Ben Sperry Cited in Reason on California’s Unruh Act and Online Ad Targeting
Reason’s Sex and Tech newsletter cited Ben Sperry, ICLE Senior Scholar for Innovation Policy, in a piece on a California appellate case that could treat routine age-based ad targeting as unlawful discrimination under the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The newsletter drew on Sperry’s Truth on the Market analysis of Haynie v. Google, in which a trial court ruling raises the prospect that standard advertising practices—such as showing retirement-home ads to seniors or student discounts to college students—could expose platforms to civil rights liability.
Read the full piece here. Read Ben’s article here.
Advertising’s oldest rule is simple: Know your audience. In California, following it may get an online platform sued,” reports Ben Sperry of the International Center for Law & Economics:
“Show retirement-home ads to seniors and student discounts to college students, and sensible targeting can suddenly look like unlawful discrimination.
That question is now before California’s Sixth Appellate District. The dispute arises from a trial court ruling in Haynie v. Google that could turn routine age-based ad targeting into a violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.”