Internet Law

Weekly Summaries Distributed September 25, 2015 Pulaski & Middleman, LLC v. Google, Inc. Class Action, Internet Law  U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

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Pulaski & Middleman, LLC v. Google, Inc. Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Docket: 12-16752 Opinion Date: September 21, 2015 Areas of Law: Class Action, Internet Law Google's AdWords program is an auction-based program through which advertisers would bid for Google to place their advertisements on websites. Pulaski and others filed a putative class action alleging that Google misled them as to the types of websites on which their advertisements could appear. On appeal, Pulaski challenged the district court's denial of class certification, holding that on the claim for restitution, common questions did not predominate over questions affecting individual class members. The court held that a court need not make individual determinations regarding entitlement to restitution. Instead, restitution is available on a class wide basis once the class representative makes the threshold showing of liability. Therefore, the court concluded that the district court erred in holding that such individual questions would predominate. In Yokoyama v. Midland National Life Insurance Co., the court held that damage calculations alone cannot defeat certification. The court concluded that Yokoyama remains the law of the court and the district court erred in not following the rule in Yokoyama. Finally, the court concluded that the proposed method for calculating restitution was not “arbitrary” under Comcast Corp. v. Behrend. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded. http://j.st/4sP5 View Case On: Justia Google Scholar