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FHA and ADA Quick Hits – afternoon showers edition

August 16, 2022 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - Hotels, ADA - serial litigation, ADA - Standing, ADA Internet Web, ADA Litigation Procedure, FHA, FHA design/build litigation, Internet Accessibility Tags: ADA defense, Apex Trial Law, FHA Defense, Martinez v Cot'n Wash, Pacific Trial Group, Red Rocks

August is (in Texas at least) the month of afternoon thunderstorms. It’s a good metaphor for running a business subject to the ADA or FHA. Everything’s sunny and warm one minute then suddenly the wind is blowing and you are soaking wet. But the plants need the rain, so as usual there’s good and bad in ADA and FHA developments.

Unruh Act and the Internet – half a loaf is better than none.

You can read a detailed analysis of Matinez v. Cot’n Wash in Bill Goren’s blog “Gateway is Everything in California” so I’ll just hit the highlights. There is an ongoing controversy about whether the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the websites of businesses with no physical facility open to the public. Some courts say yes and some say no. The Ninth Circuit, which covers federal courts in California, says “no.” As result the most prolific serial ADA filers, including the Pacific Trial Group and Apex Trial Law¹ turned in recent years to California’s Unruh Act and the California state courts, arguing that the Unruh Act does cover online only businesses. At least some lower California courts have agreed, but in Martinez v. Cot’n Wash one California Appeals court (there are six in all) said no, holding that the Unruh Act does not apply to the websites of online only businesses. This is big news coming from a state where thousands of serial ADA lawsuits and even more demand letters are sent every year. It isn’t the end of the road. While the decision is binding on lower courts, it isn’t binding on other California appellate courts or on the California Supreme Court, to which Marinez v. Cot’n Wash is likely headed. It also doesn’t apply to websites associated with physical facilities open to the public so it is not likely to lead to an immediate end of demand letters and lawsuits. California’s ADA litigation industry relies more on the threat of costly litigation than on the reality of winning and losing so until making a threat is sanctionable (which will require that the California Supreme Court speak) they probably won’t slow down. It likely though that the price of settlement will go down as it already has in face of other less dramatic losses in the last couple of years.

And for a different view of website accessibility.

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A victory on tester standing – lawsuit by Rafael Segovia dismissed.

August 4, 2022 By Richard Hunt in ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - serial litigation, ADA - Standing Tags: ADA defense, Muriel Munoz, Rafael Segovia, Sapp, Sturgill, tester standing, William Strickland

I’m not above patting myself on the back, and today Judge Sam Lindsay granted a Motion to Dismiss I filed for the defendant in Segovia v. Admiral Realty, Inc., Case No. 3:21-cv-2478 (N.D. Texas August 4, 2022). Judge Lindsay found, correctly, that Segovia had failed to plead the concrete and particularized injury and imminent threat of future harm required to maintain an action under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Segovia and his lawyers¹ have filed the same form complaint in at least 31 lawsuits in the Northern District of Texas, and every single one of those cases that is still open should be subject to dismissal based on the same reasoning used by Judge Lindsay.² This isn’t, by the way, Segovia’s first setback. In June he voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit against another of my clients because he had made a fatal error when amending his complaint to avoid my original motion to dismiss. In July his attorneys voluntarily dismissed an almost identical complaint against one of my clients (though filed by a different serial ADA filer) rather than face the possibility of losing on summary judgment.

The conventional wisdom in the kind of serial ADA case filed by Segovia is that a quick settlement is the cheapest way out, but with Judge Lindsay’s opinion clients willing to take some risk could well decide they are not interested in paying off plaintiffs like Segovia whose industrial approach to litigation seems to be more about making money than helping those with disabilities.

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¹ He was represented in this case by William Strickland. He is represented in others by Matthew Sapp and Michael Sturgill of the Sapp Sturgill firm.

² Other District Judges are not obligated to agree with their colleagues, so other judges in the Northern District might reach a different result, but it is reasonable to hope other judges will appreciate the value of consistency among different courts when confronted with identical claims.


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What’s bugging HUD – the latest HUD actions based on disability

July 26, 2022 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, FHA, FHA Emotional Support Animals, FHA Policies, FHA Regulation, Landlord-tenant, Policies and Procedures FHA ADA Tags: Emotional Support Animals, FHA Defense, HUD charge of discrimination, HUD disability discrimination, service animals

Seal of the Dept of Housing and Urban Development.HUD’s press releases are interesting reading, not because they help you understand the law, but because they help you understand what HUD thinks the law is, and because they are often object lessons in mistakes no housing provider should make. This is a round up of press releases in the last four or five months, each of which has its own lesson to teach. I’ve also included a discussion of HUD’s guidance on animal accommodations at the end based on Bill Goren’s recent blog on the subject.

Conditions on an animal accommodation are o.k., but there are limits.

HUD has charged an HOA in Wyoming with discrimination because while a housing provider like an HOA can impose reasonable conditions on an accommodation, it cannot impose unreasonable conditions. See. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_134 It’s worth taking a look at where this HOA went wrong, at least as HUD sees it, so others can avoid the same mistakes.

The first problem was the HOA’s evident hostility toward requests for accommodation for animals of all kinds. Instead of just asking homeowners who required an accommodation to request one, the HOA made a point of noting that it is a criminal violation of Wyoming law to misrepresent a service animal and specifically noting that other residents “do not like to see dogs” in the development. There is nothing wrong with a no-pets policy, but evident hostility towards those with disabilities is an FHA violation.

A second problem was inflexible demands for documentation in a specific form. Housing providers can request that a specific form be used for an accommodation request, but if the request comes in some other form it has to be evaluated in just the same way as a request on the right form. The specific requirements imposed by the HOA concerning the kind of information it needed were probably reasonable, but insisting that only a particular form be used to provide the information will never be acceptable to HUD.

Third, and probably most important, the HOA decided to retaliate against the complaining parties when they filed a complaint with HUD. As soon as the complaint was filed the HOA sent a letter to all residents criticizing the complaining parties for filing the complaint and suggesting that they lied about the status of their dogs. Nobody likes being on the receiving end of a HUD complaint, but the place to fight back is the investigation or litigation, not a public forum or some kind of public shaming. No matter how annoyed a housing provider is by a complaint that is or seems to be unjustified it will always be illegal to retaliate in any way. In fact, many complaints that originally had no merit at all turn into to very strong retaliation claims because of the response of the housing provider. It isn’t clear from the HUD charge of discrimination whether the HOA was represented by counsel, but an experienced FHA lawyer would certainly have advised them that they were going to have problems with HUD if they behaved as claimed in the charge of discrimination.

Being an awful person is likely to lead to a HUD charge or fine.

In early July HUD announced a $70,000 fine against a landlord who allegedly refused to rent to a family because their daughter had cerebral palsy and who had a history of posts on social media that expressed a prejudice against all children. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_131 The landlord didn’t appear to defend himself, so we only have HUD’s side of the story, but the lesson is clear. It isn’t against the law to be an awful person and hate people because they are disabled, but it is against the law to act out your awfulness as a landlord or housing provider. Landlords and other housing providers make mistakes, often because HUD’s internal standards don’t make any sense at all or because they don’t understand the law. There is, however, a difference that should be obvious to most people between a mistake and outright intentional discrimination.

Along the same lines, HUD resolved a charge of discrimination against a condominium management company that refused to waive its two person per bedroom limit for a family that needed temporary housing while one of the children had a bone marrow transplant. This was a settlement and we don’t know the management company’s side of the story, but it cost them more than $35,000 plus whatever they spent on lawyers after the complaint was filed. Reasonable occupancy limits are not discriminatory, but when a disabled child requires an accommodation landlords and HOAs need to think carefully about the optics and cost of refusal. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_109

Being awful plus a mistake? There’s a lesson here.

On July 1 HUD announced a conciliation agreement with a landlord that allegedly engaged in race and disability discrimination. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_122. Once again we only know HUD’s side of the story, but the disability discrimination claim is based on a situation that comes up all the time. The disabled tenant asked for a reserved parking space, presumably to shorten the distance from their parking space to their front door. The landlord refused, probably because of a no reserved parking policy. Providing a reserved parking spot is one of those accommodations that HUD, DOJ and the       courts will almost always consider reasonable. There may be room to argue about whether the tenant is disabled or has a disability related need, but otherwise a refusal to provide reserved parking for the tenant is likely to trigger a finding of cause.¹

Service animal issues again, and the cost of being the bearer of bad tidings

HUD issued a charge of discrimination against a landlord and their leasing agent with disability discrimination because they refused to allow a blind woman’s guide dog due to a no pets policy. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_087 This isn’t even a close call for a reasonable accommodation, but what apartment and HOA managers need to note is that the leasing agent was also charged even though it doesn’t appear she did anything but relay the owners’ position on the lease. I’ve blogged about this before² and the lesson is worth repeating. If you are a leasing agent or manager and your owner insists that you carryout their discriminatory orders your best bet is to quit because otherwise you may have personal liability.

Design/build liability – reasonable modification for out-of-compliance buildings.

I recently settled a small dispute with a landlord that wanted a tenant to pay for the curb ramp needed for them to access their apartment. The landlord messed up, but their lawyers knew that when an apartment complex is covered by the FHA design/build standards then modifications to make it meet those standards are at the landlord’s expense. This isn’t an uncommon problem it seems since HUD just resolved a similar dispute with property owners in Hawaii. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_080 The rules are not complicated, but if you aren’t sure talk to a lawyer before you turn down an modification request. Here they are:

  • For housing built before the effective date of the 2008 FHA Amendments the tenant bears the cost of accessibility modifications.
  • For housing built after the effective date of the 2008 FHA Amendments the tenant bears the cost of accessibility modifications if they are something in addition to what the FHA standards require.
  • For housing built after the effective date of the 2008 FHA Amendments the landlord bears the cost of accessibility modifications needed to bring the property into compliance with the FHA standards.

This last point applies even if the current owner is not liable for the original failure to build the apartments correctly. Another a good reason to require an accessibility survey before acquiring multi-family housing.

HUD believes in the interactive process – so should you.

HUD issued a charge of discrimination against a landlord and management company for refusing to even consider an accommodation for an “assistance animal” that would have violated a no pets policy. https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_22_078 What stands out in this case is that the owners did not even start the accommodation process. I have real doubts about whether most or any assistance animal (as opposed to service animal) claims are legitimate because there is essentially no scientific support for the notion that emotional support animals provided needed help to those with various mental health disabilities. I’ve also found that most of the individuals requesting an accommodation for an emotional support animal are probably not suffering from a mental disorder that constitutes a disability. Having said that, refusing to even look at an accommodation request is going to trigger a charge of discrimination in every case. Refusing to engage in the “interactive process” is not discrimination according to the courts, but HUD believes it is and it is a long and expensive road from dealing with a charge of discrimination before HUD and finding a federal court that applies the law as written.³

Just how much deference should the courts give HUD’s guidance on assistance animals.

Bill Goren just blogged on the technical issue of the degree of deference courts should give HUD’s guidance on assistance animals (4) which reminded me of a general misunderstanding of reasonable accommodation law that lies behind some of the cases above. Bill asks the specific question of whether HUD’s belief that breed restrictions are not a valid reason to deny an accommodation would be deferred to by the courts.  Breed restrictions get a lot of attention in the animal accommodation world, but the discussion usually misses the point. A breed restriction is just another rule that might have to be waived as a reasonable accommodation, and there is no such thing as a generic dangerous dog. Pit bulls may be more dangerous or aggressive than other breeds in general, but the only pit bull a landlord will be asked to accommodate is the specific pit bull belonging to a disabled resident. If it is a sweetheart then the characteristics of the breed don’t matter. I advise my clients to interview the dog as part of the accommodation process. If it barks and snaps at a stranger it might be dangerous regardless of its breed and if it is calm and placid the opposite is true. In addition, it is always possible to put conditions on an accommodation if necessary to make it reasonable. Just because a dog is allowed despite a no pets policy the landlord isn’t required to let it or the owner do anything they want. With rare exceptions you can require a dog to be on a short leash, only be in specific areas outside the apartment, not make noise or disturb the neighbors and so forth. Every accommodation request has to be determined based on the specific circumstances, including the nature of the disability, the behavior of the dog, the kinds of places the dog may need to go, or not need to go, in order to fulfill its function, and so on. When HUD says things like a landlord cannot impose breed restrictions or cannot charge a pet deposit HUD is making the same mistake landlords who impose hard and fast rules on accommodations make; that is, it is failing to recognize that the principle of reasonable accommodation is always based on balancing the tenant’s need against the landlord’s responsibilities and needs in an effort to find a compromise that works for everyone involved. Given the huge diversity of disabilities and disability related needs trying to impose hard and fast rules on accommodations is absurd. Bureaucrats and businesses both love rules, but this is a situation in which rules just cause problems.

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¹ There is a difference between parking

² See, Shoot the messenger! Agent liability under the Fair Housing Act

³ I’ve blogged about recent cases holding that failure to engage in the interactive process is not itself actionable discrimination. FHA and ADA Odds and Ends

(4) See, Upon Further Review, the HUD Circular Just Might Survive Kisor as well as EPA v. West Virginia and be Given Judicial Deference I have blogged on this issue as well. See, Auer deference and the Fair Housing Act – does Kisor change anything?

 


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ADA regulations and the reality of website accessibility

July 22, 2022 By Richard Hunt in ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - serial litigation, ADA - Standing, ADA Internet, ADA Internet Web, ADA Website Accessibility Tags: ADA defense, Gomez, Judge William Orrick, Laufer, Trinitas Cellars, WCAG, website accessibility

Logo of Trinitas Cellars winery

Trinitas Cellars Logo

It has long seemed that the best way to both create accessibility for websites and to tame the industrial ADA litigation monster is to have a technical regulatory standard. Most recently a group of U.S. Senators has written to the Attorney General urging a resumption of the regulatory process that was ended under President Trump.¹ Before the process was ended the proposed regulations were essentially the familiar Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0; the same guidelines that have been adopted as regulations for government websites under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Another group of members of Congress tried to accomplish the same thing with legislation that would have added a new title to the ADA and require this kind of regulation.²

I thought for a long time that some kind of regulatory solution was needed, but my experience defending lawsuits concerning physical accessibility ADA suits has persuaded me that a regulatory approach that essentially makes some version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines legally binding – which is what the abandoned DOJ regulations did – will neither improve website accessibility nor tame the beast.³ Instead we need regulations that adopt a functional approach to accessibility – the kind of approach used by Judge William Orrick in the recent decision in Gomez v. Trinitas Cellars, LLC,  2022 WL 2194658 (N.D. Cal. June 17, 2022).

Judge Orrick was considering a Motion to Dismiss that he had converted to a motion for summary judgment, a procedure that allows consideration of evidence beyond the words of the Complaint. The defendant attacked the plaintiff’s standing to sue, which is a real issue for this plaintiff (4), but the most interesting part of the decision concerns the defendant’s claim that the website was in fact accessible. Judge Orrick’s approach to that question shows just how similar issues should be approached in every ADA lawsuit.

Mr. Gomez’s first claim was that some of the images on the website did not have a meaingful text equivalent and could not be “seen” by a visually impaired user with screen reading software (SRS). The first such image was the logo of the business, which the defendant admitted had a meaningless text label. Judge Orrick found that this did not violate the ADA because the plaintiff could not explain how the lack of a label would deny him the full and equal enjoyment of the business or deter him from visiting it. As Judge Orrick observes, “it may have been ideal for that banner to be readable, but that does not mean it shows a cognizable injury or violates the ADA.” He applied the same analysis to social media logos that were not SRS readable: “neither Gomez’s opposition nor his supplemental brief draws even an arguable connection between this lack of readability and a barrier that would matter to the ADA.” This is how the ADA should be applied to technical accessibility issues. The ADA’s guaranty is that no person will be denied: “full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation.” (5) Symbols and logos that have no functional purpose cannot be fit within the kind of things whose enjoyment the ADA protects.

This was not a blanket finding that every technical problem was not a violation. The  Court recognized that menu items had to be accessible for the website to be usable at all, but it found as a matter of fact that the menus were accessible and could be read by SRS. Gomez’s last claim, concerning the contrast between text and background, was rejected because contrast does not matter to SRS, which is reading code, not visible text. Gomez was not blind – he only suffers from very poor vision – but his testimony was that he used SRS to navigate websites, so low contrast did not matter to him even though it might matter to a plaintiff with poor vision who did not rely on SRS.

Two principles can be found in Judge Orrick’s opinion. First, Title III of the ADA is violated only if some element of the website interferes with its practical use by a person with a disability. Second, an individual does not have standing to sue unless they were personally hindered in their use of the website even though some defective element is connected to their kind of disability. Any new regulations from DOJ should follow these principles and look at accessibility in practical rather than technical terms.(6) Instead of a “gotcha” list of technical requirements that no complex website can possibly meet, regulations should emphasize the purpose of the website, what users expect from it, and whether those expectations are met for individuals with a disability. For most commercial websites the purpose is to sell or rent something, and the question should be whether a person with a disability can accomplish that purpose with reasonable facility. From a litigation standpoint the plaintiff’s burden should be to plead the existence of a problem with the function of the website, not merely that logo or image lacks meaningful alternative text.

And while DOJ is thinking about meaningful regulations directed toward improving accessibility rather than generating meaningless litigation the courts might consider adopting Judge Orrick’s approach to cases involving physical accessibility. I’ve already pointed out the absurdity of so called “stigmatic injury” in Title III ADA cases.(7) Purely objective standards for accessibility have the advantage of being objective, but they suffer the disadvantage of being unachievable in practice. Plaintiffs should be required to plead and prove not just a technical violation, but also that they were personally suffered some kind of excessive inconvenience (8) in their full and equal enjoyment of a facility in order to plead or prove a Title III violation. This is the direction courts seem to be moving; it just needs to be incorporated in any new regulations defining accessibility.

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¹ See, letter dated June 10, 2022 from Senators Tammy Duckworth and Richard J. Durbin to Attorney General Merrick Garland. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/22.06.10%20-%20LETTER%20-%20Duckworth-Durbin%20letter%20to%20DOJ%20on%20web%20accessibility%20-%20FINAL.pdf

² See my blog The Online Accessibility Act of 2020 – does it do what it needs to do?

³ Seyfarth Shaw recently reported that ADA filings are down by 22% in the first half of 2022. 2022 ADA Title III Mid-Year Federal Lawsuit Filings Drop 22% Compared to 2021. The most likely explanation is that recent prosecutions of some of the most notorious ADA serial filers and the Laufer standing decisions from the 5th and 10th Circuits have discouraged new filings. See, A short sharp shock – the end of the beginning for serial ADA lawsuits? and Laufer v Looper – the death of tester standing, and not just in ADA cases. This does not mean that misuse of the ADA no longer exists. Some law firms that engage in serial filing have now lowered their monetary demands and are sending demand letters before filing suit in an effort to make a quick settlement more attractive to defendants who would otherwise be tempted to fight back. The most extreme versions of this kind of ADA exploitation have criminal consequences, see https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/attorney-pleads-guilty-filing-fraudulent-lawsuits-under-americans-disabilities-act. It is worth noting that the firms now sending demand letters instead of filing suit will generally not name their supposed client. This avoids criminal conduct like that prosecuted by DOJ, which involved using names without permission, but leaves open the question of whether the firm has a client at all. In the 40+ years I have been a litigator I have had thousands of clients receive demand letters, but the only times I’ve seen a demand letter that did not name a plaintiff have been demand letters concerning ADA website accessibility.

(4) A number of cases filed by Mr. Gomez have been dismissed just based on a lack of standing. See, e.g.,
Gomez v. Wunderlich, 2022 WL 2119120, at *1 (N.D. Cal. June 13, 2022) and Gomez v. Tribecca, Inc., 2022 WL 1469504, at *4 (C.D. Cal. May 10, 2022).

(5) 42 U.S.C. §12182(a).

(6) This kind of functional analysis will be incorporated in the upcoming version of the WCAG, version 3.0, which will measure conformance based more on practical effect than strict technical compliance. See, https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag-3.0-explainer/

(7) See, Stigmatic injury and how the 11th Circuit got in wrong in Laufer v Arpan

(8) Excessive inconvenience is an appropriate standard because disability by definition imposes some limits on the full and equal enjoyment of a facility. Even with perfect technical compliance a facility will be less convenient for a person with a disability than for a person without any disability.


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The Meta Fair Housing Settlement: watch out for unintended consequences . . .

June 22, 2022 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA FHA Litigation General, FHA Advertising, FHA Disparate Impact Tags: discriminatory advertising, Facebook settlement, FHA Defense, Meta settlement, unintended consequences

logo from Jurassic World Dominion movieThe Jurassic Park series of movies are all about unintended consequences. You can say the same thing about the Facebook advertising tools that were the subject of lawsuits against Meta. On June 21 the Department of Justice announced a settlement of claims against Meta related to Facebook’s advertising algorithms.¹ It is the second such settlement, the first having been obtained in a lawsuit filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance and other groups.² Both settlements are interesting reading for those who specialize in these subjects, but it is worth asking whether they will have any impact on other players in the real estate market. You don’t have to be a Meta, a Spectre, a T.H.R.U.S.H. or a Kaos(4) to for these settlements to have an effect on how you do business as a landlord, management company or real estate agent or broker. That’s because these settlements are aimed at new technologies, but rely on old fashioned legal principles that apply to all aspects of the housing market and to the unintended consequences of any kind of targeted marketing program.

To understand why you need to understand the legal issue behind the DOJ lawsuit, the NFHA lawsuit and the original HUD investigation of Facebook. The Fair Housing Act prohibits various kinds of discrimination in housing transactions, including what is called advertising discrimination. The relevant section (28 U.S.C. §3604(c)) covers more than just advertising, but the easiest to understand application is ads that show a preference for one group over another. “Whites only” or “Singles only” would be the most extreme examples.

But what if the advertiser is clever enough not to say “whites only” but wants to make sure there are no black applicants for an apartment? Facebook’s targeted advertising programs were tailor made for making sure that unwanted applicants didn’t apply for an apartment or try to buy a house but not being explicit about it. You don’t need to say “whites only” if you only advertise to whites. It didn’t have to be this blatant or deliberate though. Advertisements that target those who live in particular neighborhoods, or those whose children attend certain private schools, or even those who shop in certain stores could achieve the same effect. It also doesn’t have to be deliberate discrimination. If an apartment complex is designed to appeal to young single professionals the landlord may not intend to exclude families, but ads targeting the ideal market will have that effect. The claims made by NFHA, HUD and DOJ all concerned the notion that by providing the tools that facilitate discrimination Facebook was itself engaged in discrimination.

There is clearly a tension between the hyper-targeted marketing offered by Facebook and the inclusive marketing that serves the goals of the Fair Housing Act. The DOJ settlement resolves that tension by limiting the extent to which Facebook can offer highly targeted marketing. Facebook will not, in theory, be able to offer tools that let advertisers intentionally or unintentionally exclude individuals based on race, religion, gender, disability and other illicit categories. That doesn’t mean however that the settlement has nothing to say to parts of the housing industry that don’t rely on AI to place their ads. Here are some of the implications for the industry and beyond.

  • Other social media and online advertising platforms will be sued by DOJ or by the host of law firms that latch on to any new kind of lawsuit that promises lucrative returns. These platforms should already by thinking about how they can modify their targeted marketing programs to meet the standards to which Meta has agreed.
  • Advertising costs for real estate transactions will go up. Social media advertising is priced in part on the number of impressions of the ad displayed to users. One of the advantages of targeted marketing is fewer impressions are needed to generate the desired level of response. With less targeting advertisers will have to buy more impressions to generate the same level of engagement.
  • The landlords, managers and brokers who place ads could come under attack. Remember that Section 3604(c) is aimed primarily at those who place ads, not those who publish them. If it is illegal to offer tools that permit discriminatory advertising it is certainly illegal to use those tools for discriminatory purposes.
  • DOJ and others may attack advertising that is targeted by the choice of where it is displayed. Advertising on domestic websites written in languages other than English is an effective way to target only one ethnic or linguistic group. Ads posted on community oriented websites in Chinese, Vietnamese or Spanish will most likely never be seen by individuals who don’t speak those languages. Similarly, advertisements on Fox News and its local affiliates will be seen almost exclusively by whites.³ A landlord looking only for white tenants doesn’t need a sophisticated screening tool like those offered by Facebook. All they need to do is advertise only on websites, radio stations and television stations that appeal only to whites.

Finally, there is an extension of the principles behind the Meta settlement that goes beyond the housing market. EEOC and DOJ have recently suggested that AI based systems for finding employees can be discriminatory(5). Almost all businesses open to the public are subject to the prohibitions against discrimination in the ADA and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These businesses use targeted marketing to attract individuals they think they are likely to sell to, but that marketing necessarily excludes others, and the exclusion may be largely of individuals of a particular race, ethnicity or religion. As in the housing market, what seems like innocent targeting of groups to which no objection can be made might also turn out to eliminate all or most of the members of some group against whom discrimination is illegal.

But returning to the housing industry, high profile settlements like these can serve to deter unlawful conduct, but they also serve to encourage litigation. Housing professionals should evaluate their advertising and marketing policies to decide whether they might have an unintentional discriminatory effect and whether they can be justified on grounds unrelated to discrimination. Discrimination can be an unintended consequence of targeted advertising. Another perhaps unintended consequence will be more strike suits. Where DOJ leads others with less worthy motives are sure to follow.

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¹ See, Justice Department Secures Groundbreaking Settlement Agreement with Meta Platforms, Formerly Known as Facebook, to Resolve Allegations of Discriminatory Advertising

² See, Fair Housing Groups Settle Lawsuit with Facebook: Transforms Facebook’s Ad Platform Impacting Millions of Users

³ See, Fox News’s Audience Almost Exclusively White as Network Faces Backlash Over Immigration Coverage

(4) Knowing just how humorless Meta and its owners are I’m sure they won’t get the joke. No, I don’t think Meta is a worldwide organization devoted to doing evil. Like the computers running the algorithms attacked by DOJ, Meta is just a very complicated machine for making money whose actions may have unintended consequences.

(5) See, The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Use of Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence to Assess Job Applicants and Employees

 


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Richard M. Hunt


Hunt Huey PLLC
3010 Mountain Ash Court
Garland, Texas 75044
972-675-2236 phone
214-279-6124 fax
rhunt@hunthuey.com

I defend businesses nationwide in ADA and FHA accessibility lawsuits and consult with businesses and other attorneys concerning how to promptly and effectively deal with ADA and FHA demands, minimize litigation risk, and obtain meaningful compliance with the ADA and FHA. For more information about this feel free to email me at rhunt@hunthuey.com or visit our firm web site, hunthuey.com

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