Court Orders Hyatt Corporation to Disclose Website Accessibility Records in Putative Class Action

On July 8, 2025, a United States Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued an order partially granting a plaintiff's motion to compel discovery against Hyatt Corporation in an ongoing putative class action.

Under an amended scheduling order dated April 29, 2024, the proceedings were bifurcated, restricting Phase I discovery exclusively to information relevant to class certification. The plaintiff sought to compel responses to numerous Requests for Production (RFPs) and Interrogatories regarding the accessibility of Hyatt Corporation's digital platforms.

Earlier Rulings on Discovery Requests

Following a hearing on June 20, 2025, the court addressed several categories of discovery:

• Mobile Application: All requests and interrogatories concerning Hyatt's mobile application were denied because the complaint did not challenge the app.
• WCAG Compliance Documents (RFPs 2–3): Hyatt agreed to search for and produce responsive Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance materials. The court ordered Hyatt to produce California-related webpage records from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024, by July 7, 2025.
• Accessibility Plans and Screen Reader Analytics (RFPs 25 and 30): Hyatt was ordered to disclose accessibility plans for visually impaired users as well as data on screen-reader visitors accessing California-related webpages during the 2022–2024 period by July 7, 2025.
• Interrogatories: Hyatt was instructed to finalize productions for Interrogatories 8, 9, 12, and 24 by July 7, 2025, while Interrogatories 2–7, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, and 25–27 were denied.

Decision on Remaining Requests

After reviewing supplemental briefs submitted to clarify whether the plaintiff encountered specific barriers when visiting Hyatt's website on May 15, 2023, and October 29, 2023, the court ruled on the remaining disputed requests:

• RFPs 7, 13, 18, and 22: Granted in part. The plaintiff confirmed encountering these specific barriers during the visits. Hyatt was ordered to supplement its responses and produce relevant documents dated from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024, regarding its California-related webpages by close of business on July 22, 2025. The court noted that Hyatt's previous privilege and trade secret objections appeared to be boilerplate and specified that any continued objections must be made with particularity.
• RFPs 8, 9, 15, 16, 19, and 21: Denied because the plaintiff did not show whether she encountered these issues or establish a prima facie connection to class certification, noting the requests appeared to concern merits discovery.
• RFPs 10, 11, 12, 14, 23, and 24: Denied as overly broad, irrelevant to class certification, lacking prima facie support, or duplicative, with the plaintiff conceding she did not encounter several of the cited barriers.

The full text of the ruling is accessible via the U.S. Courts archive.