As previously reported, a California Supreme Court ruling has made it illegal for stores to ask for a customer’s zip code when paying with a credit card. To do so, the court ruled in February, violates California’s Credit Card Act, which prohibits businesses from requesting and then recording “personal identification information” during credit card transactions.
But it looks like not every retailer got the message — as the Examiner reports, since that ruling, more than 150 class-action lawsuits have been filed against companies like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Burlington Coat Factory, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, Office Depot, Officemax, The Gap, Pier 1 Imports, Urban Outfitters and Wal-Mart. 40 of those cases have been filed in San Francisco.
Plaintiffs say that these companies are continuing to demand their zip code information for nefarious marketing purposes by claiming the zip’s necessary to process the transaction. Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Association, says these cases are “unfounded” and that the zips are being requested for fraud detection.
Have you had your zip code requested by a company since the ruling? Did you give it out?
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