Facebook User Wants The Supreme Court To Nix Beacon Settlement

The Daily Online Examiner details the Center for Class Action Fairness' objections to the Facebook privacy settlement which did not benefit class members and set up a nonprofit under Facebook's control.

But the settlement itself is so problematic that litigation about it is still underway. In the latest development, today a user represented by the Center for Class Action Fairness (and the law firm BakerHostetler) asked the Supreme Court to consider whether the settlement should stand.

The terms didn't sit well with everyone. Some critics went to court and asked that the deal be rejected, arguing that Facebook shouldn't be able to resolve a lawsuit by creating a new nonprofit, which it will largely control.

The Center for Class Action Fairness makes those points in its petition to the Supreme Court. “A $9.5 million class action settlement that awards absentee class members no relief at all — no money, no guarantee that defendants will not injure them in the exact same manner, not even coupons — is not 'fair, reasonable, and adequate' by any measure,” the group argues. “Yet the Ninth Circuit upheld such a settlement of class members’ claims because class counsel and the lead defendant agreed to use $6.5 million to establish a new foundation, controlled by the defendant and class counsel, that also does nothing to combat defendants’ alleged conduct or redress class members’ alleged injuries.”

Read the full article at the Daily Online Examiner.