PGA Tour Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over ‘Bork Bill’

A recent lawsuit filed by Tampa resident David Britt against the PGA Tour has brought to light another instance of a sports company allegedly sharing user data with Meta, leading to a class-action lawsuit. Britt claims that the PGA Tour disclosed his personal viewing information without his consent, joining other major sports entities that have been accused of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) of 1988.

The VPPA, also known as the “Bork Bill” after Judge Robert Bork, prohibits video tape service providers from disclosing consumers’ personally identifiable information to third parties without their knowledge. This legislation was a response to the leaking of Bork’s video rental history during his Supreme Court nomination. The PGA Tour is now facing allegations of sharing user information with Meta when visitors access videos on PGATour.com without proper consent or notification.

Britt, represented by attorney Brian Levin, is seeking class-action certification on behalf of Americans who subscribed to PGATour.com and accessed prerecorded video content while logged into their Facebook accounts starting from June 13, 2023. The lawsuit alleges that PGATour.com, like several sports websites, utilizes pixel tracking cookies to share user information with Meta without explicit consent.

The damages sought under the VPPA amount to $2,500 per violation, but in a class-action lawsuit, these penalties could escalate significantly. Britt asserts that his class could potentially include thousands, if not millions, of individuals, making the total damages astronomical. With a million people seeking $2,500 each, the overall compensation could reach a staggering $2.5 billion in theory.

The PGA Tour is expected to respond to the lawsuit and request its dismissal, likely employing arguments used by other defendants in similar VPPA cases. These arguments emphasize that the VPPA focuses on video rental history and social media interactions rather than the sharing of data through cookies. Defendants also stress that they are not in direct possession of Facebook data and that the data transmission occurs through internet browsers, beyond their control.

Legal battles surrounding VPPA violations in the sports industry have generated mixed outcomes. While certain courts have ruled that watching sports videos on news-oriented websites does not make viewers “consumers” under the VPPA, other cases have found that subscribing to newsletters or accessing online content can qualify individuals as consumers. The NBA has been at the forefront of such litigation, petitioning the Supreme Court to review conflicting case law and the implications of VPPA violations on a broader scale.

As the legal proceedings unfold, it remains to be seen how the PGA Tour and other sports entities will navigate the complexities of the VPPA and address the concerns raised by users regarding their data privacy and protection.