Shopify Defeats Consumer Lawsuit Over Online Data Collection

A lower court properly dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Shopify Inc. collected information from online shoppers without consent in violation of California privacy laws, a federal appellate court ruled in a case of first impression.

Plaintiff Brandon Briskin failed to show that Shopify purposefully directed its activities towards the California market, a threshold requirement for establishing the court’s jurisdiction over a foreign corporation, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Tuesday.

Shopify’s operation of a nationwide online payment platform didn’t show it had a greater focus on California than on other states, and the plaintiffs didn’t allege ...