NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - The National Hockey League is fighting a proposed class action lawsuit against it by arguing, among other things, one of the plaintiffs lied about signing up for a team newsletter.
The NHL filed a motion to dismiss June 20 in New York federal court in a lawsuit brought by Zachary Joiner and two other plaintiffs who allege it violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by employing the Facebook Pixel that shared their personably identifiable information with the social media outlet when they viewed a video on an NHL site.
The NHL makes several arguments for dismissal, arguing Joiner lacks standing to sue because he is not a "consumer" as defined by the VPPA.
"In asserting that Joiner is a consumer, the complaint relies on an allegation that he signed up for a newsletter on the Chicago Blackhawks website; however, the accompanying Declaration of Matt Gray, Vice President of Strategy & Analytics at the Chicago Blackhawks, conclusively refutes that allegation, negating any claim of standing," the motion says.
A "diligent" search of a database of subscribers showed Joiner was not among those who signed up for the Blackhawks' newsletter, the motion says.
The plaintiffs allege that the NHL allows users to subscribe to member team newsletters in exchange for their contact information but the defendants failed to disclose that their PII would be captured by Facebook Pixel.
They further allege the defendants failed to obtain users' consent to allow their data to be shared and that the defendants violate the Video Privacy Act through the use of the pixel to track users through Facebook on NHL team websites.
The plaintiffs also allege the defendants' data sharing information is not presented to users in a transparent manner or made as part of the sign-up process as well as does not include terms that sufficiently warn users that their protected information will be shared with a third party.
But the plaintiffs are not "consumers" as defined by the VPPA, the NHL says. Consumer under the VPPA is defined as a "renter, purchaser or subscriber of goods or services from a video tape service provider."
There is no good or service, the NHL says. It adds that it isn't a "video tape service provider."
"Plaintiffs do not plausibly allege that the NHL, a professional ice hockey league, is a 'video tape service provider,' i.e. that 'delivery of prerecorded video cassette tapes or similar audio visual materials' is a focus of the NHL's work, as required by the VPPA and relevant case law," the motion says.