After years out of circulation, class-action lawsuits asserting claims under the Video Protection Privacy Act are now back in reruns. More than 100 putative class actions alleging violations of the VPPA have been filed against publishers that use the Meta pixel on their websites.
It remains to be seen whether these lawsuits will survive evaluation on the merits. This will depend on how courts apply a number of definitions set forth in the law. In the meantime, publishers should review their use of the Meta pixel on webpages that feature video content and heed the litigation as a lesson in complying with a growing patchwork of privacy laws that can apply to a single data processing activity.