LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A beauty products business says lawyers are manufacturing arbitration claims against it.
L'Occitane, a New York-based corporation, filed a lawsuit Feb. 8 against Zimmerman Reed LLP and its 3,144 purported clients. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by attorneys Allan E. Anderson, Adam D. Bowser, and Andrea M. Gumushian from ArentFox Schiff.
The complaint alleges that Zimmerman Reed and its clients are manufacturing arbitration claims en masse by visiting L'Occitane's website and then claiming their privacy was violated under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA).
L'Occitane provides anonymous visitor to information to Contentsquare, Google Analytics and Forter to help with visitors' experience with its site. It is this sharing that has led to thousands of CIPA claims from Zimmerman Reed, the suit says.
"Google Analytics is an extremely common analytics tool utilized by L’Occitane for statistical analysis to help L’Occitane understand the source of Website traffic, gauge the success of marketing campaigns, and discover patterns and trends in user engagement with the Website, including measuring potential fraud," the suit says.
"Google Analytics is so common that Defendant Zimmerman Reed also has Google Analytics deployed on its own website, https://www.zimmreed.com/."
L'Occitane argues that this action is an unlawful conspiracy to continue manufacturing frivolous arbitration claims after they have been unequivocally informed to cease and desist from their conduct.
L'Occitane is seeking declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to stop the defendants' actions and put an end to these suits under what it describes as a facially unconstitutional state penal law.