• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Marketing-technology company Zeta Global must face a lawsuit by investors who allege it misrepresented that consumers opted in to the collection of their data, a federal judge said Wednesday.

In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Dale Ho in New York essentially held that if the investors' allegations were proven true, they could support a conclusion that Zeta's statements regarding data were misleading.

"Plaintiffs have adequately alleged materially misleading statements regarding Zeta's opted-in data set," Ho wrote in a 29-page ruling that rejected Zeta's bid to dismiss the lawsuit at an early stage of the proceedings.

A Zeta spokesperson says the company denies the "meritless claims" and expects "to prevail when this case is finally determined."

"We remain confident that our data gathering and management, as well as our privacy policies and practices, comply with applicable law and support our mission of delivering value for our clients and generating long-term shareholder value," the spokesperson says.

The ruling comes in a class-action complaint filed by investors including the Allegheny County Employees Retirement System.

They alleged that between February and October 2024, Zeta publicly represented that it had a data set of more than 240 million opted-in individuals in the U.S.

In November 2024, however, a report by an outside company "raised serious concerns regarding Zeta’s supposed procurement of opted-in consent," the complaint alleges. (Zeta publicly disputed that report.)

The company's stock price fell 37% the day that report came out, according to the complaint.

In February 2025, Zeta said in its stock filings that it had data for more than 240 million U.S. individuals, but no longer described them as "opted-in," the complaint alleges.

The plaintiffs contend that some of Zeta's data was not actually collected with consumers' opt-in consent. Among other allegations, the plaintiffs said Zeta obtained consumer data from its commenting platform Disqus which -- according to the plaintiffs -- gathered data under an opt-out framework.

"A user who signs up for Disqus must first 'Sign-Up' and share his or her information, and then, afterwards, must later access Disqus’ separate privacy policy to effectuate an 'opt-out,'" the plaintiffs alleged in court papers, which included a screenshot from Disqus's sign-up page and a portion of its privacy policy.

Zeta urged Ho to throw out the complaint at an early stage for several reasons.

Among other arguments, Zeta said the allegations, even if proven true, would not show that it made misrepresentations about consumer data.

"There are different types of consumer consent," Zeta wrote in a July 2025 motion seeking dismissal. "For digital marketing, Zeta obtains opt-in permission from users who register for a website or agree to terms of service... For email marketing, which constitutes a subset of the 245 million users in Zeta’s broader opted-in dataset, users must provide specific consent to receive emails."

The company added that the Disqus screenshot "shows on its face that Disqus users were required to consent to the site’s privacy policy and terms of service to register for the platform -- exactly as Zeta disclosed -- and thus opted in to sharing data."

The plaintiffs disputed that interpretation, reiterating their argument that Disqus did not obtain opt-in consent.

The complaint "adequately alleges that Zeta’s data collection practices included user data that could not be defined as 'opt-in' under any definition, such as Disqus’ policy," the plaintiffs countered.

Zeta's spokesperson noted that the ruling was not a decision on the merits, adding that at this stage of the proceedings Ho was "required to accept the allegations in the complaint as true solely for purposes of evaluating the motion." 

Ho ordered both sides to submit a letter by July 22 outlining next steps in the case.