California Court Dismisses Privacy Suit Over Hotel Tracking Technology

A recent ruling from the Northern District of California in Crano v. Sojern, Inc., addressed allegations that Sojern, a travel marketing platform, violated federal and state privacy laws by embedding “tracking technology” in hotel websites.

Jordan Joachim, blogging on the Covington site, writes that the plaintiff, acting on behalf of a proposed class, claimed the software in question collected user data during the online reservation process, including hotel identifiers, locations, room prices, and check-in and check-out details.

The dispute centered on whether Sojern’s data collection practices constituted unlawful interception under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and the Federal Wiretap Act.

The court found the CIPA claim insufficient because the plaintiff did not plausibly allege that Sojern intercepted any communication “while in transit.” The complaint’s assertions that data could be “re-directed” in real time did not establish that transmissions were contemporaneously read or captured.

Similarly, the Federal Wiretap Act claim failed because the hotel operators, the other parties to the communications, had given their consent to Sojern’s data collection.

The court reaffirmed that one-party consent is a complete defense under the statute. It also rejected the plaintiff’s reliance on the “crime-tort” exception, concluding that the alleged conduct did not implicate California’s Guest Records statute.

According to the ruling, the plaintiff failed to show that Sojern qualified as an innkeeper, or that the information at issue fit within the statute’s scope.

This decision serves as a reminder to the plaintiffs’ bar that claims under wiretap and privacy statutes require specific allegations of real-time interception, and are unlikely to proceed when consent is lawfully obtained. Companies integrating tracking tools on commercial websites may still face scrutiny, but they have strong defenses grounded in statutory consent provisions.