In this episode, John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich dive into the issues surrounding lawsuits over the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and ecommerce websites.

• Intro

• World of scammy lawsuits is nothing new, but there is a popular trend impacting ecomm store owners: lawsuits claiming websites are not ADA compliant for the visually impaired

• Before we dive into this topic, let’s visit the history of shitty lawsuits attorneys/companies file in the online space

  • copyright trolls

    • stock photo companies looking for unauthorized uses

    • Freeplay music

      • Confusing on what license you actually have / synch license

    • bit torrent lawsuits on porn

      • Prenda Law

        • the CD CA called it a :porno-trolling collective” whose business model relied “on deception” and resembled a racketeering enterprise

        • they basically uploaded porn to bit torrent networks then threatened to sue anyone that downloaded it, or that had their IP address implicated

        • there was no real plaintiff

        • threatened public exposure of the Ds downloading porn and would settle for $4,000, or a bit less than the price of defense

        • always one named defendant that was basically in on it

        • Steele got 5 years

        • Hansmeier got 14 years

    • Always looking for a quick settlement

• ADA Lawsuits

  • ADA/state law, in general, says that all persons are entitled to full and equal accommodations in all business establishments”

  • These all follow a relatively similar pattern

  • A plaintiff files suit on behalf of a class arguing that the defendants website cannot be operated by the plaintiff, who is visually impaired

  • They ask for an extreme amount of money, $30-50,000

  • But they are willing to settle for far less, often times under 10,000

• What do these plaintiff have to prove?

  • These plaintiffs must have “bona fide intent” to use the D’s services

    • This leads to some ridiculous examples of blind people wanting to buy guns, cars, etc

  • There was also a defense as to whether the ADA applied to online businesses, or whether a “brick and mortar” store only fell within the ADA’s “public accommodation” language

    • This used to be somewhat up in the air

    • But in August 2022, a CA COA ruled that the CA ADA law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, did not apply to websites.

    • This practically killed ADA cases in CA, but not in other states (NY, PA, etc).

• What should store owners do

  • WCAG 2.1 standards

    • People can use screen readers and obtain a phone number to call

    • Contrast in text

  • Not ignore lawsuits