Fla. Judge Grants TelevisaUnivision Motion to Compel VPPA Claims to Arbitration

U.S. District Judge Tom Barber for Middle Florida in Tampa granted TelevisaUnivision Digital's motion to compel plaintiff Indira Falcon’s Video Privacy Protection Act claims to arbitration and to stay the case pending that arbitration's outcome, said Barber’s signed order Friday (docket 8:23-cv-02340). Falcon alleges that TelevisaUnivision violated the VPPA by disclosing her and other class members’ ViX.com viewing history to Facebook via a Meta tracking pixel embedded in the ViX.com website. Falcon opposes arbitration by arguing that she wasn’t on “inquiry notice” of the arbitration provision. But courts in the Middle District of Florida have “consistently found” that a statement informing a user that consenting to a set of hyperlinked terms “provides sufficient inquiry notice if the hyperlinks are conspicuously placed above the button that users must click to continue,” said Barber’s order. In Falcon’s case, the hyperlinks weren’t “buried” at the bottom of ViX’s webpage, it said. Users of the site, such as Falcon, therefore had “sufficient inquiry notice” that she was agreeing to the use agreement's terms, including its arbitration provision, by clicking “create account” and “subscribe,” it said.