Tech giants like Google and Facebook will closely watch one guy's Supreme Court case against Spokeo today
Thomas Robins filed a proposed class action alleging Spokeo's incorrect listing hurt his job prospects and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which requires "consumer reporting agencies" to ensure information about people they report on as accurate.
A judge threw out the case because there was no evidence this actually hurt him. (As The New York Times noted, most of Spokeo's errors were actually favorable to Robins.)
Still, an appeals court revived the case. It ruled that his complaints alleging Spokeo violated a law were enough, and that Robins didn't need to show "actual harm." Now, Spokeo will argue the Supreme Court should throw the case out for good because Robins hasn't shown any "concrete harm."
The question the Supreme Court will consider Monday sounds arcane but could actually affect a lot of tech companies that handle people's personal information:
Whether Congress may confer Article III standing upon a plaintiff who suffers no concrete harm, and who therefore could not otherwise invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court, by authorizing a private right of action based on a bare violation of a federal statute.
If the Surpeme Court says "yes" to this question, then consumers everywhere could sue internet companies over alleged violations of privacy and consumer data laws, after the high court agreed to take up the case in April. A "yes" answer would give consumers the right to file lawsuits over violations of federal law even if they couldn't show that, say, a violation of that law had cost them money.
"While the specific lawsuit concerns Spokeo, tech companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo are keeping a close eye on the case," the Wall Street Journal's Jacob Gershman noted. "A single violation of the federal consumer law can go up to $1,000, which could translate into a much bigger figure in a class action."