OAKLAND, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - Facebook has filed a motion to relate cases after a second class action alleging Facebook private messages aren't private was filed in federal court.
On Dec. 30, Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley initiated their class action against Facebook, alleging violations of federal and state law in connection with the purported scanning of URLs in private messages between Facebook users.
On Jan. 21, David Shadpour filed a separate class action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, alleging similar facts and asserting the same state law as the Campbell complaint, according to the motion.
"Given the overlapping nature of the Campbell and Shadpour suits, an order relating the cases would avoid duplicative labor, the unnecessary expenditure of private and judicial resources and the risk of inconsistent or conflicting rulings that might occur if the actions proceeded separately in different courts," the motion states.
Both complaints assert legal violations based on the same alleged conduct: the alleged scanning of URLs in private messages between Facebook users for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising and building user profiles.
"The allegations are more than similar," the motion states. "In fact, the complaints contain dozens of identical allegations, ranging from general background on data aggregation and Facebook's business model, to the core conduct purportedly at issue in the cases."
Campbell and Hurley are seeking an order determining that this action may be maintained as a class action; judgment against Facebook for the asserted causes; appropriate declaratory relief against Facebook; preliminary and permanent injunctive relief against Facebook; and statutory damages. They are being represented by Michael W. Sobol, Melissa Gardner, Rachel Geman and Nicholas Diamand of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP; and Hank Bates, Allen Carney and David Slade of Carney Bates & Pulliam PLLC.
Shadpour is seeking an order determining that the action be maintained as a class action; judgment against Facebook for his and the class members' asserted causes; and appropriate declaratory relief against Facebook; an award of statutory damages for each violation. He is being represented by Lionel Z. Glancy of Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP; and Jeremy A. Lieberman, Lesley F. Portnoy and Patrick V. Dahlstrom of Pomerantz LLP.
Facebook is being represented by Joshua A. Jessen of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Shadpour's case has been assigned to District Judge Paul Singh Grewal. Campbell and Hurley's case has been assigned to District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case numbers: 4:13-cv-05996, 5:14-cv-00307
From Legal Newsline: Kyla Asbury can be reached at classactions@legalnewsline.com.
Facebook files motion to consolidate privacy class actions
