In Robles v Domino’s Pizza, No. 2:16-cv-06599 (January 2019), the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the ADA applied to Domino’s website and app because the Act mandates that places of public accommodation, like Domino’s, provide auxiliary aids and services to make visual materials available to individuals who are blind.
The suit was filed by plaintiff, Guillermo Robles, who is blind. Robles alleged that defendant Domino’s Pizza, LLC failed to design, construct, maintain, and operate its website and mobile application to be fully accessible to him. Robles unsuccessfully attempted twice to order online a customized pizza from a nearby Domino’s using a screen-reading software, which vocalizes visual information on websites. Robles then filed suit seeking damages and injunctive relief.
The Ninth Circuit reversed the trial court’s dismissal of the lawsuit and found that the ADA applied to Domino’s website and app. The fact that customers primarily accessed the website and app away from Domino’s physical restaurants did not make a difference to the application of the ADA because the ADA applies to the services ofa public accommodation, not services ina place of public accommodation. The panel stated that the website and app connected customers to the goods and services of Domino’s physical restaurants, and therefore being physically present in the restaurants was not a requirement to make the ADA applicable.
The Court of Appeals concluded by stating “we express no opinion about whether Domino’s website or app comply with the ADA. We leave it to the district court, after discovery, to decide in the first instance whether Domino’s website and app provide the blind with effective communication and full and equal enjoyment of its products and services as the ADA mandates.”
This article was written by a law clerk of Demorest Law Firm.
A link to the opinion can be found here: http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/01/15/17-55504.pdf
