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Bursor & Fisher Wins Summary Judgment For Magazine Subscriber In Privacy Case Against Hearst
On September 7, 2017, Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment against Hearst for violating the Michigan Preservation of Personal Privacy Act by disclosing Plaintiff’s subscription information without her consent.
Bursor & Fisher filed this action in 2015 on behalf of a class of Michigan subscribers to Hearst magazines alleging that Hearst sold their subscription records, along with other personal, demographic and lifestyle information, to numerous data-miners and direct-mail advertisers, which violated the subscribers’ privacy rights under Michigan law.
“Judge Torres’ order granting Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is a huge victory for the Plaintiff, who is now entitled to a minimum of $5,000 statutory damages under the Michigan statute,” said Joseph I. Marchese, one of the firm’s partners handling the matter. “We are particularly pleased that we were able to prove the Plaintiff’s claims on summary judgment, meaning that we won this case without even the need for a trial. Obviously, this bodes well for the classwide claims on behalf of the many thousands of Hearst subscribers whose privacy rights were violated in exactly the same way.”