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Reuters General/ ­- Article, Sex, 13 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Facebook advertisers lose bid for class
status
By Jonathan Stempel Fri Apr 13, 2012 5:51pm EDT
(Reuters) ­- Facebook Inc, which runs the world's
largest social networking website, won a court ruling
on Friday rejecting a bid by thousands of advertisers to
sue the company as a group for overcharging them.
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland,
California, denied the advertisers' request for
class­-action status, saying they failed to show they had
enough in common to sue for breach of contract and
violating California's unfair competition law. "The court
is persuaded by Facebook's argument that plaintiffs
have not shown that they have a viable method for
proving each class member's recovery," Hamilton
wrote. "The need to determine both liability and
damages on an individualized basis makes this case
inappropriate for class treatment." Jonathan Shub, a
lawyer for the advertisers, declined to comment.
Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the
company is reviewing the decision. Class certification
often leads to higher recoveries and allows plaintiffs to
cut legal bills. Facebook is expected this year to
conduct perhaps the most anticipated U.S. initial public
offering ever. The Menlo Park, California­-based
company is valued at $95.8 billion, according to
SharesPost Inc, which tracks valuations of private
companies. In their 2009 lawsuit, the advertisers
accused Facebook of overcharging them on their
"cost­-per­-click" contracts, under which they paid fees
each time users clicked their ads. According to the
advertisers, Facebook improperly imposed charges for
nonexistent clicks, for clicked ads that never opened,
for clicks caused by server problems, and for
accidental multiple clicks by individual users, among
other types of clicks. But citing a 2011 U.S. Supreme
Court decision involving Wal­-Mart Stores Inc that
limited class­-action litigation, Hamilton said the
advertisers showed neither a "systemic breach of
contract" nor enough similarity among the claims
raised. "There is no way to conduct this type of highly
specialized and individualized analysis for each of the
thousands of advertisers in the proposed class," she
said. Hamilton scheduled a May 17 conference to
discuss how best the case should proceed. The case
is In re: Facebook Inc PPC Advertising Litigation, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of California, No.
09­-3043. (Reporting By Jonathan Stempel in New
York; Editing by Andre Grenon, Gary Hill)
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