NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Class action lawyers are hoping to claim up to $730,000 in fees from a class action settlement that will offer no money to online visitors of the media outlet The Epoch Times.
The proposed settlement will have The Epoch Times discontinuing use of the Facebook Pixel, a mechanism that gathers information to send to Facebook when visitors to its website view video content. Many similar cases have been filed against other online video content providers.
Epoch has already removed the Pixel and ensured it does not possess any class member's personally identifiable information, as defined by the Video Privacy Protection Act.
New in the settlement is an injunction keeping Epoch from re-installing the Facebook Pixel.
"Plaintiff agreed to settle this lawsuit without a damages component because... Epoch Times disclosed that it has no insurance coverage for the claims asserted in this action and that is finances do not permit a class-wide monetary settlement, much less a class-wide judgment," the settlement says.
"Despite these obstacles, the Settlement Agreement redresses the alleged privacy violations at issue in this litigation, ensures Epoch Times cannot resume the challenged conduct without obtaining Court approval to do so, and leaves Settlement Class Members' damages claims unimpaired."
Plaintiff firms Lieff Cabraser in New York and Carney Bate & Pulliam in Arkansas are armed with a ruling by New York federal judge Lavin Hellerstein that denied Epoch's motion to dismiss. The company sought permission to appeal in December but instead filed the motion for settlement on Sept. 11.
The VPPA prohibits video service providers from disclosing personally identifiable information to other parties. That information, in these cases, includes whether users initiate purchases, what they view and their Facebook IDs.
The plaintiffs sufficiently alleged the VPPA applies to the video content on The Epoch Times, Hellerstein ruled last year.
"By installing the pixel, Defendant opened a digital door and invited Facebook to enter that door and extract information from within," Hellerstein wrote.
It turned out Epoch was not a deep-pocket defendant who could withstand a monetary judgment on behalf of the many millions of visitors to its site. Epoch's marketing materials say there are 20 million unique digital users every month.
The plaintiff firms say the $730,000 requested fee award represents the amount its attorneys have worked on the case plus costs, without a multiplier.
Should Hellerstein find the amount inappropriate, it would not affect the settlement. The sides have agreed to not appeal whatever is awarded Lieff Cabraser and Carney Bate & Pullman, up to the $730,000 amount.