The defendants further stated that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over them, emphasizing that the Watch NRL website’s terms and conditions include an Australian choice of law provision, which complicates the case’s legal standing in California.
In a separate filing, the NRL sought to dismiss the claims against it entirely, arguing that the plaintiff, Josh Blakeley, did not demonstrate why the NRL should be held accountable for the alleged actions, as the NRL was not directly responsible for the Watch NRL site.
The lawsuit, filed on August 9, accuses the NRL and the Fox Sports entities of violating the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). The plaintiffs claim that the Watch NRL service used Meta’s tracking pixel code, transmitting personal data to Meta for advertising purposes without notifying subscribers in the site’s privacy policy. This included information about every video viewed on Watch NRL, which was sent to Meta when users were logged into both Facebook and Watch NRL. Even after logging off from Facebook, the tracking continued, transmitting encrypted information to Meta.
