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Zip codes

By adamg - 10/2/14 - 7:57 am

A man who twice bought shoes at the Payless store in Natick is suing the chain for allegedly violating a state law that prohibits companies from requiring address information for credit-card purchases.

In his lawsuit, filed this week in US District Court in Boston, Jeffrey Scolnick is seeking to become lead plaintiff in a class action he says could result in more than a $5-million payout by Payless. He alleges Payless used his Zip code, which clerks required him to provide, to ferret out his mailing address and begin bombarding him with junk mail that he never asked for.

By adamg - 1/16/14 - 1:43 pm

Two Massachusetts residents and a Californian who bought stuff at Apple stores across eastern Massachusetts yesterday sued Apple, alleging they got junk mail when the company figured out their home addresses from the Zip codes they say they were required to hand over at the cash register.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Boston, seeks treble damages for themselves and all the other Massachusetts residents they claim were grievously harmed by the alleged practice.

By adamg - 9/13/13 - 7:18 am

Three people who complied with orders from store clerks to hand over their Zip codes or risk not having their purchases go through are now suing over the junk mail they subsequently got.

By adamg - 9/12/13 - 9:28 am

In lawsuits filed yesterday, several Massachusetts residents accused the two chains of requiring them to hand over their Zip codes to buy stuff with credit cards and then using the digits to ferret out their home addresses and mercilessly send them junk mail.

The suits, both filed in US District Court by the same Chicago law firm, note that earlier this year, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the practice is a violation of the state's consumer-privacy law.

By adamg - 7/4/13 - 8:27 am

In the latest lawsuit against a retail chain for its use of Zip codes, a woman who used to like shopping at the Gap in Wellesley is suing over mailings she never asked for.

In her suit, originally filed in state court but transferred to US District Court in Boston, Molly Karp says she shopped at the Wellesley Gap ten times over the past four years, and each time was required to hand over her Zip digits. She charges the Gap then used that to find out where she lived and send her "unsolicited and unwanted direct-marketing material at her home."

By adamg - 6/21/13 - 10:09 am

A woman who started getting J. Crew junk mail after she used her debit card to buy some stuff at its Copley Place store now wants at least $50 for herself - and the same for the teeming masses who also got hooked up with mailings after making purchases from the clothing chain. Plus at least double damages and lawyers' fees (and she is represented by four separate law firms).

By adamg - 6/7/13 - 8:02 am

Massachusetts residents yesterday sued Sur La Table and the Container Store after they say got junk mail even though they never gave the chains their addresses.

In separate lawsuits, Judith Monteferrante and Elizabeth Christiansen say the data mining the chains used to dredge up their addresses based on their Zip codes and credit-card information violates Massachusetts consumer-privacy laws.

By adamg - 3/22/13 - 8:26 am

A woman with a lawsuit against Michaels for allegedly using her Zip code to find out where she lived and bombard her with junk mail this week filed a similar lawsuit against Bed Bath and Beyond.

Melissa Tyler is seeking more than $5 million in a class-action suit, charging the way the chain collects and uses Zip codes from customers violates Massachusetts consumer-privacy laws.

By adamg - 3/15/13 - 9:23 am

Days after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled stores could no longer force consumers to supply their Zip codes on credit-card purchases, a second Massachusetts resident has sued a chain of craft stores for violating a Massachusetts consumer-privacy law.

By adamg - 3/11/13 - 11:33 am

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a chain of arts and craft stores violated a state consumer-privacy law when it used a woman's Zip code on her credit-card transaction to figure out where she lived and start bombarding her with circulars.

The opinion, however, does not mean Melissa Tyler gets anything, because her suit against Michaels is in federal court and the state's highest court was merely providing answers about state consumer-laws to a federal judge hearing her case - where the ultimate decision will come.

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