The Third Circuit recently ruled that a labor union violated the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (“DPPA”) when it accessed the motor vehicle records of Cintas employees for an improper “labor-organizing” purpose. In Pichler v. UNITE, the divided court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs whose home addresses were obtained as part of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees’ (“UNITE”) drive to organize Cintas employees. In reaching its conclusion, the court held that punitive damages may be awarded for violations of the DPPA. The court also concluded that the union’s assertion that it collected and used personal information from motor vehicle records for litigation — a permissible purpose under the DPPA — did not overcome the lower court’s finding that it collected and used the information for impermissible labor-organizing activities.