www.loubar.org 18 Louisville Bar Briefs Litigation Trends and Best Practices for Mitigating Website Legal Risk Dalton Cline and Ameena Khan Per Introduction In today’s marketplace, your website is an integral part of your organization’s business processes—it enables online transactions, hosts thought leadership materials demonstrating your expertise and visually communicates your brand. However, the personal data you collect through your website is also a significant source of legal risk. In recent years, website operators across industries have been blindsided by a surge of thousands of lawsuits claiming that common digital practices—like offering chatbots, track- ing website analytics, using embedded video, utilizing session replay tools or even deploying common automatic information collection tech- nologies like cookies and pixels—violate state and federal law. More than one thousand suits have been filed in California alone in the past two years, and plaintiffs in these cases allege potentially millions of dollars’ worth of dam- ages. It appears that no business is safe from these suits; from consumer retail to industrial manufacturing, from entertainment to energy, businesses in every industry must be prepared to respond to these lawsuits. In addition to plaintiffs’ litigation, the first eight months of 2025 saw regulators enforcing a patchwork of state data protection and privacy laws, with enforcement actions penalties rang- ing from $85,000 to $1.2 million in addition to specific injunctive relief. Reviewing litigation trends and best practices to avoid liability is critical for all organizations. Litigation Trends High-dollar litigation can be broken down into three chief categories: (1) state wiretap claims; (2) video privacy protection act violations; and (3) e-commerce transactions. Wiretap State wiretap claims are far and away the most common claim brought by plaintiffs against website owners. These suits claim that defendant organizations either (1) engaged in a “wiretap” (or assisted a third-party in wiretapping) by capturing the “content” of customer communications with the defendant’s website, or (2) utilized technolo- gies that qualify as a “pen register” and/or “trap and trace device” that captured non-content rout- ing or addressing information about plaintiff’s interaction with the defendant’s website. Wiretapping claims are commonly brought un- der state wiretapping statutes like the California Invasion of Privacy Act, Cal. Pen. Code §631(a) (CIPA), and the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, 18 Pa. Stat. and Cons. Stat. Ann. § 5701 et seq. (WESCA), but may also be brought under various provi- sions of the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Violations under these laws can carry astro- nomical damages, which plaintiffs may use to pressure settlement. For example, violations of WESCA can lead to $1,000 in damages per class member (18 Pa. Stat. and Cons. Stat. § 5725(a)(1)), while violations of CIPA can be worth up to $5,000 per class member (Cal. Pen. Code § 637.2(a)(1)). Video Privacy Protection Act The Video Privacy Protection Act (Pub. L. No. 100-618, 102 Stat 3195 (1988), codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2710)) (VPPA), prohibits a “video tape service provider” from (1) knowingly disclosing to any person (2) “personally identifiable in- formation” concerning any “consumer” of such provider (3) unless an exception applies (such as ©2025 Lenihan Real Estate, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Sotheby’s International Realty® and the Sotheby’s International Realty Logo are service marks licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC and used with permission. Lenihan Real Estate, LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. Any services or products provided by independently owned and operated franchisees are not provided by, affiliated with or related to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC nor any of its affiliated companies. Laura Rice & Associates 502.595.8450
[email protected] lauramovesyou.com SCAN FOR LISTINGS Raising the Bar in Real Estate Performance. Excellence You Can See. Results You Can Feel. (Continued on next page) PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE “ In addition to plaintiffs’ litigation, the first eight months of 2025 saw regulators enforcing a patchwork of state data protection and privacy laws, with enforcement actions penalties ranging from $85,000 to $1.2 million in addition to specific injunctive relief.
2025 12 December
| Title Name |
Pages |
Delete |
Url |
| Empty |
Ai generated response may be inaccurate.
Search Text Block
Page #page_num
#doc_title
Hi $receivername|$receiveremail,
$sendername|$senderemail wrote these comments for you:
$message
$sendername|$senderemail would like for you to view the following digital edition.
Please click on the page below to be directed to the digital edition:
$thumbnail$pagenum
$link$pagenum
