Quimbee Website Seeks Dismissal of VPPA Class Action for Failure to State a Claim
Sellers International, the parent company of Quimbee, a website tailored to law students, seeks the dismissal of Isaac Shapiro’s Jan. 4 Video Privacy Protection Act class action for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted, said…
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its motion Thursday (docket 4:24-cv-00079) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland. Shapiro alleges Sellers knowingly disclosed his personally identifiable information (PII), including a record of case brief videos he watched on the Quimbee website, without his consent (see 2401110045). He alleges that Quimbee installed the HubSpot tracking code on its website, which tracks and records visitors’ private video consumption. But the plaintiff’s complaint “lacks crucial allegations” to bring a VPPA claim against Quimbee, said the defendant’s memorandum of points and authorities in support of its motion to dismiss. Shapiro fails to allege Quimbee is a videotape service provider under the VPPA, “or that an ordinary person would be able to glean video viewing history from the information allegedly shared with HubSpot,” it said. Quimbee also didn’t disclose any PII, as HubSpot “is merely the tool that Quimbee uses to collect information about Quimbee’s own customers, exclusively for Quimbee’s own use,” it said. If the VPPA is interpreted in the manner that Shapiro “advocates,” the VPPA violates due process and the First Amendment, it said. Shapiro’s California Invasion of Privacy Act claim also fails because Quimbee didn’t “aid or abet its software vendor,” and Shapiro has failed to allege that HubSpot violated the CIPA, it said.