Tim Hortons Facing Class Action Lawsuit for Tracking Mobile App Users

The popular Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons is facing a class action lawsuit alleging its mobile application tracked and monitored customers without their knowledge.

On the Tim Hortons website, Tim Hortons says it is “Canada’s largest restaurant chain” and a “proud symbol of our country and values.”

According to Tim Hortons, the restaurant serves more than five million cups of coffee each day. More than 80% of Canadians reportedly visit Tim Hortons at least once a month.

Tim Hortons offers its customers a mobile app, which notifies users about ongoing promotions and provides an easy way to order and pay. Millions of Canadians may have installed the Tim Hortons app on their smartphones.

However, Tim Hortons mobile app users were reportedly unaware that the mobile app tracked and monitored their locations even when the app was turned off.

Plaintiff Steve (last name redacted) filed the Tim Hortons mobile app tracking class action lawsuit in Canada against The TDL Group Corp., which operates under the name Tim Hortons, and its parent companies.

“One of Canada’s values is that her citizens have a fundamental right to respect for their private lives, which was violated by Tim Hortons when it used its mobile application to track and monitor its customers without their knowledge,” the Tim Hortons mobile tracking class action lawsuit alleges.

On June 12, the Financial Post published an article by James McLeod under the title “Double-double tracking: How Tim Hortons knows where you sleep, work and vacation.”

The Financial Post article reports that the Tim Hortons mobile app logs customers’ detailed location data without their knowledge. The mobile app also reportedly uses a location-tracking service from Radar Labs Inc. that can allegedly ping customers’ phones every few minutes.

McLeod notes that, until the week of June 8, the FAQ for the Tim Hortons app stated “the app uses your location only while you have the app open.” However, when McLeod inquired about this statement, Tim Hortons reportedly acknowledged the FAQ regarding location data “could have been more clear.”

Tim Hortons Probed for Privacy Breach

On June 29, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada announced a joint investigation by several Privacy Commissioners across the country had been launched over the Tim Hortons app privacy concerns.

“The federal Privacy Commissioner’s office considers this to be an issue of great importance to Canadians given the privacy issues it raises,” the office said in a statement. “Geolocation data can be very sensitive as it can reveal information about the habits and activities of individuals, for example, medical visits or places that they regularly frequent.”

Privacy Commissioners in British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta were conducting an investigation into whether or not the Tim Hortons app’s constant tracking of mobile app users constituted a violation of the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act.

In response to the public scrutiny of its mobile app privacy, Tim Hortons reportedly discontinued its detailed location tracking via the mobile app.

Steve says he has been using the Tim Hortons app since 2019 and was unaware that Tim Hortons had been tracking and monitoring him without his knowledge, even when the Tim Hortons app was closed. He says he would not have downloaded the Tim Hortons app if he had known it had been tracking him even when the app was closed.

“Tim Hortons and its agents – unlawfully and without consent – constantly streamed [Steve’s] location via his Android smartphone and kept logs of his activities,” the Tim Hortons mobile app tracking class action lawsuit alleges.

Steve filed the Tim Hortons mobile app tracking class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a proposed Class of all Quebec residents who downloaded the Tim Hortons mobile application.

“Tim Hortons has taken a cavalier and arbitrary attitude to their legal and moral duties to the Class Members,” Steve alleges in the Tim Hortons mobile app tracking class action lawsuit. He claims the company’s conduct was “malicious, deliberate, and oppressive towards their customers.”

The Tim Hortons mobile app tracking class action lawsuit asserts that Tim Hortons violated Class Members’ privacy rights, the Federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and breached its own contract which stated that the mobile app would only use customer location data when the app was open.

Steve is asking Tim Hortons for damages, including punitive damages, for violating Class Members’ privacy rights.

Did you download the Tim Hortons mobile app? What do you think about the Tim Hortons mobile app tracking class action lawsuit? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below! 

Steve is represented by Joey Zukran of LPC Avocats Inc. and Jeff Orenstein of Consumer Law Group Inc.

The Tim Hortons Mobile App Tracking Class Action Lawsuit is Steve v. Restaurant Brands International Inc., et al., Case No. 500-06-001081-203, in Quebec Superior Court, District of Montreal, Canada. 

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