{"id":2194,"date":"2025-05-12T15:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T19:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/?p=2194"},"modified":"2025-05-12T15:53:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T19:53:24","slug":"california-court-sua-sponte-dismisses-cipa-class-action-for-lack-of-standing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2025\/05\/12\/california-court-sua-sponte-dismisses-cipa-class-action-for-lack-of-standing\/","title":{"rendered":"California Court Sua Sponte Dismisses CIPA Class Action For Lack Of Standing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Tyler Z. Zmick, and George J. Schaller<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duane Morris Takeaways<\/em>: <\/strong>On April 4, 2025,inRodriguez v. Autotrader.com, Inc., No. 24-CV-08735, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70074 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 4, 2025),<\/em> Judge R. Gary Klausner of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed with prejudice<\/a> a class action complaint which asserted violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (\u201cCIPA\u201d) for lack of standing. Plaintiff admitted she was a \u201ctester\u201d and knew that defendant Autotrader\u2019s website contained tracking devices before accessing it, leading the Court to rule that Plaintiff failed to allege an unlawful use of pen registers and trace devices under the CIPA.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ruling is welcome news for businesses sued by so-called \u201ctester\u201d plaintiffs, who actively seek out websites to \u201ctest\u201d for potential CIPA violations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiff Rebeka Rodriguez filed a class action complaint against Autotrader.com, asserting claims under (i) CIPA \u00a7 631 for violating California\u2019s wiretapping and eavesdropping statute and (ii) CIPA \u00a7 638.51 for violating California\u2019s statute prohibiting the use of pen registers and trace devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiff claimed that Autotrader\u2019s website immediately installs third-party tracking software that collects various types of information to deliver targeted advertising. She alleged that she ran a search containing \u201cconfidential\u201d and \u201cprivate\u201d information using a search bar on Autotrader\u2019s website, and that such information was then shared with third parties without her consent. Plaintiff also claimed that when she visited the website, tracking software was installed on her browser which \u201ccaptured and sent identifying information to third parties.\u201d Plaintiff admitted that she was actively seeking out privacy violations when she visited Autotrader\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 14, 2025, the District Court granted Autotrader\u2019s request that Plaintiff\u2019s CIPA \u00a7 631 claim be dismissed with prejudice for lack of standing. See Rodriguez v. Autotrader.com, Inc., <\/em>No. 24-CV-08735, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47308, at *1 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 14, 2025). The Court\u2019s March 14 order also directed the parties to show cause in writing \u201cwhether Plaintiff has standing to bring her \u00a7 638.51 claim.\u201d  Id.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court\u2019s Order<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 4, 2025, the Court sua sponte <\/em>dismissed Plaintiff\u2019s remaining pen register claim under CIPA \u00a7 638.51 for lack of standing. The Court relied on the same analysis used in dismissing Plaintiff\u2019s \u00a7 631 claim \u2013 specifically, Plaintiff was \u201ca tester that actively [sought] out privacy violations,\u201d she \u201chad no expectation of privacy\u2019 when she visited [Autotrader\u2019s] website, and therefore, lacked an injury sufficient to establish standing.\u201d Rodriguez v. Autotrader.com, Inc.<\/em>,No. 24-CV-08735, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47308, *2 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 4, 2025). In its ruling, the Court determined that neither party disputed that Plaintiff\u2019s \u00a7 638.51 claim \u201crequires the same disclosure of sensitive information and reasonable expectation of privacy as her \u00a7 631 claim.\u201d Id.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court was not persuaded by Plaintiff\u2019s argument that her status as a tester did not preclude \u201cstanding even though she expected or sought out an injury,\u201dfinding her supporting authority distinguishable because the cases she relied on involved \u201cFirst Amendment and ADA claims for which the plaintiffs were injured regardless of their expectations or intentions.\u201d Id. <\/em>at *3. Accordingly, the Court dismissed Plaintiff\u2019s \u00a7 638.51 claim with prejudice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implications For Companies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the ruling in Rodriguez<\/em> is a positive development for businesses, the scope of the decision was limited in that Plaintiff lacked standing only because her claim required a violation of her \u201creasonable expectation of privacy.\u201d \u201cTester\u201d plaintiffs in other class action lawsuits frequently assert claims against website hosts and website service providers and can proceed past the motion-to-dismiss stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While companies cannot prevent \u201ctester\u201d plaintiffs from filing similar lawsuits, companies can protect themselves from liability under the CIPA by employing safeguards on their websites in the form of data-tracking disclosures and obtaining consent from users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Tyler Z. Zmick, and George J. Schaller Duane Morris Takeaways: On April 4, 2025,inRodriguez v. Autotrader.com, Inc., No. 24-CV-08735, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70074 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 4, 2025), Judge R. Gary Klausner of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed with prejudice a class action … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “California Court Sua Sponte Dismisses CIPA Class Action For Lack Of Standing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[7,12,96],"class_list":["post-2194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-privacy-class-actions"],"authors":[{"term_id":7,"user_id":575,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gmaatman","display_name":"Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/maatmangerald-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""},{"term_id":12,"user_id":578,"is_guest":0,"slug":"tzzmick","display_name":"Tyler Z. Zmick","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/zmicktyler-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""},{"term_id":96,"user_id":655,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gschaller","display_name":"George Schaller","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/07\/schallergeorge-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2194"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}