The United States District Court for the District of Columbia recently dismissed a putative class action alleging that AARP violated its website privacy policy by allowing Facebook and Adobe to collect personal information about its users. The plaintiff alleged that AARP and its subsidiary AARP Services, Inc. (collectively, “AARP”), which advocate for individuals over the age of 50, breached their privacy policy by representing to users that certain third parties might ... Keep Reading »
Class Action Standing Articles
The latest class action standing developments and trends, including news, key cases, and strategies.
Seventh Circuit Petitioned for Rehearing En Banc to Determine Whether Data Breach Class Claims Survive Clapper, Satisfy Article III Standing Requirements
In January 2014, luxury retailer Neiman Marcus disclosed that it had suffered a cyberattack in which hackers may have gained access to 350,000 credit and debit cards used at its stores in late 2013. Plaintiffs, all of whom made credit or debit card purchases from the retailer during the relevant time period, filed a putative class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and all other customers whose card information may have been compromised. Neiman Marcus moved to ... Keep Reading »
Nevada Federal District Court Follows National Trend, Dismisses Data Breach Class Action for Lack of Standing
In granting a motion to dismiss a data breach putative class action lawsuit, the District of Nevada joined the majority of federal district courts in holding that plaintiffs whose personal information was stolen lack Article III standing to sue in federal court. The case derived from a 2012 breach of Zappos.com, Inc.’s servers in which hackers stole 24 million customers' personal information. Zappos moved to dismiss the case for lack of standing because, it alleged, ... Keep Reading »
Supreme Court to Consider “Trial by Formula” and Standing of Non-Injured Class Members in Tyson Foods
The Supreme Court recently granted Tyson Foods' petition for certiorari which presents to the Court two important class action issues: (1) Whether differences among individual class members may be ignored and a class action certified under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3), or a collective action certified under the Fair Labor Standards Act, where liability and damages will be determined with statistical techniques that presume all class members are identical to ... Keep Reading »
SCOTUS Accepts Certiorari to Address Article III Standing in “No-Injury” FCRA Class Action
On April 27, the Supreme Court accepted certiorari review in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 13-1339, to address whether consumers can establish Article III standing without actual harm or injury, by alleging a violation of a federal statute. "Spokeo is a people search engine that organizes White Page listings, Public Records and Social Network information to help you safely find and learn about people." Robins filed a putative class action against Spokeo, alleging it is a ... Keep Reading »
Data Breach Class Actions: Don’t Overlook Standing Defense Just Because Plaintiff Alleges Identity Theft
A New Jersey federal district court recently dismissed the putative class action claims of four plaintiffs against a health care defendant following the theft of two password-protected laptops allegedly containing personal information of more than 839,000 individuals. Three of the plaintiffs did not allege that they suffered identity theft, and thus failed to allege an injury in fact as required for standing under Article III of the United States Constitution. The fourth ... Keep Reading »
Threat of Identity Theft is Not Enough: Another Data Breach Class Action Dismissed for Lack of Standing
Hewing to prior Third Circuit precedent in Reilly v. Ceridian and the Supreme Court's precedent in Clapper v. Amnesty International, the Middle District of Pennsylvania recently joined the majority of federal district courts in dismissing putative data breach class actions for lack of standing where the named plaintiffs fail to allege identity theft. Although standing is a requirement in any case, it is particularly relevant in the data breach context, where actual ... Keep Reading »
No Harm, No Standing: Texas Federal Court Dismisses Data Breach Class Action
Dismissing a class action based on a data breach, the Southern District of Texas added to the growing number of decisions that find an alleged risk of future identity theft due to a data breach is not an injury that creates standing to bring federal claims. The plaintiff, Beverly Peters, a former St. Joseph patient, brought a class action lawsuit against the medical provider after receiving notification that her personal information and protected health information had ... Keep Reading »
Northern District of California Adopts Flexible Approach To Analyzing Pre-Certification Standing Issues
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California partially granted and partially denied a motion to dismiss based on the standing of 18 named plaintiffs from 13 different states seeking class certification under the consumer protection and privacy laws of 48 states arising from plaintiffs’ purchases of numerous cell phone models. Plaintiffs sued the software developer of a cell phone network diagnostic tool and numerous mobile device ... Keep Reading »
Florida District Court Rejects Motion To Strike But Allows Pre-Certification Standing Challenge In Snack Food Labeling Case
Before class certification hearings occur in the Southern District of Florida, defendants may not challenge plaintiff's class allegations via Rule 12(f) motions to strike but may challenge plaintiff's standing via motions to dismiss. In Bohlke v. Shearer's Foods, LLC, plaintiff sought to represent a Florida class and alternative nationwide class of purchasers of five flavors of defendant's rice chips. Plaintiff alleged that defendant's "all natural" labels were false ... Keep Reading »