The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 holding in Spokeo v. Robins that a technical violation of a statute is insufficient to establish Article III standing does not preclude a suit over a potential disclosure of information by barcodes on debt collection letters, a federal judge in Newark has ruled.
In Stever v. Harrison, a collection lawyer’s mail to debtors was sent in envelopes with transparent windows that revealed a barcode. The plaintiffs assert that popular and free smartphone applications allow the barcodes to be read by anyone, which would reveal the account number assigned by defendants to the recipient. But the plaintiffs presented no evidence suggesting anyone ever read the bar codes.
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