SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A California individual alleges that a car manufacturer is "surreptitiously acquiring consumers' private information from state-issued driver's licenses, then storing, using and disclosing the same for unpermitted marketing and sales purposes without the consumers' consent."
Wayne Skiles, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a complaint on Sept. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Tesla Inc., formerly known as Tesla Motors Inc.; Experian Information Solutions Inc.; Appstem Media LLC; and Salesforce Ventures LLC alleging that the defendants violated the Driver's Privacy Act, The Electronic Communications Privacy Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act.
According to the complaint, Skiles alleges that in July 2015, he visited a Tesla showroom in Newport Beach, California, and accepted an offer to test drive a car. He alleges his driver's license was scanned by a Tesla employee.
The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible because they allegedly obtained and used consumers' personal information for an impermissible purpose without the knowledge or consent and/or sold customers' credit information, including their names, addresses, dates of birth, and further information related to their creditworthiness for marketing and sales purposes.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks award of statutory and punitive damages, attorneys' fees, together with all costs and expenses. He is represented by Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law Group APC in Costa Mesa, California and Joshua B. Swigart of Hyde & Swigart in San Diego.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 3:17-cv-05434-JCS