Cabela's Class Action Transferred to Mo. District Judge With Similar Case

A Nov. 9 privacy class action alleging that Cabela's third-party vendors, including Microsoft, embed snippets of computer code on consumers’ browsers was reassigned Wednesday from U.S. District Court for Western Missouri in Springfield to U.S. District Court in Kansas City, said a clerk's order (docket 6:22-3288). Plaintiff Arlie Tucker, St. Clair, Missouri, has a similar complaint with the same counsel against Bass Pro Shops parent BPS Direct, and the two complaints should be heard by the same Kansas City judge, Stephen Bough, said a Dec. 21 notice of related action requesting the transfer. Defendants’ counsel didn't object. The complaint against Cabela’s -- alleging the third-party vendors create and deploy session replay codes at the defendant's request to recreate visitors' entire visit to the e-commerce site -- makes “substantially similar allegations” to those against BPS Direct, said the notice. Defendants’ directive to the session replay providers "to secretly deploy" the session replay code "results in the electronic equivalent of looking over the shoulder” of each visitor to the e-commerce site for the "entire duration of their website interaction," the plaintiff asserted. The complaints against both retailers allege their e-commerce conduct violates several federal and state laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Missouri Wiretap Act.