NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Lawyers who negotiated a no-money class action settlement want more than $700,000 for their efforts.
Lieff Cabraser and Carney Bate & Pullman on April 8 asked for $695,624.40 in fees and another $34,375.60 for their work on a lawsuit against media outlet The Epoch Times over its use of the Facebook Pixel.
That pixel is the subject of many other similar lawsuits and gathers information to send to Facebook when visitors to other websites view video content.
The Epoch Times had no insurance to cover such litigation, so it simply agreed to stop using the pixel but pay class members nothing. It agreed to pay the lawyers up to $730,000 and not appeal whatever award New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered.
"(T)he settlement agreement fully 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 unreleased and unimpaired," the motion for fees says.
Earlier in the case, Hellerstein denied Epoch's motion to dismiss the case, which is brought under the Video Protection Privacy Act. Epoch sought permission to appeal but settled the case instead.
"By installing the pixel, Defendant opened a digital door and invited Facebook to enter that door and extract information from within," Hellerstein wrote.