Plaintiff
- Name: Luis Licea
- Filing date: April 7, 2020
- State of filing: California
Defendant
- Name: American Express Company
- Website: www.americanexpress.com
- Industry: Finance
- Summary: American Express is an international finance company best known for its charge card, credit card, and traveler's cheque business services.
Case Summary
On April 7, 2020, Luis Licea filed a Complaint in California State court against American Express Company. Plaintiff Luis Licea alleges that www.americanexpress.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard(s).
Case Details
Plaintiff alleges issues in its Complaint including the following:
- Empty or missing form labels which presents a problem because, if a form control does not have a properly associated text label, the function or purpose of that form control may not be presented to screen reader users. Form labels provide visible descriptions and larger clickable targets for form controls;
- Empty headings, which present a problem because a heading contains no content. Keyboard and screen reader users often navigate by heading elements. An empty heading will present no information and may introduce confusion;
- Empty buttons, which present a problem because a button is empty or has no value text. When navigating to a button, descriptive text must be presented to screen reader users to indicate the function of the button; and
- Empty links which present a problem because a link contains no text. If a link contains no text, the function or purpose of the link will not be presented to the user. This can introduce confusion for keyboard and screen reader users.
Plaintiff asserts the following cause(s) of action in its Complaint:
Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.
Plaintiff seeks the following relief by way of its Complaint:
- For a judgment that Defendant violated Plaintiff’s rights under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.;
- For a preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendant to take the steps necessary to make the Website, https://www.americanexpress.com/, readily accessible to and usable by visually-impaired individuals; but Plaintiff hereby expressly limits the injunctive relief to require that Defendant expend no more $20,000 as the cost of injunctive relief;
- An award of statutory minimum damages of $4,000 per violation pursuant to section 52(a) of the California Civil Code; however, Plaintiff expressly limits the total amount of recovery, including statutory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and cost of injunctive relief not to exceed $74,999;
- For attorneys’ fees and expenses pursuant to all applicable laws including, without limitation, California Civil Code § 52(a); however, Plaintiff expressly limits the total amount of recovery, including statutory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and cost of injunctive relief not to exceed $74,999;
- For pre-judgment interest to the extent permitted by law;
- For costs of suit; and
- For such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.
