Los Angeles, CA: A class action has been filed in federal court in California against Netflix alleging the movie rental company is violating the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the California Customer Records Act, and Unfair Competition Law, as well as unjust enrichment, and breach of fiduciary duty
Filed by Virginia resident Peter Comstock, the proposed class action alleges that Netflix keeps digital records of each subscriber's choices of streaming video and video rental and then uses that data to make recommendations for other movies that customers might be interested in viewing. The lawsuit states that this kind of tracking is "hardly surprising," but adds that "subscribers do not realize (is) that Netflix maintains this video-viewing information, along with confidential subscriber payment information...in its databases long after subscribers cancel their Netflix subscription."
The suit is seeking $2,500 per violation of the VPPA, $3,000 per violation of the Consumer Records Act, and further punitive damages.
