“Apple Inc and other online retailers did not break California law by requiring consumers to provide their address and phone numbers as a condition of accepting credit card payments, the state’s high court ruled on Monday,” Dan Levine reports for Reuters.

“In a split decision, the California Supreme Court said state privacy protections for credit cards do not apply to online purchases that are downloaded electronically,” Levine reports. “The ruling comes after the same court in 2011 said that those privacy protections do apply to brick and mortar retailers, finding that they could not request a customer’s ZIP code during a credit card transaction.”

Levine reports, “Apple was the defendant in the latest lawsuit, brought as a proposed class action by a consumer who purchased downloads from iTunes. Online retailers eBay Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc also filed briefs supporting Apple.”

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