SAN FRANCISCO – A California man is suing a television manufacturer over claims it installs and uses monitoring software in its devices without its customers' permission.
Steven Eddy filed a class-action lawsuit against Vizio Inc., Vizio Holdings Inc., and Cognitive Media Networks on Jan. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, citing violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act, California civil code, California’s Unfair Competition Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act.
According to the lawsuit, on or about January 2015, Eddy bought a Vizio Smart TV for approximately $749.99. The complaint states that the televisions are preinstalled with Automatic Content Recognition software, which the defendants allegedly use to monitor the content users watch in real time and then sell that information to advertisers and data brokers. Had Eddy known this, he would not have purchased the television and said that he suffered damages as a result, the complaint states.
Eddy is seeking statutory and punitive damages, litigation expenses and attorneys' fees. David C. Parisi and Suzanne Havens Beckman of Parisi and Havens LLP in Santa Monica will represent Eddy.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division Case number 3:16-cv-00167-EDL