Jewelry Seller Alex and Ani Stuck With Suit Over TikTok Web Tool

Online jewelry seller Alex and Ani LLC must face a proposed class action alleging that it collected and disclosed consumers’ information to TikTok Inc. without their consent in violation of California privacy law.

Lead plaintiff Milan Hassid had standing to sue in federal court and adequately pleaded the elements of a trap-and-trace claim under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, Judge Fernando M. Olguin of the US District Court for the Central District of California said Tuesday.

Hassid alleged that Alex and Ani installed a tracking tool from TikTok on its website, allowing the social-media company to collect consumers’ personal information and disclose it to the Chinese government. TikTok parent company ByteDance Inc. is based in Beijing.

Congress passed a law during the Biden administration requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok over national security concerns. President Donald Trump placed that law on hold in a September 2025 executive order amid negotiations with China over sale of a controlling stake in the app to US investors.

Alex and Ani argued in a motion to dismiss that Hassid didn’t allege an injury-in-fact sufficient for standing, but Olguin said the plaintiff sufficiently alleged that the company collected consumers’ personal information in violation of their historically recognized right to control information about themselves.

The out-of-state company’s challenge to the court’s jurisdiction fared no better. The plaintiff sufficiently alleged that Alex and Ani used its website to appeal to and profit from an audience in California, and to collect information about them, which distinguished the case from those in which a defendant merely operated a passive website with nationwide accessibility, Olguin said.

The judge also agreed with the plaintiff that Alex and Ani’s use of the TikTok software met the statutory definition of a trap and trace device because it identified consumers, gathered data, and correlated the data through unique data “fingerprinting.”

Tauler Smith LLP represents Hassid and the proposed class. Alexandra Kazarian of Los Angeles represents Alex and Ani.

The case is Hassid v. Alex and Ani LLC, C.D. Cal., No. 2:25-cv-00679, order 1/20/26.