Frank v. Gaos
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 20, 2019 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- March 20, 2019
- Term
- October Term 2018
- Vote
- 8–1
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Three named plaintiffs brought class action claims against Google for alleged violations of the Stored Communications Act. The parties negotiated a settlement agreement that would require Google to include certain disclosures on some of its webpages and would distribute more than $ 5 million to cy pres recipients, more than $ 2 million to class counsel, and no money to absent class members. We granted certiorari to review whether such cy pres settlements satisfy the requirement that class settlements be "fair, reasonable, and adequate." Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 23(e)(2). Because there remain substantial questions about whether any of the named plaintiffs has standing to sue in light of our decision in Spokeo , Inc. v. Robins , 578 U. S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 1540, 194 L.Ed.2d 635 (2016), we vacate the judgment of the Ninth Circuit and remand for further proceedings. Google operates an Internet search engine. The search engine allows users to search for a word or phrase by typing a query into the Google website. Google returns a list of webpages that are relevant to the indicated term or phrase. The complaints alleged that when an Internet user conducted a Google search and clicked on a hyperlink to open one of the webpages listed on the search results page, Google transmitted information including the terms of the search to the server that hosted the selected webpage. This…
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