The actress who sued Amazon.com for displaying her age on IMDb can proceed with her case, according to a decision this week by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman.
Texas actress Junie Hoang originally filed her suit as a “Jane Doe,” in October 2011, 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.
Age discrimination is commonplace in the entertainment business, and Hoang claimed that she “suffered a substantial decrease in acting credits, employment opportunities and earnings” because of the disclosure of her age on IMDb.
On Monday, Judge Pechman allowed the case to proceed to trial, though she barred Amazon.com as a defendant, tossed out the claim of emotional distress and denied a claim that IMDb violated the Consumer Protection Act by publishing Hoang’s age without her consent, reports The New York Times.
In a statement provided to Variety, the 41-year-old Hoang wrote:
“I am obviously very gratified by the court’s decision to allow my case to go to trial. What’s at stake here involves far more than just my own career. Anyone who values their privacy and has ever given credit card information to an online company like IMDb or Amazon.com should be concerned about the outcome. We entrust companies like these with ever-growing mountains of data about ourselves and when they violate that trust, they must be held to account.”
The trial is set to begin April 8th in Seattle.
Hoang’s profile page is still available on IMDb, and her birthday remains on the site. She appeared in
Here’s Pechman’s recent order:
