Odette Batis v. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.

I. Background

D&B operates D&B Hoovers, a searchable business-to- business database that contains information about businesses and other organizations across the United States. The database also contains professional contact information for the millions of individuals who work at the profiled entities. Anyone who searches the name of an individual professional, either through a search engine or on the D&B Hoovers database, can access a profile that contains some of the individual’s contact information alongside messages informing the prospective customer they must purchase a subscription to access the remainder of that information. Plaintiffs allege that subscriptions cost more than $10,000 per year, but individuals can sign up for a free trial of the service, during which they continue to see messages alongside profiles suggesting the upgrade to a full subscription. Batis is a librarian whose professional contact information is included in the D&B Hoovers database and is accessible during the free trial. Batis filed a putative class action against D&B on March 25, 2022, alleging that its system uses the names of her and other California residents without their consent to promote…