ClassAction
Latest
Google will pay owners of faulty original Pixel phones up to $500
A group of OG Pixel and Pixel XL owners filed a lawsuit against Google back in 2018 accusing the company of knowingly selling devices with faulty microphones. Now, the tech giant has agreed to settle the class-action complaint and will pay those customers up to $500. Some early adopters of the first Google-branded smartphones started reporting that one or more of their devices' three mics stopped working shortly after the devices were released. The company admitted in early 2017 that users were experiencing problems due to a "hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec."
Facebook willingly let kids spend their parents' money and didn't stop it
Facebook employees recognized that children were running up massive tabs spending money on games but opted not to give refunds, according to Reveal News. The revelation was made as a result of court documents from a 2012 class-action lawsuit filed against Facebook that a federal judge recently ruled to make public.
Tesla will have to defend itself against claims of foreign worker abuse
A federal judge has ruled that Tesla and two of its subcontractors -- Eisenmann Corp and ISM Vuzem -- will have to defend themselves in a lawsuit that alleges foreign workers were mistreated at Tesla's Fremont factory. The allegations surfaced in 2016, when Gregor Lesnik filed a lawsuit against Tesla and its subcontractors that claimed they exploited foreign workers by paying them less than minimum wage, giving them few days off and threatening them with deportation or no pay when they called in sick or tried to report a job injury. The suit, which seeks class action status, is being brought forward on behalf of workers with B-1 visas employed at construction sites and auto plants.
Court rules Uber can force drivers into arbitration over pay, benefits
Uber drivers hoping to be treated as employees may have to go it alone. A federal appeals court in San Francisco has overturned a ruling that would have allowed drivers to pursue their case as a class action lawsuit instead of going through individual arbitration (which, historically, favors companies over complainants). Judge Richard Clifton cited precedent as the reason, including both another ruling in favor of Uber from 2016 as well as a Supreme Court decision from May that said companies could make workers waive their right to class actions for a number of disputes.
Supreme Court will hear Apple's bid to stop price fixing suit
Apple will have one more shot at avoiding a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing it of price fixing with the App Store. The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Apple's appeal of a ruling that would resurrect the antitrust case, which asserted that the company was abusing its App Store-only requirement to keep prices higher and take a 30 percent cut. It's not yet clear when the court will handle the challenge.
Spotify settles music-licensing lawsuit for $112.5 million
A couple of years ago, Spotify was slapped with a class-action lawsuit claiming that the service was effectively ripping off artists. Now, it looks like the music platform will be able to make all of the upset go away for the sum of $112.5 million. The Hollywood Reporter says that Spotify has made a deal with a US District Court judge to hand over the fee in exchange for settling the class-action.
Apple faces class action lawsuit over faulty MacBook keyboards
Apple has faced some pointed criticism over the butterfly switch keyboards on the 12-inch MacBook and current-generation MacBook Pro. Whether or not you like the tactile feel, they're sensitive to crumbs and dust -- and since you can't just remove individual keys, fixes are both elaborate and (if you're out of warranty) very expensive. To that end, users Kyle Barbaro and Zixua Rao have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple accusing the company of knowingly selling MacBooks with faulty keyboards.
Lyft faces another class action lawsuit over driver pay
Lyft isn't done grappling with lawsuits over driver pay. A newly filed class action suit from California resident Fernando Villaseñor alleges that Lyft played tricks with fare distribution to misrepresent the drivers' share and unfairly pour their lost income back into the company. Villaseñor's attorney, Larry Peluso, asserted that Lyft performed "sleight-of-hand" by setting fares relative to average taxi prices without letting drivers know what those taxi rates were. The drivers may have thought Lyft was taking a 20 percent cut when it was actually taking 43 percent.
Judge mostly dismisses Uber lawsuit over its Hell program
Last year, reports surfaced that between 2014 and 2016 Uber had used a program called Hell that let it track Lyft drivers through their unique numbered IDs. With the program, Uber was also reportedly able to identify those who drove for both it and Lyft, leading it to give more rides and bonuses to those "double-appers" in order to coax them into driving for Uber exclusively. News of Hell led to a class action lawsuit, wherein Lyft driver Michael Gonzales claimed the program led to reduced income and was a violation of the Wiretap Act, the Stored Communications Act, the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. Yesterday, a judge threw out most of the lawsuit, but the plaintiff will be able to amend the complaint and try again.
Facebook class action lawsuit over facial recognition OK'd by judge
Facebook has been trying to get a lawsuit claiming its facial recognition tech violates an Illinois privacy act dismissed for years. Well, that's not going to happen anytime soon, because San Francisco federal judge James Donato -- the same judge who denied Facebook's motion to dismiss in 2016 -- has just given the case the go-ahead to proceed as a class action lawsuit. "Plaintiffs' claims are sufficiently cohesive to allow for a fair and efficient resolution on a class basis," he wrote in his ruling.
Niantic settles 'Pokémon Go' festival lawsuit for $1.5 million
Niantic has already refunded the ticket costs for attendees of 2017's disastrous Pokémon Go Fest, but it's now poised to pay more. The company is settling a class action lawsuit over the festival to the tune of $1.57 million, with an official settlement website due to appear by May 25th. The payout will cover hotel and transportation costs for the many attendees whose event was ruined by connectivity and logistical problems. Be sure to read the fine print if you were one of those affected, though -- you'll need evidence you were there.
Uber agrees to pay $10 million in discrimination lawsuit settlement
The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that Uber has agreed to a $10 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that claimed it discriminated against minorities and women who worked for the company. The lawsuit was filed in October and represents 420 women and people of color who were employed by Uber as software engineers going back to 2013. Additionally, the Chronicle reports that the company has also agreed to change how it manages compensation and promotion. The lawsuit alleged that women, black and Latino/Latina employees were not given raises, bonuses, stock and benefits at the same rate as male and white or Asian coworkers.
Facebook already hit with four lawsuits over Cambridge Analytica (updated)
It has been a week since the bombshell reports on Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook user data dropped and already the social media giant is facing at least four lawsuits. Along with a class action suit filed earlier this week on behalf of Facebook users whose data was obtained by Cambridge Analytica, three shareholders have also filed their own complaints.
Intel currently facing 32 class-action lawsuits for Spectre and Meltdown
Yesterday, Intel expanded its bug bounty program to catch more issues like the extensive Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws, but that was too little, too late for some chip owners. We knew three class-action lawsuits were filed in early January days after the vulnerabilities were publicized, but according to an SEC filing, the total has grown to 30 multi-party suits by customers and two securities suits. Most argue that Intel violated securities laws when it assured its products were safe to use, which the Meltdown and Spectre flaws revealed to be untrue.
Lawsuit claims Google 'knowingly sold' Pixels with microphone issues
Shortly after Google released its first branded smartphones in 2016, the Pixel and Pixel XL, some early adopters reported a microphone issues. While they were fixed in phones produced later, the problems disabled all three mics on the devices and often cropped up at odd times, like when holding the devices in different ways or in cold temperatures. Now the search giant faces a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company knew about the issues but sold the phones anyway.
Uber will pay New York drivers $3 million in class-action settlement
It's hard to keep track of all of the lawsuits Uber's juggling these days, but there's about to be one less. The company has settled a suit brought against it by 2,421 New York drivers who claimed Uber paid them less than was contractually obligated and falsely advertised how much drivers could make by working for the company. Uber will pay $3 million as per the settlement agreement while the drivers will agree to being classified as independent contractors -- a stipulation of two other settlements Uber has made with drivers in the past.
US Senator questions Apple about slowing older iPhones
Senator John Thune, chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a letter with questions about the company's decision to slow older models of iPhones, Reuters reports. In December, Apple admitted to slowing older iPhones in order to prevent spontaneous shutdowns and later reduced its battery replacement price to $29 as way of apology for its lack of transparency.
Ex-Google employee behind anti-diversity memo sues for discrimination (updated)
James Damore, the Google employee who was fired after circulating an anti-diversity memo last August, isn't over his dismissal apparently as he has now filed a lawsuit against his former employer. Damore filed a class-action complaint today in a California court alongside another former Google employee, David Gudeman. Both men say they were "ostracized, belittled and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males."
Intel faces multiple lawsuits over chip security vulnerabilities
Intel is already facing multiple lawsuits over the chip security flaws revealed earlier this week. Gizmodo reports that three have been filed so far -- in California, Oregon and Indiana. All three are class action complaints and note Intel's delay in disclosing the vulnerabilities -- it knew about them for months -- as well as reduced performance caused by subsequent security patches. The Register reported that PC slow downs could amount to as much as five to 30 percent, but Intel has said that its solution's impacts are "highly workload-dependent" and won't be noticed much by the typical user.
Mattress maker Casper faces lawsuit for tracking web visitors
Unless you're using strict privacy controls in your browser, you generally expect that online stores will track at least a bit of your activity, if just to send you targeted ads when you browse the web. However, a proposed class action lawsuit is claiming that Casper was far nosier. The suit alleges that the mattress-in-a-box startup violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by using code from NaviStone to grab personal data from web visitors without permission. Reportedly, it would collect keystrokes, clicks, IP addresses and other identifying info whether or not you actually submitted it. In theory, Casper could see what you'd typed into a form even if you backed out.
