In the annals of litigation, this has to be one of the stranger cases involving Amazon.com. A Texas actress is suing the Seattle online retailer for displaying her age in the online movie database IMDb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.

The suit was filed on October 13th in U.S. District Court in Seattle by the actress whose name was not disclosed in the court documents. Described as a Texas resident of Asian descent, the actress subscribed to IMDb Pro in 2008 in order to boost her exposure in the entertainment industry.

She’s looking for damages of more than $1 million, claiming that IMDb intercepted personal information during the credit card sign up process and then later used that information to fill out her personal profile, including her age.

The suit notes:

Defendants’ actions have had a double-whammy effect on Plaintiff’s livelihood. First, because lesser-known forty-year-old actresses are not in demand in the entertainment business, Plaintiff has suffered a substantial decrease in acting credits, employment opportunities and earnings since Defendants’ addition of Plaintiff’s legal date of birth to the Internet Movie Database. Second, because Plaintiff looks so much younger than her actual age indicates, Plaintiff has experienced rejection in the industry for each “forty-year-old” role for which she has interviewed because she does not and cannot physically portray the role of a forty-year old woman. Unless and until Defendants remove Plaintiff’s personal birthday information from the Internet Movie Database, Plaintiff will continue to suffer ongoing damages.”
Hat tip to The Houston Press and Wired.

Doe v Amazon Complaint

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