Munger, Tolles & Olson Secures Defense Win for Prudential Financial and ActiveProspect

Munger, Tolles & Olson secured a significant legal victory for Prudential Financial, Inc. and ActiveProspect, Inc. in a certified class action alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA).

The case, Hazel v. Prudential Financial, Inc., was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Charles Breyer granted summary judgment in favor of Prudential Financial and ActiveProspect, which provided lead-verification software and services to Prudential.

The lawsuit, filed in November 2022, alleged that ActiveProspect recorded website users’ activities without their consent in violation of Section 631(a) of CIPA. MTO argued in a motion for early summary judgment that the companies were not liable under CIPA because ActiveProspect was not a third-party eavesdropper; and ActiveProspect did not read or attempt to read the website visitors’ communications while they were in transit, as required for liability under Section 631(a). The court held there was no evidence supporting plaintiffs’ claim that ActiveProspect read or attempted to read any communications while they were in transit. The court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and entered final judgment.

The MTO defense team representing Prudential and ActiveProspect included Grace Davis Fisher, Sidney Eisner, Kelly Klaus and Jonathan Blavin.

The case garnered significant media coverage in publications such as Bloomberg Law, Law360 and others.