Dwyer v. American Express Co.
Illinois Appellate Court
273 Ill. App. 3d 742 (1995)
Relevant factsFree
American Express (defendant) categorized cardholders into spending tiers based on purchase data and rented that compiled information to merchants for targeted marketing, without disclosing any individual cardholder's specific financial information; cardholder Dwyer (plaintiff) sued alleging both intrusion upon seclusion and a violation of the state's Consumer Fraud Act, and the lower court dismissed both claims.
IssueFree
Whether a credit-card company is violating either the common-law tort of invasion of privacy or statutory consumer-fraud laws if it collects and sells data about its cardholders' purchasing habits.