Class Action Claims FamousFootwear.com Collects Credit Card Users’ Email Addresses for Spam Marketing

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The companies behind FamousFootwear.com face a proposed class action wherein a consumer claims to have received spam emails from the retailer after being required to enter her email address to make a purchase on the website.

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The 15-page privacy lawsuit alleges defendants BG Retail, LLC and Caleres, Inc. have run afoul of the Massachusetts Consumer Privacy in Commercial Transactions Act, a state law which bars companies from requiring consumers to provide their personal data—including email addresses—when making a credit card purchase, unless the information is necessary for the transaction.

The plaintiff, a Massachusetts resident, says that when she ordered a pair of boots on FamousFootwear.com in September 2023, she was required to input her email address in order to proceed with checkout, even though the information was unnecessary for shipping, delivery or any other part of the credit card transaction. The case contends that the woman soon began to get spam marketing emails from the retailer, which she never consented to receive.

According to the class action suit, FamousFootwear.com’s checkout page, until recently, featured a checkbox below the email address field that allowed customers to opt out of receiving promotional emails.

“But even if consumers chose not to click this box, [Famous Footwear] still sent shoppers marketing emails,” the complaint points out.

The filing shares that the current version of the checkout page now includes only a small-print statement that reads, “[b]y placing your order, you agree to receive marketing emails from Famous Footwear, unless you’ve previously unsubscribed.”

The suit asserts that the spam emails are a “nuisance” to the plaintiff, who, like other shoppers paying by credit card, was not given the option to forego entering her email address and was sent marketing messages regardless of whether she checked a consent box on the website.

The Famous Footwear lawsuit looks to represent anyone in Massachusetts who made a purchase on FamousFootwear.com using a credit card.

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