By Thomas G. Wolfe, J.D.
It’s a typical, everyday scenario. A consumer pulls his or her car up to a gas station pump and decides to pay for the gas purchase with a credit card. Does the retailer’s request for a ZIP Code for that credit-card transaction at the pump violate the state’s privacy law?
In a June 12, 2015, court decision (Diviacchi v. Speedway LLC d/b/a Hess Retail Stores LLC, Civil Action No. 15-10655-WGY), the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts determined that a retailer’s practice of requesting a consumer’s ZIP Code for credit card purchases at its gas pumps did not violate Massachusetts’ consumer privacy law. In reaching its decision, the court emphasized the factual context of the credit card transaction and the retailer’s purpose for requesting the ZIP Code.
Ultimately, the court determined that the ZIP Code information, while temporarily obtained, was “never actually recorded on the credit card transaction form,” and the retailer used the ZIP Code information for fraud-prevention purposes. Consequently, the retailer’s practice fell outside the scope of the Massachusetts state law, the court ruled. If the retailer had recorded the ZIP Code information on the credit card transaction form, would the court have ruled the same way?
Interestingly enough, the court separately concluded that the consumer had been entitled to pursue her claim for “purely injunctive relief” under Massachusetts law “absent any injury distinct from the collection of cardholder identification information in and of itself.” However, in keeping with the court’s ruling that no violation of Massachusetts’ privacy law occurred, the court denied the consumer’s request for injunctive relief in the case.
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