Arthouse film distributor Kino Lorber was sued Monday for tracking and sharing data to Facebook without customer consent.
The class action lawsuit filed in New York Federal Court cites alleged violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”), federal and state wiretap laws and invasions into consumers’ privacy.
Plaintiffs Michael Dallum and Jeremy Padow claimed in documents obtained and reviewed by TheWrap that the Kino Lorber website “utilized tracking tools to intercept and disclose consumers’ search terms, video watching information and personally identifiable information without seeking or obtaining consumers’ consent.” The suit states the distributor’s site used Meta’s Pixel software to track consumers’ video consumption.
“[Kino Lorber] purposefully implemented and utilized the Pixel, which tracks consumers’ activity on the website and discloses that information to Facebook to gather valuable marketing data,” the documents read.
“The Pixel cannot be placed on a website by Facebook. Only a website owner can place the Pixel on a website,” the suit continued. “Here, the Pixel was utilized on the Kino Lorber website, and effectuates the sharing of consumers’ PII. None of this could have occurred without purposeful action on the part of Defendant.”
In utilizing Pixel, the lawsuit states that the users’ “personally identifiable information” (or PII) was sent to Facebook. That information includes “their Facebook ID, along with Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ event data, including the title of the videos they viewed, to Facebook.”
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages and for Kino Lorber to pay the plaintiffs and members of the Class $2,500 as part of the Video Privacy Protection Act.
Kino Lorber is a home video distribution company with a library of over 4,000 titles. Their most recent releases include “Four Daughters” and Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” starring Jacob Elordi, Richard Gere, and Uma Thurman.
Representatives for Kino Lorber did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
