LEGAL ACTION
Toys `R’ Us Dumps Coremetrics TOYS `R’ Us Inc. has severed its relationship with online market research and analytics firm Coremetrics following the filing of two class action lawsuits and pressure from one online privacy group. Coremetrics, San Diego, was allegedly tracking and compiling customer information and site-browsing activity at Toysrus.com and giving that information to third parties in direct conflict with the toy retailer’s privacy policy, according to court documents.
Coremetrics has said that it is “contractually prohibited from making the data it collects for clients available to third parties.”
Two class action lawsuits were filed in August against Toys `R’ Us, Toysrus.com, and Coremetrics. The first, brought by a New Jersey law firm, seeks damages on behalf of individuals who had made purchases at the store between Aug. 5, 1998 and the present. The second suit, filed in San Bernardino District of the Superior Court of California, aims to compensate those who had visited the site since June 1, 1998. The actions came on the heels of a complaint by online security firm Interhack Corp., which alleged in a statement on its Web site that Toysrus.com and its newly launched babiesrus.com, lucy.com, and fusion.com were providing data to Coremetrics in violation of privacy guidelines. Coremetrics called Interhack’s allegation “highly speculative and misleading.”
