Disney and Google are urging a
federal judge to throw out a privacy lawsuit brought on behalf of children who allegedly viewed videos on Disney's YouTube channel.
The lawsuit, filed last September, centers on allegations
made by the Federal Trade Commission, which charged Disney with collecting
ad-targeting data from young YouTube users, in violation of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. That law prohibits companies from knowingly collecting a host of data -- including
pseudonymous ad-targeting data -- from children younger than 13, without parental consent.
The agency specifically alleged that Disney uploaded child-directed videos to YouTube, including
Mickey Mouse cartoons and clips from movies such as "Frozen" and "Toy Story," but failed to label the clips as "Made for Kids." That omission enabled viewers of those videos to be served with targeted
ads, the government alleged.
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Disney, which did not admit or deny the allegations, agreed to pay $10 million to settle with the FTC.
Soon after the settlement was unveiled, both
companies were hit with a class-action complaint that largely reiterated the FTC's factual allegations, but included different legal claims. For instance, the civil lawsuit includes claims that the
companies violated wiretap laws and California privacy laws.
Disney and Google are now arguing that the allegations in the class-action complaint, even if proven true, wouldn't establish the
claims in the case.
Disney writes in its bid for dismissal that the complaint lacks any allegations that would support the inference that children viewed any allegedly mislabeled videos, or
that YouTube collected any data as a result of potentially erroneously labeled videos.
"Plaintiffs do not identify a single video any minor viewed, when it was viewed, or whether it was
designated [Not Made For Kids] at the time," Disney argues in a motion filed late last week with U.S. District Court Judge George Wu in the Central District of California.
The company adds
that the complaint is "built on conjecture rather than plausible factual allegations."
Google also urged Wu to throw out the claims, contending that even if the factual allegations against it
were proven true, they wouldn't show that the company knowingly collected data from children. Among other arguments, Google says it was entitled to rely on Disney's classification of the videos
"As the content creator, Disney was obligated to designate its child-directed videos as [Made For Kids]," Google wrote. "As the operator of YouTube, Google was entitled to rely on those
designations when it determined whether to collect personal information from users who watched those video."
Wu is expected to hold a hearing in the matter on June 15.