On May 26, 2015, the Honorable Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California certified a national class and a California subclass of email users in In re Yahoo Mail Litigation, No. 13-cv-4980 (N.D. Cal.). The court also appointed Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP as one of two co-lead law firms.  In the suit, four email users are seeking an injunction to stop Yahoo’s announced practice of “scanning” email content for advertising purposes, among other things.  Plaintiffs allege in the complaint that Yahoo’s practices violate the federal Stored Communications Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

One commentator writing for Law360 called the decision “noteworthy” and a “first-of-its-kind” ruling [see here] because “it is one of the first cases in which a class has been certified in a data privacy suit.”  In her ruling, Judge Koh found the national class and California subclass to be sufficiently coherent because all are seeking relief from the same conduct.  She also found that the lead plaintiffs’ decision to disclaim money damages does not foreclose individual class members from seeking money damages in future suits, and she also found that “ascertainability” is not required for injunction-only classes.

Yahoo filed a petition with the Ninth Circuit, seeking permission to appeal Judge Koh’s ruling.  On August 11, 2015, the Court of Appeals denied Yahoo’s request, which was reported here.

You may contact the following Kaplan Fox attorneys about the case and the settlement at (212) 687-1980:

• Laurence D. King: lking@kaplanfox.com
• Frederic S. Fox: ffox@kaplanfox.com
• David A. Straite: dstraite@kaplanfox.com