Wireless providers counting T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon have faced a string of lawsuits in recent years from women who allege retail wage-earners stole intimate images or videos from their phones while helping them with in-store evidence transfers.
The cases are routinely dismissed when the companies argue they weren’t aware of the staffer’s actions and aren’t blameable because the employees were acting outside the scope of their duties. But that could soon change after a late court ruling, legal experts told CNBC.
Now, the companies — not just the store workers — could face snag in future litigation, which could lead them to address the hiring, training and data safety practices that saps argue led to the violations, the experts said.
The latest lawsuit against AT&T was filed Monday in California state court. A baggage identified as Jane Doe alleged that an employee at a Los Angeles store stole her nude images and distributed them in February after she upgraded her iPhone and he helped her with delivering her data.
That case, filed by attorneys from the C.A. Goldberg law firm, now has a better chance of surviving and making it to go after an April court ruling against T-Mobile involving a similar incident in Washington that was brought by the for all that law firm. Judge Stanley Bastian, the judge overseeing the T-Mobile case, ruled it could move forward after the partnership sought to have the lawsuit dismissed.
T-Mobile, like other phone carriers, had argued it wasn’t aware of the wage-earner’s actions and said he was acting outside the scope of his duties. But the judge decided the company could potentially be liable and ruled the wrapper should proceed.
The ruling, described by the law firm as a “landmark” decision, is the first of its kind against a wireless carrier accused of heedlessness for hiring employees alleged to have stolen sensitive customer data, the firm said. It could affect the disaster of future cases, including the lawsuit filed against AT&T on Monday, legal experts said.
“That decision abrogates important precedent and we intend to continue to try to hold phone companies accountable for situations like this where their workers violate customer privacy during phone trade-ins or other transactions at the stores,” said Laura Hecht-Felella from C.A. Goldberg, one of the initiate attorneys behind both the T-Mobile and the new AT&T case. “There’s a lot of different ways in which they can try to prevent this from occasion and it’s clear whatever they’re currently doing is not adequate.”
Carrie Goldberg, the firm’s founder, added that the “expectancy really is not to attract more cases” but to encourage the companies to have better safeguards in place.
“That’s what lawsuit does. It says you can be held responsible for your negligence,” said Goldberg. “And presumably that will induce the phone enterprises to innovate on their safety and privacy protections for consumers at their stores.”
In response, an AT&T spokesperson condemned the incident.
“We were frightened to learn of the behavior allegedly exhibited by an employee of a third-party retailer,” the spokesperson told CNBC. “We hold the vendors who manage on our behalf to high standards and we do not tolerate the behavior alleged here. The vendor has assured us the employee allegedly involved no fancier works for them, and they were working to resolve this matter with the customer.”
T-Mobile declined to reaction.
Mounting allegations
In the case against AT&T, the woman filed a police report, which remains under investigation, correspondence to the lawsuit.
At least six other similar accusations have been levied against AT&T in the past either in civil lawsuits or guard reports, according to the complaint. The dispositions of those cases are unclear. The cases mirror at least a dozen more stated to have happened at other providers, such as T-Mobile and Verizon, according to news reports.
Juyochi | Istock | Getty Aspects
Goldberg says she suspects the cases that have been made public are “just the tip of the iceberg,” and there are appropriate more that customers never detected.
“We suspect that the phenomenon of theft at cellular phone stores is bigger than we can absorb,” said Goldberg.
“As a society, we trust these cellular providers with all of our most private information,” said Goldberg. “And very there’s no limit to what their employees can steal off of our phones and then share with the world.”
She added that her unshaken has received “case after case after case” where customers allege phone store employees scarf their data. Goldberg said the issue cuts across companies, making it an “industry-wide” concern.
Andrew Stengel, a New York attorney who specializes in encases involving the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images, better known as revenge porn, reviewed the T-Mobile Washington ruling for CNBC. He said future cases, such as the AT&T lawsuit, now have a better chance of surviving motions to dismiss and growing because the attorneys will be able to point to that precedent in their arguments.
“It should make judges mull over twice or three times before they dismiss a claim,” said Stengel, who has brought a similar case against T-Mobile in the career but isn’t involved in the current litigation. “It should be able to give judges not only pause, but ammunition to agree.”
If lawsuits against wireless carters related to the theft of intimate images are allowed to proceed, they move into discovery, which Stengel matched to the “crown jewels” of a legal case.
During discovery, defendants are required to turn over documents that are associated to the case, which could reveal damning and implicating information.
“There could be information that the cellphone ensembles would be required to disclose that will increase liability in the future,” said Stengel. “If I were their attorney, I’d be exceedingly concerned about that.”
Stengel cautioned that while the Washington decision may be “exciting,” it’s not binding and judges in other orbits can choose to ignore it.
Still, Goldberg expects the decision to be “influential.” She said it could impel phone companies to conclusively make changes to prevent these sorts of abuses.
“We think that the cellular providers are going to be a lot less scornful about what they can get away with,” said Goldberg. “If you’re a company that is consistently hiring rando pervs that skulk consumers’ most private, intimate pictures, then, it’s the company’s fault.”