Judge Sets April 13 Discovery Conference in VPPA Case vs. PBS

An in-person discovery conference is set for April 13 at 2 p.m. in plaintiff Jazmine Harris’ Video Privacy Protection Act complaint against PBS, said an order signed Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-02456) by U.S. District Judge Michael Brown for Northern Georgia in Atlanta. Brown denied the PBS motion to dismiss Harris’ class action Monday because he was obligated to read her complaint “in the light most favorable” to her (see 2303210016), said his order. But Brown recognized that discovery was needed “to answer several threshold factual questions” to determine whether PBS’ use of the Facebook pixel tracking tool violated the VPPA, it said. “At minimum,” those facts “might control dispositive issues” about whether Harris is a consumer as defined under the VPPA, and whether PBS disclosed her personally identifiable information and did so knowingly, it said. The conference will address “how discovery should proceed, including whether the parties should first focus on these potentially decisive issues,” said the order. The parties should be prepared to discuss “the appropriate scope of discovery,” whether discovery should be “segmented into phases,” and how the court can ensure that discovery “occurs as efficiently as possible,” it said. His order stayed discovery until after the hearing is over.