Anthony v. Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc.

Christine Anthony (plaintiff) brought a class action against Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc. and other film companies (the studios) (defendants) on behalf of herself and other hearing-impaired consumers. Anthony alleged that packaging and advertising that described certain content as subtitled or captioned for the hearing impaired was misleading because the captioning did not include song lyrics, making it difficult for hearing-impaired consumers to understand some productions. Anthony’s complaint asserted numerous causes of action, including one that alleged the studios intentionally discriminated against hearing-impaired consumers by failing to include captioning for song lyrics. The studios moved to dismiss the complaint on various grounds and filed a motion to strike under California’s anti-SLAPP statute. The court granted the motion to dismiss, finding, among other things, that the complaint did not sufficiently allege intentional discrimination because the captions were equally available to all consumers. Although the claims were dismissed, the court went on to address the anti-SLAPP motion because a successful anti-SLAPP motion results in an award of attorney fees to the prevailing defendants. Anthony argued the statements and advertisements that were the subject of the complaint constituted unprotected commercial speech that was not covered by the anti-SLAPP statute.