LinkedIn Reaches $13M Email Harvesting Class Action Settlement

On June 11, LinkedIn Corp. informed a California federal court that the company had agreed to a $13 million email harvesting class action settlement, which claims the online networking website violated users’ privacy by accessing their email accounts to send out LinkedIn invitations to potential members.

Under the terms of the proposed LinkedIn email harvesting class action settlement, LinkedIn will set up a $13 million settlement fund to compensate eligible email harvesting Class Members. Additionally, the company will add more detailed Add Connections feature disclaimers and allow LinkedIn users to withdraw their consent to let the networking site send LinkedIn emails to their contacts.

Class Members of the LinkedIn email harvesting class action settlement are defined as: “[A]ll current and former LinkedIn members who used Add Connections to import information from external email accounts and to send emails to persons who were non-members in which the member’s name, photograph, likeness and/or identity was displayed between September 17, 2011 and October 31, 2014.”

Qualifying email harvesting Class Members would have 60 days after the final approval of this LinkedIn class action settlement to submit completed claim forms to the claims administrator in order to receive their portion of the settlement fund.

The plaintiffs of this email harvesting class action lawsuit originally filed their complaint in September 2013, claiming the Add Connections feature of the networking website allows the company to access users’ contacts and send emails to these contacts on users’ behalf. These email blasts allegedly advertise LinkedIn’s services to non-members without users’ express consent.

LinkedIn filed a motion to dismiss the email harvesting class action lawsuit filed against them, arguing that all LinkedIn members consent to the alleged email harvesting practice when they sign up for the networking website. The LinkedIn email harvesting class action lawsuit survived this proposed dismissal, though the plaintiffs were required to amend some claims.

The company attempted to dismiss the class action lawsuit against them a second time in 2014, but this request was also denied by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh, who also refused to grant the networking website immunity.

Finally, in February of this year, LinkedIn informed the court that the company was close to reaching a settlement with the plaintiffs of the email harvesting class action lawsuit. Talks for the class action settlement had begun back in August and seemed to be almost ironed out by the time the company informed the court of this development.

If the payment for each LinkedIn email harvesting Class Members falls below $10, the company has agreed to pay an additional $750,000. Furthermore, if the number of claims received for this LinkedIn settlement result in economically unrealistic splitting and distributing of the email harvesting settlement fund, then the settlement money will be given to Access Now and Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

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: The LinkedIn email harvesting class action lawsuit was preliminarily approved on Sept. 15, 2015.

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 5: 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!