Victoria's Secret Must Face Website Accessibility Lawsuit Over In-Store Pickup Feature

On August 9, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied a motion to dismiss filed by Victoria's Secret & Co. in a pending digital accessibility lawsuit.

The case centers on claims that the retailer's website failed to integrate properly with screen reading software, preventing a visually impaired consumer from ordering products online for physical pickup.

Background of the Dispute

The plaintiff, a legally blind individual and user of the VoiceOver screen reader residing in Contra Costa County, California, filed an amended complaint alleging violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff attempted to purchase sleepwear through the Victoria's Secret website in May 2023 for in-store pickup at the San Francisco Centre Mall location. The plaintiff alleged that the "Select Store" buttons on the checkout page were not coded to communicate store selection to screen reader software. When the buttons were activated, the screen reader announced nothing, preventing the completion of the order.

Victoria's Secret moved to dismiss the first amended complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of standing and 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim.

The Court's Ruling

The court rejected both grounds presented by Victoria's Secret:

• Article III Standing: Victoria's Secret asserted a facial challenge, arguing the plaintiff had not shown an injury in fact or a real threat of repeated injury. The court found that encountering an inaccessible checkout feature that blocked equal access constitutes an injury in fact. Furthermore, the threat of recurring harm was properly established: the plaintiff demonstrated determent from patronizing the retailer's physical shops, stated an intention to use the website if fixed, lived in Contra Costa County near roughly fifteen locations, and regularly travels to San Francisco for work and social visits.
• Nexus Between Website and Physical Stores: Under Ninth Circuit precedent, a plaintiff alleging an ADA Title III violation regarding a website must demonstrate a sufficient connection (nexus) between the digital service and an actual physical place of public accommodation. The court concluded that because the software coding barrier prevented the customer from ordering goods for physical in-store pickup, it directly impeded access to the goods and services of physical retail locations.

Additionally, the court denied Victoria's Secret's request to lift the automatic stay on discovery under the district's General Order 56, without prejudice to standard procedural filings.

Because the plaintiff sufficiently pleaded both legal standing and an actionable claim under the ADA and the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the motion to dismiss was denied, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. Full case details and filings are available through govinfo.gov.