Hyatt Checks Out of Tracking Lawsuit with Help from Website Terms
Businesses facing the growing wave of website tracking litigation should pay close attention to a recent Illinois federal court decision involving Hyatt Hotels. In Juhyun So v. Hyatt Hotels Corp., No. 25 C 10483, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98893 (N.D. Ill. May 5, 2026), the court dismissed a federal Wiretap Act claim based on Meta and Adobe tracking technology embedded on Hyatt’s booking website.
The plaintiff originally sued Hyatt in California under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). Hyatt argued the case belonged in Illinois under forum-selection clauses in its website and loyalty program terms. The California court agreed after finding the plaintiff accepted those terms. After transfer, the plaintiff dropped the CIPA claims and filed a second amended complaint asserting only a federal Wiretap Act claim.
The plaintiff alleged Hyatt allowed Meta and Adobe to collect booking-related information users entered while browsing and reserving hotel rooms online. The court accepted those allegations for purposes of the motion to dismiss, but still dismissed the case based on the Wiretap Act’s consent exception.
Under the Wiretap Act, interception is generally not unlawful where one party to the communication consents. The court held Hyatt, as a party to communications occurring on its own website, consented to the alleged interception.
The plaintiff argued Hyatt’s disclosures violated a California hotel guest-record privacy statute and therefore triggered an exception to the consent defense. Hyatt responded that Illinois law governed the dispute under the website’s choice-of-law provision. The court agreed and held that, because the plaintiff relied on California law and did not identify a violation of Illinois law, the Wiretap Act’s crime/tort exception did not apply.
The decision does not eliminate risk for businesses using tracking technology, but the broader takeaway is that website terms and privacy disclosures can become central defenses in tracking litigation. Businesses using advertising or analytics tools should review:
Website terms of use
Choice-of-law and forum-selection clauses
Privacy disclosures and consent flows
The customer information shared with third parties
The companies in the strongest position will be the ones whose website practices, disclosures, and contractual terms are aligned before litigation begins.