Urban Outfitters Loses Bid to Take Site-Chat Suit to Arbitration

Urban Outfitters Inc. must face allegations it illegally recorded customer-service chats on its website in federal court rather than before an arbitrator.

The arbitration agreement in the website’s terms of service wasn’t binding on plaintiff Jessica Rocha because the hyperlinks to the agreement were too inconspicuous to put her on constructive notice that it existed, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said Thursday.

Plaintiff Jessica Rocha alleged in a proposed class action that Urban Outfitters allowed the provider of the site’s chat technology, Salesforce Inc., to read and use the chats without user consent in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy ...