Do Stores That Offer Loyalty Cards Have a Duty to Notify Customers of Product Safety Recalls?
A Recent Suit Raises This Novel Question
By ANITA RAMASASTRY
发行会员卡的商家是否负有向顾客通知产品因安全被召回的义务？
最近一起诉讼提出的新问题
Thursday, Aug. 05, 2004
An interesting new Washington state court suit raises an important question: If a retailer benefits from collecting personally identifiable information about its customers, does it have a corresponding duty to use such data to alert its customers that products they've bought have been recalled for health or safety reasons? And if so, could turning over private data to companies actually create benefits, as well as privacy risks, for the consumer?
华盛顿洲法院的一起有趣的诉讼提出了一个非常重要的问题：如果零售商从其收集的顾客之可确认的私人信息中获益的话，那么当顾客购买的产品因为健康或安全问题被找回时，它是否有相应的义务利用这些数据来警示顾客？如果有，那么把个人信息提供给公司在给顾客带来隐私风险的同时，是否可以为顾客带来实际利益呢？
In the suit, consumer Jill Crowson is suing her grocery store -- Quality Food Center (QFC), a subsidiary of Kroger -- for negligent infliction of `emotional distress and disregard of a "duty to warn" under the Washington Product Liability Act. Crowson alleges in her complaint that QFC failed to alert her family that ground beef it had sold them had been recalled in December's mad-cow scare.
诉讼中，顾客吉尔.克朗逊控告食品店——美食中心（QFC），Kroger的子公司——因为该店没有尽到《华盛顿洲产品责任法》中的“警示义务”并因此过失地造成了其精神不安。克朗逊诉称，在12月的疯牛病恐慌中，QFC没有就其卖出的碎牛肉被召回之事警示她们家人。
Yet, Crowson says, QFC easily could have done so through information it maintained connected with her Advantage card - a "loyalty card" that meant QFC had Crowson's name, address and purchasing information. According to her complaint, QFC tracks every purchase made by consumers presenting the Advantage Card, including product description, date of purchase, store of purchase and the price, and saves that data alongside customer contact information.
但克朗逊称，QFC完全可以很容易通过它所保存在优惠卡上的相关的信息做到这一点，该“忠诚卡”意味着QFC拥有克朗逊的姓名。地址和购买信息。根据克朗逊的诉状，QFC记录了每一位持卡人的购买情况，包括产品描述、购买日期、购买的店名和价格，并把这些信息和该顾客的联系信息存储在一起。
Now, Crowson says, her family members "feel like walking time bombs" knowing they may be infected with the human form of mad-cow disease which the complaint states may have an up-to-30-year incubation period. And they are not the only ones: Crowson is seeking class action status for herself and what she believes are "hundreds" of similarly-situated Washington customers at QFC's approximately 40 stores in the state.
