Facts

From November 2003 through April 2006, customers of defendant Ben Bridge Jeweler Inc. were asked to disclose their home telephone numbers and address information when they made purchases. The employees working as cashiers asked for such information to enhance the customer database for marketing purposes.

Plaintiff Eric Lee and Jerry Gandara sued defendant, alleging that it violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Protection Act and the Unfair Competition Act. They further claimed that defendant invaded their privacy. Class status was granted to plaintiffs on behalf of 120,000 credit card customers who had provided defendant's stores with their home addresses and telephone numbers.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
Defendant's program for collecting the personal information served to force customers to reveal protected information when they paid with a credit card. This violated the Song-Beverly Act, which bars businesses from requesting a customer's phone number when they are using a credit card.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
There was no misconduct. Defendant was merely providing its customers with an additional service so that it could send them information regarding sales and promotions. Further, customers would still have been able to pay with a credit card even if they had refused to disclose their phone numbers.

Damages

Defendant encroached upon the privacy rights of its customers, who did not willingly provide the information. The customers felt obligated to give the stores their information.

Result

The parties reached a settlement, under which defendant would send each of the customers a $50 merchandise certificate to be used at any of its California stores. The total value of the merchandise certificates was $6 million.