Top Class Action Lawsuits
Hipster ain’t so hip after all…at least according to the plaintiffs who have filed an in Internet privacy class action lawsuit against the photo-sharing App. The Hipster lawsuit alleges the company illegally obtained iPhone users’ personal information and contact lists without their permission.
The internet privacy lawsuit, entitled Francisco Espitia v. Hipster Inc., Case No. 13-cv-00432 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that a function of the Hipster App found and retrieved subscribers’ personal contacts and other highly sensitive information, including passwords and geo-location, and then transferred the data over unencrypted, publicly accessible data channels to Hipster’s third-party servers. (Maybe they should rename the App “Fetch”).
Specifically, the lawsuit states: “These actions involved the deliberate and intentional circumvention of technical measures within the mobile computing device in order to bypass the technical and code based barriers, including the plaintiffs’ and class members’ privacy settings which were intended to limit access by anyone other than the owner of the device.” Having transferred the users’ contact address data to its remote computing service, Hipster then allegedly proceeded to access and use such data without authorization or consent, according to the lawsuit.
The laundry list? Violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Stored Communications Act, the California Computer Crime Law, and the California Invasion of Privacy Act, among other things.
The Hipster lawsuit seeks to represent all US residents that downloaded the Hipster App to their mobile phones from January 1, 2011 to the present.
Very uncool.
Top Settlements
Yo Dude! You may be eligible to share in the YoPlus $8.5 million settlement agreed this week by General Mills. If approved, the settlement would end a consumer fraud class action lawsuit alleging the food manufacturer misrepresented the digestive health benefits of its YoPlus probiotic yogurt. Well, they certainly wouldn’t be the first, and likely, they won’t be the last.
Filed in 2010, the consumer fraud class action lawsuit, entitled J Johnson v. General Mills Inc. et al., Case No. 10-cv-00061, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims that consumers who purchased the YoPlus yogurt products were deceived into paying more for them as a result of General Mills misleading advertising.
In their motion to accept the settlement, the plaintiffs noted “Considering the strengths and weakness of this case, including the amount of potential damages available to the class after trial here and in other jurisdictions around the United States, the settlement represents an excellent result and includes relief for purchasers of YoPlus on a nationwide basis.”
Under the terms of the settlement, consumers who purchased YoPlus will be entitled to $4 per person for each unit they purchased. Not bad, really.
Putting on the Ritz? Em, maybe not. More like this one’s on the Ritz…The Ritz-Carlton that is. This week, the famous hotel chain agreed to pay $2 million in settlement of the Ritz-Carlton overtime class action lawsuit filed by 1,500 (yup—that’s the right number of zeros) current and former employees in California who allege they were not paid overtime wages.
Bottom line—eligible plaintiffs in the California overtime employment class action are for those who either work or worked at Ritz-Carlton hotels in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and Lake Tahoe at any time from November 2007 on.
And just in case you need the details—the settlement, when approved, will resolve Lambson v. Marriott International, Inc. et al, Case No. 11-cv-06669, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and allegations the Ritz Carlton, a subsidiary of Marriott International, violated California state wage and hour laws.
So—see you at the bar—who’s buying?