A Boston Globe report earlier this year spotlighted the practice of retailers who request your zip code at the point of sale. Consumers presume this information is needed to confirm a credit card purchase, but in fact, it helps the seller determine their client demographics, which could be beneficial in where they advertise their goods. Unfortunately that can lead to consumers being flooded with junk mail, and recent suits have been brought to curb that practice.
In the past two years, more than 25 retailers have been sued in Massachusetts for requesting zip code information from Massachusetts customers. These suits state that the information is not needed for completing transactions but in order to confirm consumer’s address and then bombard them with junk mail. By combining that information with the name on a customer’s credit card and submitting it to data brokers like Experian and Epsilon, the home goods company Williams-Sonoma was able for more than 20 years to zero in on customers’ home addresses every time they swiped their cards, according to sworn testimony submitted in July to a Massachusetts court by the company’s director of database marketing. Williams-Sonoma’s brands also include Pottery Barn and West Elm.
“With a ZIP code comes lots of other psychographic data: what kind of car you drive, what kind of beer you drink, what religion you might be,” said Lori Moretti, the founder of CM Communications, a Boston public relations firm. “There’s economic information in a ZIP code.”
In March of 2013, one of these cases made it to our state’s highest court, and the Supreme Judicial Court deemed the company’s policy of asking for zip codes during credit card transactions illegal. The court also ruled that getting unwanted junk mail was harmful enough for customers to sue over it.
In the weeks that followed the SJC’s decision, at least 20 other cases have followed. Most have settled or are winding their way through the courts. Consumers have received about $3.5 million worth of gift cards in settlement of these cases. Advocates for the companies say these cases are brought by unsavory attorneys but are settled in order to keep costs down. Consumer lawyers defend their handling of such cases stating that class-action lawsuits are the only way to get giant corporations to respect their customers’ rights. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to know why you are giving the information before you give it.
Thank you,
Michael K. Gillis, Esq.
GILLIS & BIKOFSKY, P.C.
1150 Walnut Street
Newton, MA 02461
Phone: 617-244-4300
Fax: 617-964-0862
E-mail: mgillis@gillisandbikofsky.com