In a class-action lawsuit questioning how Vancouver-based tech company ZoomInfo gets its proprietary data, a federal judge ruled in favor of the company in all but one of the claims last week.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in June 2022 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Thirteen of the suit’s 14 claims were dismissed March 15 by Chief Judge David Estudillo.
ZoomInfo offers sales, marketing and operations software systems that integrate its business data, such as names and contact information. ZoomInfo users can access the site’s database through a paid subscription or through its free Community Edition program.
According to the complaint, users must agree to give ZoomInfo permission to access their incoming and outgoing emails; ZoomInfo will extract certain business information, including business contacts and company names.
Three of the four plaintiffs — Jennifer Wysocki, Andrew Sidhu and Keisha Flemister — alleged as non-subscribers they didn’t give ZoomInfo consent to share and sell their information, according to an amended class-action complaint from September 2022. Wysocki and Sidhu are residents of Connecticut, and Flemister is a Georgia resident, court records state.
The final plaintiff, Betsy Kellogg, is a subscriber to ZoomInfo, but she said she was unaware the platform could view, read, scan, and then disclose, disseminate and sell contents from her electronic communications when she subscribed, according to the complaint. Kellogg is a California resident, court records state.
Estudillo agreed with ZoomInfo in denying claims from Washington, Florida, New York and Illinois where there were no named plaintiffs. And the judge determined two of the claims lacked federal standing. Estudillo found another claim didn’t have standing under Connecticut state law and another would not have a remedy under Georgia law, according to the judge’s order.
The judge also dismissed a claim because plaintiffs didn’t lose money or property, meaning the claim didn’t have standing under California’s Unfair Competition Law, the order shows.
The one remaining claim is against ZoomInfo for violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act, which covers how communication is intercepted and then used. The plaintiffs have until Monday to show cause for the claim to be heard in a federal court.
Representatives for the plaintiffs and ZoomInfo didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday on the order.
The tech company proposed settling other lawsuits in February. Those putative class-action lawsuits alleged the company used Illinois and California residents’ names in public-facing webpages. ZoomInfo proposed settling the lawsuits for an estimated $26 million to $29 million.
