SAN FRANCISCO (LN) — U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin granted Allbirds’ motion to compel arbitration in a lawsuit alleging the company’s website trackers secretly intercepted customers’ personally identifiable information and purchase data and shared it with Google and Meta, according to a May 27 order in the Northern District of California.
Kelly Vickers filed the putative class action claiming Allbirds’ website trackers surreptitiously collected and disclosed her PII and product purchase information to third parties. Allbirds moved to compel arbitration under a mandatory arbitration provision in its Terms of Service.
Vickers did not dispute that the arbitration provision encompassed her claims against Allbirds, according to the order. Instead, she argued that no valid agreement to arbitrate existed because Allbirds failed to provide reasonably conspicuous notice of its Terms of Service and because she did not unambiguously manifest assent to those terms.
The court rejected both arguments. The order describes Allbirds’ checkout page, which displayed the language: “By placing this order, you agree to our Terms of Service and understand our Privacy Policy.” The advisal appeared directly below a “Pay Now” button, was written in black font against a white background, and featured capitalized, bolded, and underlined phrases for “Terms of Service” and “Privacy Policy” to signal a hyperlink.
The court found this design sufficient under the sign-in-wrap doctrine, citing Berman v. Freedom Fin. Network, LLC, Chabolla v. ClassPass Inc., and Patrick v. Running Warehouse, LLC. The combination of the advisal’s placement, font styling, and proximity to the payment button supported a fair inference that a reasonably prudent user would have seen it, the order said.
By clicking the “Pay Now” button after receiving notice, Vickers unambiguously manifested assent to the Terms and Conditions, the court held. The order noted there was no other apparent way to place an order beyond clicking the button, and the proximity between the advisal and the button made clear that the linked terms pertained to the action the user was about to take.
The court granted the motion, stayed the case pending arbitration, and ordered the parties to file joint status reports every 180 days. The first status report is due December 4, 2026.