Panarese v. Acker Merrall & Condit Company

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).

About the defendant

Acker Merrall & Condit Company manufactures and sells a wide variety of wines and alcoholic beverages under the Acker Wines brand name.

What the complaint says

The problems the plaintiff describes with the website.

• 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.

Legal claims

The laws the plaintiff says the defendant broke, called causes of action.

• Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.
• Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.

What the plaintiff asks for

What the plaintiff wants the court to order.

• 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 byvisually-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.