Tech Giants Seek Supremes’ View on Spokeo FCRA Class Action Lawsuit

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Internet giants eBay Inc., Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., and Facebook Inc. are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to accept an appeal filed by Spokeo.com to review a class action lawsuit accusing the people search engine of publishing inaccurate information about consumers online, arguing that allowing the case to continue could allow plaintiffs to pursue a multi-billion dollar statutory damages claim despite suffering no injury.

The underlying tenet of civil lawsuits is normally whether or not a person has suffered an actual injury. This idea of standing may be divided into two prongs, however, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And now companies like eBay, Google, and Yahoo! are hoping that the Supreme Court will decide on the idea of statutory rights.

The case at issue is a Spokeo FCRA class action lawsuit filed by a man who said that the website, a personal information aggregator of job histories and other records, had misidentified him on several occasions. However, the key point of contention for the district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was whether or not he could seek damages based on the Fair Credit Report Act, which allows for $100-$1,000 per violation.

The Ninth Circuit decided recently that if Congress granted rights via the passage of laws, then that satisfied the Article III standing required by the Constitution. Companies like eBay, Google, and Yahoo! are not necessarily worried about the Fair Credit Reporting Act. They note in their amicus brief that there are numerous other laws that provide for statutory rights.

Due to the reported breadth of their operations, “If the Ninth Circuit rule stands, plaintiffs may pursue suits against amici even where they are not actually harmed by an alleged statutory violation, and in certain circumstances, seek class action damages that could run into the billions of dollars.”

The Supreme Court had previously been considering a case that would have resolved this issue, but it was dismissed for reasons unavailable at the time this article was published. The memo from the other tech giants comes in support of a request for a writ of certiorari filed by Spokeo itself.

The plaintiff is represented by Steven Woodrow, Jay Edelson and Rafey S. Balabanian of Edelson PC.

The Spokeo FCRA Class Action Lawsuit is Thomas Robins v. Spokeo Inc., Case No. 11-cv-56843, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

UPDATE: On May 16, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Robins v. Spokeo that plaintiffs must prove both “concrete and particularized” injury when pursuing litigation under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) instead of focusing on mere technical violations.