Judge Approves LinkedIn Email Harvesting Class Action Settlement

LinkedIn Corp. has recently settled an email harvesting class action lawsuit filed against the social networking site, resolving claims that LinkedIn regularly collects users’ personal information and then sends emails to their contacts on members’ behalf without their consent.

On Sept. 15, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh granted preliminary approval to the proposed LinkedIn email harvesting class action settlement. A hearing to determine whether the LinkedIn settlement should be given final approval is scheduled to take place in February of next year.

This email harvesting class action lawsuit was filed against LinkedIn in September 2013, with plaintiffs alleging the social networking company employs illegal business practices wherein the website to collect members’ emails and contacts that allows LinkedIn to send out promotional spam for the website.

According to the LinkedIn class action lawsuit, plaintiffs and other members of the social networking site claim they were required to include an external email user name and password when creating the LinkedIn account. The social networking company would then use this information to hack members’ external email accounts with the intent of harvesting their stored email addresses.

In February 2015, LinkedIn informed Judge Koh that a settlement was soon to be reached between the plaintiffs and defendants. In June, an email harvesting class action settlement was announced in California federal court, stating that LinkedIn had agreed to settle the allegations and compensate about Class Members affected by the alleged email harvesting practices.

In addition to the monetary compensation, LinkedIn has also agreed to include detailed Add Connections disclaimers as well as allow users to withdraw their consent that would allow the company to send LinkedIn emails to their email contacts on users’ behalf.

While LinkedIn has admitted to no wrongdoing in this LinkedIn email harvesting class action lawsuit, the social networking site has agreed to the settlement agreement in order to avoid the uncertainty of future litigation and further court costs. The LinkedIn class action settlement will provide relief to 20.8 million current and former LinkedIn users who were affected by the website’s alleged email harvesting practices.

Although the settlement amount was not listed in Judge Koh’s preliminary approval of the email harvesting class action settlement, LinkedIn reportedly agreed to pay $13 million, according to their July motion for preliminary approval of the proposed settlement agreement.

More information about how to file a claim for the LinkedIn email harvesting class action settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

UPDATE 10/2/15: Claim filing instructions are now available! Get them here.

The plaintiffs are represented by Dorian S. Berger and Daniel P. Hipskind of Olavi Dunne LLP, Larry C. Russ of Russ August & Kabat, and Michael W. Sobol, Nicholas R. Diamand and Melissa Gardner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.

The LinkedIn Email Harvesting Class Action Lawsuit is Perkins, et al. v. LinkedIn Corporation, Case No. 5:13-cv-04303, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE 2: Details on how to file a claim for the LinkedIn Add Connections class action settlement are up! See them here.

UPDATE 4/20/16: The LinkedIn Add Connections Class Action Settlement is currently under appeal.  Claims will not be paid until all appeals are exhausted.  We appreciate your ongoing  patience. Top Class Actions will continue to provide updates as we learn more.  Keep checking back and let us know when you receive a check in the comments section below or on our  Facebook page.
UPDATE 4: On Oct. 17, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted valid claims for theLinkedIn add connections class action settlementstarted receiving checks worth as much as $20.43! Congratulations to all our viewers who got PAID!