Kazerouni Law Group APC; and Joshua B. Swigart of Hyde & Swigart.

The case is assigned to District Judge Percy Anderson.

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California case number: 2:14-cv-06971

From Legal Newsline: Kyla Asbury can be reached at classactions@legalnewsline.com.