San Francisco, CA: A $3 million settlement has been reached in a privacy violation class action lawsuit pending against Crate & Barrel. The lawsuit alleges the retailer asked customers to provide their ZIP codes when making credit card purchases, which is in direct violation of the Song-Beverly-Act.
While the precise settlement amount has not been made public, according to a recently filed settlement memorandum Crate & Barrel has agreed to provide about $2.5 million in merchandise credits to Class Members and approximately $490,000 in lawyers fees.
The lawsuit was filed in 2011 over customer allegations that Crate & Barrel violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, which prohibits companies from asking for personal information during credit card transactions, including phone numbers and ZIP codes.
Crate & Barrel has denied any wrongdoing, stating it did not violate the law, and only asked for ZIP code information after credit card transactions had gone through, not during them. The retailer also claims it stopped the ZIP code policy in its California stores in February 2011.
The Crate & Barrel Song-Beverly-Act Class Action is entitled Shughrou v. Euromarket Designs Inc., Case No. 11-cv-02325, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Details on how to file a claim will be made public in the coming months.
