Cruz-Alvarez & Stamps Todd: In Concurrence to Her Own Majority Opinion, Circuit Judge Calls Benefits of "Cy Pres-Only" Awards Into Question

While most cy pres awards result from unclaimed or non-distributable funds from class action settlements, some cases resolve through so-called “cy pres only” settlements, in which the entire settlement fund (except for attorneys’ fees and certain costs) is paid to third-party organizations, and class members receive no monetary damages. Such a settlement sparked an objector’s appeal of In re Google Inc. Street View Litigation in the Ninth Circuit.

Google Street View allows anyone to type in an address and view the home, building, or land as seen from the nearest public street—a utility than can be beneficial but also poses potential problems. In this case, the problem arose from the data collected by the Google vehicle that drives street by street across the country capturing the images that comprise Google Street View. It turns out that WiFi antennas and software in the Google vehicles collected, decoded, and analyzed various kinds of data transmitted over unencrypted WiFi networks as the vehicles drove around. Specifically, the vehicles collected “payload data,” which includes substantive information like emails, usernames, passwords, videos, and documents. Google publicly apologized for collecting such data and rendered it inaccessible. Unsurprisingly, over a dozen putative class actions were filed based on the Street View Vehicles’ collection of payload data, many of which were consolidated into one case in the Northern District of California. The Consolidated Class Action Complaint asserted various state and federal law claims and sought statutory damages, punitive damages, and injunctive relief.

Read the full article at the Washington Legal Foundation's Legal Pulse >>