Written By: Nate Davidson – Founding Partner | Appos Partners
This may not be an industry wide issue at this point, but we have heard of at least two incidents where an opportunistic attorney(s) has sent legal letters to two different Missouri dispensaries citing non-compliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). They state that they are representing a disabled Missouri patient client(s) and citing issues with a dispensary’s website as it pertains to ADA regulations. In addition to citing the issues, they are asking to have the site brought into compliance while also offering up the potential for a settlement/damages vs. going to court.
We have seen this type of approach used before in other industries, but this is the first we are hearing about it related to licensed Missouri dispensaries. While actual ADA compliance issues are cited and specific examples provided, we still believe this approach is tantamount to extortion or a money grab.
For those operators wanting to get in front of this issue, we suggest running your website through a free ADA / WCAG website compliance checker. This tool may reveal any number of issues within the build of your site and may give you the opportunity to correct things before you are targeted to be the next recipient of this legal approach / scheme.
Once potential issues are identified, we would suggest that you move fairly quickly to address to mitigate the identified compliance issues. If you have an internal developer resource or a developer partner, it may make sense to get this on their radar asap. For those potentially needing a web partner / resource to assist with these matters, of course Appos Partners is available to help achieve compliance.
At the end of the day, we just want to make sure our Missouri operator friends have awareness of these predatory behaviors and can take action before it gets into a protracted legal situation. We are hopeful this heads up and additional information is helpful to all those concerned or affected.
Written By: Nate Davidson – Founding Partner | Appos Partners
Appos Partners – A MoCann member and technology company working with Missouri licensees as a website and tech stack resource.
ndavidson@appospartners.com or 314-249-5755