Plaintiff
- Name: John Panarese
- Filing date: August 2, 2019
- State of filing: New York
Defendant
- Name: Acker Merrall & Condit Company
- Website: www.ackerwines.com
- Industry: Food Products
- Summary: Acker Merrall & Condit Company manufactures and sells a wide variety of wines and alcoholic beverages under the Acker Wines brand name.
Case Summary
On August 2, 2019, John Panarese filed a Complaint in New York Federal court against Acker Merrall & Condit Company. Plaintiff John Panarese alleges that www.ackerwines.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard(s).
Case Details
Plaintiff alleges issues in its Complaint including the following:
- Lack of Alternative Text (“alt-text”), or a text equivalent.
- Empty Links That Contain No Text causing the function or purpose of the link to not be presented to the user.
- Redundant Links where adjacent links go to the same URL address which results in additional navigation and repetition for keyboard and screen-reader users; and
- Linked Images Missing Alt-text, which causes problems if an image within a link contains no text and that image does not provide alt-text.
Plaintiff asserts the following cause(s) of action in its Complaint:
- Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.
- 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 Plaintiffs’ rights under the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq., Plaintiff Panarese’s rights under NYSHRL, N.Y. Exec. Law § 296, et seq., and Plaintiff Licea’s rights under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 51 et seq.;
- For a preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendant to take the steps necessary to make the Website, www.ackerwines.com, readily accessible to and usable by
visually-impaired individuals; - For compensatory and/or statutory damages as permitted by law;
- For Plaintiffs’ reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs;
- For pre-judgment interest to the extent permitted by law; and
- For such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.