Pacific Sunwear Beats Lawsuit Over Spyware in Marketing Emails

Clothing retailer Pacific Sunwear of California LLC defeated a lawsuit alleging it collected consumers’ personal information through tracking tools embedded in marketing emails in violation of an Arizona privacy law.

The proposed federal class action failed because the statute at issue in the lawsuit—the Arizona Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act—was aimed at entities that provide the infrastructure and services enabling communication, not at retailers and those that send communications, Judge John J. Tuchi of the US District Court for the District of Arizona said in an order April 16.

Pacific Sunwear wasn’t a “communication service provider” as defined ...