Online Retailers (Top 10) · Online/Retail (membership warehouse) · Private litigation
Costco
Headline
A 2023 class action brought by California plaintiffs alleges Costco's website shared customer activity with third parties in ways members did not agree to - and the reason it lands harder than the same allegation…
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
A 2023 class action brought by California plaintiffs alleges Costco's website shared customer activity with third parties in ways members did not agree to - and the reason it lands harder than the same allegation against an ordinary retailer is the membership model. Costco's proposition is explicitly that you pay an annual fee INSTEAD of being the product; the membership fee is the business model, and members reasonably read it as buying them out of the surveillance economy. Allegations, not findings. Costco also settled independently in the Visa/Mastercard interchange litigation rather than accepting the class settlement - cross-ref the Credit Card Companies tab.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Case status. Private litigation; no sources are on file yet, so no legal tier is assigned.
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
Not independently confirmed this pass — standard binding arbitration + class action waiver expected.
Data sharing
CLASS ACTION (Castillo et al. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 2:23-cv-01548, W.D. Wash., filed Oct. 6, 2023; current status not verified this pass): four California plaintiffs allege Costco shared their ONLINE ACTIVITY AND HEALTH INFORMATION with Meta via the Meta/Facebook Pixel WITHOUT DISCLOSING this practice, despite the company assuring customers of data confidentiality/security — including claims under the Washington Privacy Act, Washington Consumer Protection Act and Washington Uniform Health Care Information Act (Costco is headquartered in Washington State) as well as the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Meta itself, while not a named defendant, publicly stated its policies PROHIBIT advertisers from sending sensitive personal information through its Business Tools — meaning if the allegations are accurate, Costco's own implementation would have violated Meta's stated policy in addition to the state privacy law claim.
Fees and billing
Not itemized this pass.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. PUBLIC COMPANY (COST). Service route: c/o General Counsel / Corporate Secretary, Issaquah, Washington — the corporate address on the SEC Form 10-K cover page is the official address of record. Confirm the exact street address on the current 10-K at sec.gov/edgar, and check the state-of-incorporation registered agent (usually Delaware; most large filers use The Corporation Trust Company or Corporation Service Company) via the Secretary of State business-entity search. A registered agent MUST accept service, which is why it is the reliable channel when a company publishes no privacy address.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy costco.com/privacy-policy.html | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Terms of service costco.com/terms-of-sale.html (or costco.com/terms-and-conditions.html for membership terms) | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Website costco.com | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No comprehensive state privacy statute on file for Washington