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A California woman has filed a class action lawsuit against Valvoline, claiming the company's website records and transfers users' communications and information without their consent.
Plaintiff Anne Heiting filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Valvoline and several unnamed individuals, citing violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and violations of the California Unauthorized Access to Computer Data Act.
According to the lawsuit, Valvoline operates and maintains vioc.com, an online platform that sells vehicle services. Heiting claims that she visited the website and utilized the chat box feature. Heiting claims that while she was using the website, she her communications were being recorded for commercial surveillance purposes without her knowledge or consent.
The lawsuit claims that Valvoline's website uses code to intercept customer inquiries and diverts them to incontact.com, which allegedly stores the information for its own purposes. According to the lawsuit, this is done without informing the users that their communications are being monitored and stored for targeted advertising purposes.
The lawsuit states that the CIPA makes it illegal for parties to record or eavesdrop on a user's confidential communications without their consent. Additionally, the California Unauthorized Access to Computer Data Act makes it illegal for parties to obtain data from a computer user without their consent.
According to the lawsuit, by embedding code on their website to record and eavesdrop on the plaintiff's communications and allowing InContact to collect information from the plaintiff without her consent, the defendant allegedly violates CIPA and CUCA.
Heiting is seeking money damages for herself and everyone in her class action lawsuit, plus interest, court costs, attorney fees, and other relief.
She is represented by attorney Robert Tauler of Tauler Smith LLP in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County Superior Court case number 23STCV22583