Why Should Maryland Businesses Care?
Given the fast-paced advancement of web technology and the snail-paced advancement of law, businesses have struggled to comply with the ADA. Here are the statistics:
Over the past three years, plaintiffs across the country have filed more than 10,000 lawsuits against businesses based on allegations that a website lacks accessibility features.
In 2020, with more businesses making their services available online due to the pandemic, web accessibility lawsuits increased 23%.
New York, California, and Florida, combined, account for 90% of the 2020 cases.
Sure, Maryland is not a hotbed for these lawsuits yet. Given the national attention of
Winn Dixie and
Website Accessibility Lawsuits Under the ADA Part Two | Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC jdsupra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jdsupra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A website is not a “place of public accommodation” within the meaning of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal appeals court has held in a groundbreaking decision on disability discrimination. And an inaccessible website is not necessarily equal to the denial of goods or services.
th Cir. Apr. 7, 2021).
Website access class action lawsuits have proliferated in recent years. Businesses being sued have ranged from small “mom and pop” restaurants to Fortune 50 corporations. The surge began in 2016, with more than 260 suits filed. The numbers swelled after a federal court in Florida, in June 2017, held that a regional grocery chain must ensure its website is ADA-compliant. As such, this decision is welcome news to businesses operating in the Eleventh Circuit.
The Eleventh Circuit recently issued a ruling that websites are not places of public accommodation, building upon decisions by other courts and deepening the divide among appellate.
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In a decision that creates new hurdles for website accessibility lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), on April 7, 2021, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that websites do not constitute places of public accommodation under Title III of the ADA. Moreover, to violate Title III an inaccessible website must create an “intangible barrier” to a disabled individual’s actual ability to access and enjoy equally the goods and services of a physical place of public accommodation.
Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 17-13467 (11th Cir. April 7, 2021), takes a narrow view of the applicability of the ADA that is likely to have a significant impact on the viability of website accessibility lawsuits in the Eleventh Circuit. The decision also further highlights a split among the circuits regarding the applicability of Title III to websites and invites the United States Supreme Court to resolve