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A California federal judge recently dismissed claims in two Facebook location tracking class action lawsuits, though some of the claims were allowed to move forward.
U.S. District Judge James Donato partially granted and partially denied two motions to dismiss claims from two separate class action lawsuits against Facebook. The plaintiffs in these cases claimed the social media company violated California privacy laws by tracking cellular location data from users’ phones without their consent.
The first case, filed by plaintiff Brett Heeger and others, is on its second round of dismissal since it was first filed in October 2018. The first dismissal motion was granted by Judge Donato earlier this year after Facebook challenged the validity of the plaintiffs’ claims. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, Judge Donato noted the amended complaint showed only “scant improvement.”
According to Judge Donato, the Heeger complaint “reads like a book report that simply summarizes third-party news stories about Facebook’s ostensible capacity to ‘discern precise locations’ from user data.” Although these third-party news sources establish a narrative, Judge Donato notes, the plaintiffs only allege a few facts without the caveat of “on information or belief.”
These allegations reportedly failed to fill in the “substantive gaps” Judge Donato pointed out in the original complaint. When all the third-party musings are stripped away from the complaint, the plaintiffs reportedly allege only one thing: Facebook collected their IP addresses and only did so when the plaintiffs were using the app or visiting the social media website.
Due to these insufficiencies, Judge Donato sided with Facebook, dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims entirely.
Although the Heeger plaintiffs faced a resounding defeat in Judge Donato’s dismissal order, plaintiffs in the other complaint — led by plaintiff Brendan Lundy and others — had some of their claims preserved.
Unlike the Heeger plaintiffs, the Lundy plaintiffs were allowed to keep their privacy law claims against Facebook. According to Judge Donato, the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged their claims for breach of privacy, breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Similarly, Judge Donato allowed the plaintiffs to move forward with some of their claims of fraud and unjust enrichment.
However, Judge Donato did dismiss two of the Lundy plaintiffs’ privacy claims, additional fraud claims, added unjust enrichment claims and further allegations of breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Although Judge Donato has largely dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims in both cases, they have until Jan. 21, 2021, to amend these dismissed allegations to address the deficiencies. The judge noted this is likely the Heeger plaintiffs’ final opportunity to amend their complaint.
Do you have a Facebook account? Are you worried about your location data being tracked by the social media site? Let us know in the comment section below.
The plaintiffs in the Facebook class action lawsuit are represented by Sabita J. Soneji and Katherine M. Aizpuru of Tycko & Zavareei LLP and Norman E. Siegel and Barrett J. Vahle of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP.
The Facebook Location Tracking Class Action Lawsuits are Brett Heeger, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 18-cv-06399-JD, and Brendan Lundy, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 18-cv-06793-JD, both in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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24 thoughts onJudge Dismisses Claims in Facebook Location Tracking Class Action Lawsuits
I never advertise my location on FB and would like to be included in this claim.
Count me in