Lawsuit against Yelp is revived
A state appeals court has revived a lawyer’s suit against Yelp for secretly recording its telephone sales pitches to him, ruling that California law bars recording of either side of a phone conversation without both parties’ consent.
San Francisco attorney Eric Gruber said he received a dozen or more calls from sales representatives of the businessreviewing company between March 2014 and July 2016, trying to sell him advertising space. Gruber said he discussed some confidential matters with the representatives, one of whom was a friend. He sued Yelp after learning that the company had recorded the calls.
Yelp explained that it records all of its sales calls for training purposes, but usually tapes only its employee
and not the prospective customer, and followed that practice with Gruber. Because Gruber’s voice had not been recorded, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Mary Wiss ruled that Yelp had not violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act, a 1967 law that prohibits recording phone calls and other confidential conversations without the consent of all participants.
But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the law requires consent from all participants in a conversation even if only one side is being recorded.
California privacy laws “make no distinction between the speaker and the listener or between the caller and the call recipient,” but define all of them as “parties” who must agree to a recording, Justice Teri Jackson said in the 30 ruling.
The law must be interpreted to cover cases like this one, Jackson said, because Yelp’s employees were recorded discussing information they had learned from Gruber.
“The recordings revealed firsthand and in real time their understanding of or reaction to Gruber’s words,” effectively making his side of the discussion available on tape, Jackson said.
The ruling “upholds consumers’ right to privacy in California,” Gruber’s lawyers said.
Attorneys for Yelp could not be reached for comment.
Eighteen news organizations — including the California Newspaper Publishers Association, whose members include The Chronicle — filed arguments asking the court to allow reporters to use recorders for notetaking during interviews without asking the interviewees for consent. Jackson said the court did not need to address that issue in the Yelp case.
Consumer advocates filed arguments supporting Gruber.