A class action can make it easier to obtain larger damages and more sweeping remedies at lower cost. The plaintiffs estimated that the nationwide class of non-Yahoo Mail subscribers has more than 1 million members.
Rebecca Neufeld, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said the Sunnyvale, California-based company cannot comment on active litigation.
Koh rejected Yahoo’s arguments that some plaintiffs consented to its activity by emailing Yahoo subscribers even after learning how it used the information, and that the alleged injuries were too disparate to justify class certification.
She distinguished the case from her March 2014 refusal to certify a similar class action against Google Inc on behalf of Gmail and non-Gmail subscribers because it was hard to determine which users consented to Google’s activity.
“Yahoo may have to, as a practical matter, adjust its scanning practices on an individual basis,” Koh wrote. “That
does not, however, change the fact that plaintiffs seek uniform relief from a common policy that Yahoo applies to all class members.”
Daniel Girard, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, declined to comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York- Editing by Christian Plumb)
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