• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 21, 2025

A federal judge has granted class-action status to a WebMD user who claims the health publisher violated a federal video privacy law by disclosing subscribers' video-viewing information to Meta Platforms.

The ruling, issued Thursday U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr., in Atlanta, comes in a dispute dating to 2022, when Kansas resident Debra Lebakken sued WebMD for allegedly violating the Video Privacy Protection Act by transmitting information about her video-viewing history to Meta via its pixel -- a tracking technology that sends analytics data to the platform.

The 37-year-old video privacy law prohibits video companies from sharing personally identifiable information about video subscribers, as well as video renters and consumers. The statute provides for penalties of $2,500 per violation -- which means the decision to grant class-certification could expose WebMD to significant damages.

Last year, Georgia resident Linda Jancik replaced Lebakken as lead plaintiff. Jancik sought to represent a class of WebMD subscribers in the U.S. who viewed videos on the service after February 17, 2020, who also used Facebook and provided the same email address to both companies, and whose video-viewing data was stored by Facebook.

Thrash approved that request Thursday, writing that the proposed class was both defined and ascertainable. He added that the case was appropriate for class-action treatment because there was evidence that numerous people subscribed to WebMD.

The exact number of class members isn't yet known, but WebMD's records showed “at least 550,213 unique subscriber emails with video-viewing activity on webmd.com,” Thrash wrote.

“Although the number of individuals who ultimately had a Facebook account and had their [personally identifiable information] shared will be smaller than this 550,213 figure due to certain user settings, the proffered evidence is sufficient for this court to make the reasonable inference that the proposed class is numerous,” he wrote.

WebMD lost a critical round earlier in the proceedings, when Thrash rejected the company's motion to throw out the lawsuit.

WebMD had argued that the original plaintiff, Lebakken, wasn't a “subscriber” because she had downloaded a free app. Thrash rejected that argument, ruling that Lebakken allegedly provided her email address to WebMD, and created an account with the company.

The suit against WebMD is one of numerous cases alleging that online publishers violate the video privacy law by sharing analytics data with Meta.

The National Basketball Association, which is among the companies facing a privacy suit, lost a key battle in October, when the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals revived a class-action complaint by California resident Michael Salazar. He alleged that the sports organization transmitted identifiable information about the videos he viewed on NBA.com to Meta.

The National Basketball Association argued that Salazar wasn't a “subscriber” or “consumer” because NBA.com didn't require registration to access videos.

The 2nd Circuit rejected that argument in October, ruling that the term "consumer" should be interpreted broadly, and includes web users who provide personal information in exchange for content.

The National Basketball Association has said it will ask the Supreme Court to intervene in the dispute.