On Wednesday, a U.S. appeals court enacted a lawsuit accusing Google, owned by Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.O), and several other businesses of violating the privacy of children under the age of 13 by monitoring their YouTube activity without their parent’s permission and using that information to send them targeted advertisements.
The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, was adopted by Congress but was not intended to preempt state laws based on privacy claims, according to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle.
It grants the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the power to control the online collection of personal information about children under the age of 13, but not private plaintiffs.
The lawsuit claimed that YouTube content providers like Hasbro Inc. (HAS.O), Mattel Inc. (MAT.O), the Cartoon Network (WBD.O), and DreamWorks Animation (CMCSA.O) lured kids to their channels knowing that they would be tracked in violation of laws similar to those of the states where Google’s data collection occurred.
The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Francisco in July 2021 on the grounds that the plaintiffs’ claims under the laws of Tennessee, California, Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, and other states were preempted by the federal privacy law.
However, Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown ruled in a 3-0 decision on Wednesday that the wording of the federal law made it “nonsensical” to believe that Congress intended to prevent the plaintiffs from relying on state laws that address the same alleged misconduct.
Freeman was given the case back to consider any additional defenses Google and the content providers might have against it.
Requests for comment from Google’s and the content providers’ attorneys were not immediately fulfilled. Similar requests received no immediate response from the children’s attorneys.
In response to complaints from the FTC and New York Attorney General Letitia James that YouTube had improperly collected children’s personal information without their parent’s permission, Google agreed to pay $170 million in a settlement in October 2019.
According to the plaintiffs in the San Francisco lawsuit, Google did not start adhering to COPPA requirements until January 2020.
For YouTube users who were 16 years old or younger between July 2013 and April 2020, their lawsuit sought damages.
The case number is 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 21-16281: Jones et al v. Google LLC et al.
