Just last year, no doubt, the Crunchyroll Lawsuit became a big thing, and that was mostly because there is a growing trend for watching anime online, and another big reason was the involvement of Sony Pictures Entertainment, because they’re the ones behind this platform. So, if you don’t know much about this lawsuit yet, it is going to be an intriguing and interesting read for you.
Why the Crunchyroll Lawsuit Got So Much Attention
Well, that’s just because the viewer numbers were so high on this platform, and just in case you have seen anime on Crunchyroll so far, then you must have been a little intrigued to know what this data breach thing everyone’s talking about, right? Well, at this point, it is a major privacy case. And yes, the figure you’re seeing in headlines is real, like this legal action has resulted in a $16 million agreement against Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The key question was straightforward:
Did the streaming platform Crunchyroll provide users’ viewing activity to third parties for a profit and without their viewers even knowing about it all in the first place?
See, nah, the issue here was not the animated series. It was about the data of users, like what people watched, when they watched it, and if that data was shared with advertising and tracking companies without users’ knowledge. Because nowadays everyone’s so sensitive about their data in these big companies’ hands, that’s why this matter became this big and that’s a good thing overall.
Who Owns Crunchyroll and Why Sony Was Involved
For those who may be hearing about it for the first time ever, see, Crunchyroll is the largest anime streaming platform, with millions of users in the U.S. and worldwide. But it’s not an independent company anymore.
Sony’s involvement happened in stages:
- In 2019, Sony acquired Funimation.
- In 2021, Sony purchased Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.18 billion.
Shortly later, Sony combined Funimation and Crunchyroll into a single platform. And that became big.
After Sony’s acquisition, the company was also in charge of how user data was managed by Crunchyroll. This was the origin of the risk issue right here.
How the Legal Case Started
Talking a little bit in the formal and legal tone, see, the legal action was formally known as Beltran et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. d/b/a Crunchyroll. The case is from September 2022 and was filed in a federal court located in Illinois.
And just so you know, yes, it was a class-action lawsuit, it was essentially a representation of thousands of users of Crunchyroll. And the main law that was being discussed in this case was the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), a law of the U.S. established in 1988.
What Crunchyroll Was Accused of Doing
It is not just the data that how long a viewer watched the anime, where were they watching from and what device they used, nah, there were more private data shared as well like email addresses, usernames, and titles of the shows the users watched with third parties like Meta, Google, and Adobe, according to the court documents. That’s the serious part that got everyone’s attention in this case.
Basically, the case was about data being shared without the permission of the users, thereby it was not about hacking or theft of data.
The $16 Million Settlement Explained
After this case went on for two years in the court, finally, we saw the court approve the $16 million settlement in January 2024.
And it is true that later down the line, actually, eligible users received about $30 per claim, with payments sent out in April 2024.
