NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A media outlet on the wrong end of a recent federal court ruling wants to appeal it as soon as possible.
The Epoch Times wants Judge Lavin Hellerstein to certify his order denying its motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit so that it can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit before the case progresses further.
The Epoch Times is one of many defendants facing lawsuits over a pixel that gathers information to send to Facebook when visitors to their website view video content. Hellerstein, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, rejected its motion to dismiss on Nov. 17.
The Epoch Times says an interlocutory appeal could result in the termination of the case, which is brought under the Video Privacy Protection Act.
"The question Defendant seeks to appeal immediately is a pure controlling question fo law: Whether a court, in deciding if 'personally identifiable information' has been disclosed under the VPPA, is to make that determination by reference to the 'ordinary person' (as opposed to the 'recipient' of the information,'" attorneys for the company wrote.
"To answer the question the Second Circuit will need to interpret the VPPA; it will not need to consider facts alleged or to be discovered in this case."
Attorneys from Lieff Cabraser in New York and Carney Bates & Pulliam in Arkansas are pursuing the case.
The firm Lewis Brisbois, representing Epoch, said the company didn't disclose any personally identifiable information to Facebook because the pixel is placed in a user's browser by Facebook and sends information from the browser to Facebook.
"As alleged in the complaint, the pixel was installed by Defendant on Defendant's website," Hellerstein wrote. "It is therefore inaccurate for Defendant to claim that the transmission of information occurs 'independent of any action by Epoch.'
"By installing the pixel, Defendant opened a digital door and invited Facebook to enter that door and extract information from within."
The VPPA prohibits video service providers from disclosing personally identifiable information to other parties. That information, in these cases, includes whether users initiate purchases, what they view and their Facebook IDs.
The plaintiffs sufficiently alleged the VPPA applies to the video content on The Epoch Times, Hellerstein ruled.