The Bose Corporation has been sued on a class action basis for its alleged illegal practice of requesting and recording customers’ personal information in its California retail stores. 

In December 2015, plaintiff Patrick Keegan was shopping at a Bose retail store in California where he purchased merchandise and paid using his credit card.  Keegan alleges that during the transaction, Bose’s employee requested his driver’s license, address, and telephone number without informing him of the consequences if he did not provide the requested information.  Keegan turned over the information, and Bose’s employee then recorded it by typing it into a store computer. 

On January 29, Keegan filed his class action complaint in the Southern District of California, claiming that Bose violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, which is designed to promote consumer protection and is intended to protect the personal privacy of consumers who pay for transactions with credit cards.  According to the Complaint, the Act specifically prohibits businesses from requesting that cardholders provide personal identification information during credit card transactions, and then recording that information. 

Keegan seeks to certify a class of individuals who purchased merchandise in the past year using a credit card at one of Bose’s retail stores in California and were asked to provide personal information that was then recorded by the store.  In addition to statutory damages, Keegan is also requesting that Bose be enjoined from utilizing a policy whereby its cashiers both request and record personal identification from customers.