Seebrook v. Children’s Place: Another Song-Beverly Settlement

The parties have agreed to settle a class action in which a class of nearly 200,000 consumers alleged that a popular children’s clothing retailer collected customers’ addresses, emails, phone numbers and ZIP codes during credit card transactions, in violation of section 1747.08 of California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971. See Seebrook v. The Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc., No. 11-0837 (N.D. Cal. October 25, 2012) (Motion for preliminary approval). The settlement will resolve five consolidated class actions, pending court approval.

The proposed settlement presents class members with the choice of either a 30% coupon or $10 gift card, redeemable only at California Children’s Place locations. Additionally, the settlement’s injunctive relief component provides class members with the option of removing their personal information from the store’s marketing campaign database, and includes a commitment from The Children’s Place to revise its procedures for collecting customer information during credit card transactions.

While the Memorandum of Points and Authorities in support of the preliminary approval motion acknowledges that “the dollar value of the settlement per Class member may be relatively small,” it goes on to explain that where the relief negotiated in a settlement is directly responsive to the underlying allegations, and those allegations are difficult to prove, such a settlement is appropriate. See MPA at 13:22-27, citing Chavez v. Netflix, Inc., 162 Cal. App. 4th 43, 55 (2008).