Class Action Claims Talbots Sells Customers’ Private Information Without Consent

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The Talbots, Inc. is on the receiving end of a proposed class action in which the retailer is accused of selling customers’ personal information to third party data miners and “aggressive advertisers.” The two plaintiffs behind the suit claim they were never informed of the defendant’s alleged data-selling practices upon providing their personal information at Talbots stores and, as a result, have been “inundated with a barrage of unwanted junk mail and telephone solicitations.”

The lawsuit explains that the defendant, a chain of women’s clothing and accessories stores, sells lists containing “detailed information” on customers—including about their personal lives, finances, and purchasing decisions—through brokers such as non-party NextMark, Inc. As the case explains it, a buyer could purchase “a list with the names and addresses of all Talbots customers who are wear [sic] size 4 and made purchases over $100” for “$172 per thousand customers listed.”

The lawsuit further charges that when Talbots supplements the personal data collected directly from customers themselves with other information scraped from data miners, the retailer can compile and sell mailing lists that identify Talbots customers “by their most intimate details,” such as income, political affiliation, religion, and charitable donations. The case claims Talbots never notifies or obtains consent from customers before selling their sensitive information to “anyone willing to pay for it.”

Aside from providing advertisers with fuel for marketing campaigns, the defendant’s conduct can cause Talbots customers to become prey to fraudulent telemarketers, scammers and identity thieves, the case says. The lawsuit argues that Talbots’ data sharing increases the risk that customers’ data will fall into the hands of nefarious individuals who may target “the more vulnerable members of society,” such as elderly consumers.

According to the plaintiffs, the purchases they made at Talbots stores were of less value than the price paid given they did not receive the statutory privacy protections that should have been included in the purchases. The women claim they would not have shopped at Talbots, or would have paid less for their purchases, had they known the retailer would sell their private information.

The lawsuit, alleging violations of Virginia’s Personal Information Privacy Act, seeks to cover Virginia residents whose personally identifiable information was sold by the defendant without consent.