Main Line Fertility Center, located in Pennsylvania, will pay individuals for the probable impermissible disclosure of their sensitive information to third parties through website monitoring technologies. Main Line Fertility Center used third-party tracking codes and analytics code on its public web page, which includes Meta Pixel. Though these tech tools can give useful data to site owners, their usage is a problem in medical care because of the potential transfer of sensitive information to the vendors of those tools. Subject to how and where these tools are implemented, they can likely transfer personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) to those third parties, which is not a problem for HIPAA-certified entities.
In the Main Line Fertility Center lawsuit, it was alleged that the center employed these applications without patients’ awareness or permission, resulting in the disclosure of individually identifiable data to third parties, including Meta. The Jane Doe v. Main Line Fertility, Ltd. lawsuit filed by an unnamed plaintiff Jane Doe in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, claimed that the usage of these tools without the patient’s awareness or authorization is regarded as negligence and a breach of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices Act. The litigation likewise mentioned claims of unjust enrichment, privacy violation, and breach of implied contract.
On September 19, 2024, Main Line Fertility Center states that it did nothing wrong and submitted its preliminary arguments to the complaint. Nonetheless, the court dismissed the objections and directed Main Line Fertility Center to submit an answer to the plaintiff’s claim, which was done on February 6, 2024. After substantial discovery efforts and negotiation talks, Main Line Fertility Center agreed to engage in private mediation and decided on the terms of a settlement. The court already granted preliminary approval of the completed terms of the settlement.
Based on the terms of settlement, class members will be given a cash payment and a Privacy Shield Pro membership. Class members could submit a claim for a $35 cash payment, and when they send a legitimate and prompt claim, they will get a code to sign up for the Privacy Shield Pro product. Main Line Fertility Center additionally consented to pay attorneys’ charges and expenditures, service awards for the class representatives, and settlement management costs.
The due date for exemption from and objecting to the settlement is December 1, 2025. Individuals can file claims on or before December 29, 2025. The final fairness hearing will be on January 6, 2026.
