Summary: The “Sponsored Stories” settlement will be argued before the Ninth Circuit to determine if it will be accepted, which would be much to displeasure of many class members.
Facebook tries new things that don’t always work out. A recent advertising effort by Facebook allowed users photos to promote brands. This led to a privacy class action lawsuit that took two attempts and an extra $10 million for the class to be signed off by a district judge.
Lawyers will start defending Facebook Thursday morning in the $20 million “Sponsored Stories” settlement for the second time. This time the lawyers will be before the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit.
Some members of the class object to the settlement on the grounds that nearly $2 million of it is to be paid out to nonprofit organizations. The Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits also objected to this, saying that class members should be paid in whole before the remaining money gets dispersed to other organizations.
The Ninth Circuit is left with the ability to split the circuits if they approve the settlement. The first settlement in 2012, was rejected because it did not provide any money to the class members with $10 million being given to charities and the other $10 million for attorney fees. The settlement proposal in 2013 was approved by the judge but the issue of cy pres settlements was noted.
A revised settlement was submitted the following year with the finalized number of claims, giving $15 to each individual claimant and $2 million to nonprofit and academic groups. There is still a possibility for the payout to be raised to $19 each individual and no money to other organizations.
Source: http://www.therecorder.com/home/id=1202737182793
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