Greg Stohr recently reported in Bloomberg News that the U.S. Supreme Court “will consider a business-backed bid to put new limits on Congress’s power to authorize consumer lawsuits in federal court.” The justices “said they will hear an appeal from the data broker Spokeo Inc. in a dispute with implications for a slew of federal statutes.” Spokeo, “which uses public information to compile personal dossiers, is seeking to stop a lawsuit by a man who says the company misrepresented his education, wealth and marital status.” The suit, “seeking class action status, accuses Spokeo of violating the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act, which authorizes damages of at least $100 for each victim.” According to Bloomberg, the “central question is whether federal judges can hear cases when a statute authorizes damages to someone who hasn’t suffered any concrete harm, as Spokeo contends is the case with plaintiff Thomas Robins.”
According to the article, businesses are claiming that the “issue has broad implications, affecting laws governing copyrights, real-estate settlements, employee benefits, disabilities and housing discrimination.” There are several companies weighing in in support of Spokeo’s position, including eBay Inc., Facebook Inc., Google Inc., and Yahoo! Inc.
The full article can be read here.
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