Erin Andrews invasion of privacy case

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by  Swati Sharma  

Number of replies: 1

In 2008, Erin Andrews was working for ESPN when she was videotaped during her stay in the Nashville Marriott hotel at Vanderbilt University. Michael David Barrett secretly videotaped sportscaster Erin undressed footage via her door peephole and posted it online. Before distributing the video online, he tried to sell the footage to the celebrity gossip website TMZ, but they refused Barrett's proposal (Tamburin, 2016). Barrett was convicted for his criminal conduct and was sentenced to more than two years in prison.

One of the key mistakes was that instead of taking Erin’s permission of sharing the information related to her stay in their hotel, the hotel operator confirmed the information with Barrett. Another mistake was considering the stalker's request of booking a room for him next to her room. Initially, Andrews sued the parent company of Marriott hotel in 2010. But the court denied the Andrews lawsuit against the parent company of Marriott hotel. For carelessness and privacy violation, Erin filed a lawsuit against Barrett (stalker), the hotel’s owner, the operator, Marriott International, West End Hotel Partners, and Windsor Capital (Fox, 2016). In 2016, after two weeks of trial, the jury found that Barrett was 51% liable for his criminal act and the hotel owner and the Windsor Capital Group were 49% responsible for Andrews privacy invasion. Although Andrews demanded $75 million but the jury awarded her $55 million. 

In my opinion, convicting Barrett and the hotel staff was the appropriate decision taken by the court. However, the incident took place due to the negligence of the hotel employee. This criminal conduct made Andrews suffer from emotional distress after finding out that her bare footage was available online. Since the guests fully rely on the hotel to safeguard their privacy and safety during their stay in the hotel, therefore, it is vital for the hotels to train their employees to be extremely careful and take proper measures to safeguard their guest’s privacy.

References

Fox, J. T. (2016). What the Erin Andrews case means for the hotel industry. Hotel Management (21582122), 231(7), 16.

Tamburin, A. (2016). Erin Andrews awarded $55 million in civil case over nude video.