Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ subscriber suit to proceed, but not as class action

Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones & Co. can’t send to arbitration subscriber allegations the paper sold their information to third parties, reports Perry Cooper of Bloomberg Law.

Cooper writes, “The arbitration clause in the subscriber agreement exempts claims that could qualify for small claims court, Judge Lorna G. Schofield wrote for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Robert Jeremy Horton’s individual claim under the Michigan Video Rental Privacy Act qualifies for small claims court because he seeks damages of less than $5,000, the court said. But Horton is barred from proceeding on a class basis by the class waiver in the agreement, the court held.

“Horton alleges that without their consent, Dow Jones sold information that identifies Wall Street Journal subscribers as having bought a subscription. Unauthorized disclosure of
personal reading information violates the VRPA, he says.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.