In a ruling that could send shockwaves through the tech world, a U.S. appeals court on Monday resurrected a Shopify data privacy lawsuit, breathing new life into a proposed class action that accuses the Canadian e-commerce titan of covertly tracking online shoppers in California.
With a decisive 10-1 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared that Shopify can indeed face litigation in California over its use of tracking software—known as cookies—to gather personal information from Golden State residents who made purchases on merchant websites powered by Shopify.
A Cookie Crumbles in California
At the heart of the revived lawsuit is Brandon Briskin, a California consumer who claimed Shopify installed tracking cookies on his iPhone without permission when he bought athletic apparel from the retailer “I Am Becoming.” According to the lawsuit, Shopify harvested Briskin’s data to construct a consumer profile, which it then allegedly sold to other businesses—without consent, and without transparency.
Shopify had sought to sidestep California’s jurisdiction, arguing its business spanned the U.S. and was not specifically targeted at the state. The Ottawa-based company claimed Briskin should instead sue in Delaware, New York, or even Canada. But the full 9th Circuit wasn’t buying it.
