Los Angeles, CA: GameStop is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating California's privacy laws by recording a customer's "personal identification information" during a purchase.
Filed by Melissa Arechiga, the suit claims that an employee at a local GameStop outlet recorded her name, credit card number and other identifying information during a purchase. According to the suit, the employee requested "personal identification information" from Arechiga without explaining what it would be used for; Arechiga provided the information without question, believing it was necessary to complete the purchase. The employee banged it into the computer, ran the sale through and all was well.
However, the employee allegedly "made no attempt to erase, strikeout, eliminate, or otherwise delete [Arechiga's] personal information from the electronic cash register" upon completion of the purchase. Arechiga's lawyer claims that is a violation of a California law which forbids retailers requesting and recording such information as part of a credit card transaction. Because of that, Arechiga filed suit on behalf of everyone in California who had similar information recorded by GameStop over the past year.
The suit seeks a penalty of up to $1000 per member of the class, the maximum civil penalty allowed under the law, as well as attorneys' fees and other legal costs and an injunction preventing GameStop from requesting such information in the future.
