Mullen Coughlin attorneys James F. Monagle and Nicholas J. Pontzer recently obtained a first-of-its-kind summary judgment victory in Doe v. Eating Recovery Center LLC – a lawsuit involving alleged violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) by a healthcare entity who utilized the Meta Pixel on its website.
On October 17, 2025, Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted summary judgment to Eating Recovery Center (ERC), finding ERC did not violate CIPA or CMIA by using the Meta Pixel on its website. Judge Chhabria opined that “courts should not contort themselves to fit the type of conduct alleged in this case into the language of a 1967 criminal statute about wiretapping.”
In recent years, Plaintiffs’ counsel have brought hundreds of similar claims against website operators who use third party website technologies for data analytics and targeted advertising purposes. Generally, these claims attempt to shoehorn ancient wiretapping statutes in pursuit of class-wide statutory damages. This decision is a welcome step in rejecting those claims.
Mullen Coughlin’s nationwide litigation team possess deep subject-matter knowledge, industry experience and insight in data privacy and security single-plaintiff, class action and B2B litigation. We have successfully managed thousands of litigation and regulatory investigation matters on behalf of organizations of all sizes and across all industry sectors in the United States.
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