California Court of Appeal

Plaintiff filed this putative class action against defendant Safeway, alleging that defendant violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, which generally prohibits a retailer from requesting and recording a customer's "personal identification information" when the customer is purchasing goods or services with a credit card, when its clerk requested and recorded plaintiff's date of birth in their cash register system upon his purchase of an alcoholic beverage with a credit card. Defendant demurred, and the trial court sustained defendant's demurrer without leave to amend, entering a judgment of dismissal. The judgment is affirmed, where: 1) the Act contains an exemption which exempts conduct that would otherwise be prohibited by the Act when the retailer is obligated to collect and record the personal identification information by federal or state law or regulation (Civil Code section 1747.08(c)(3)(C)); 2) the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (ABCA) requires a licensee to keep records of its sales of alcoholic beverages, which includes personal identification information such as the purchaser's date of birth; and 3) plaintiff's interpretation of section 1747.08(a)(2) would give an absurd result that contravenes the legislative purpose of the ABCA and that would force a retailer not to record the necessary identification information when a credit card is used to pay.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/20/2015
• Published 03/20/2015

Judges

• Richman

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel