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January 14, 2025
Law360 reported on a ruling by a California federal judge allowing a Silver Golub & Teitell class action to proceed against Google and YouTube. The proposed class action accuses the companies of illegally collecting children's data to generate targeted advertising.
In a 34-page ruling handed down on January 13, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen upheld privacy claims and some state consumer protection law claims being pressed against Google by SGT's clients, the parents of children under 13 who watched videos on YouTube, Law360 wrote.
In her ruling, Judge van Keulen noted new allegations against Google and YouTube, including the assertion that "several content creators notified Google of their concerns that YouTube did not comply" with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and that Google understood that young children regularly used the platform, Law360 reported.
"Based on these allegations, the court may reasonably infer at the pleading stage that Google knew it was collecting children's data through YouTube in violation of the COPPA," Law360 quoted the ruling as saying. "The court cannot conclude, as a matter of law, that knowingly violating a statute does not constitute highly offensive behavior."
The ruling also noted new allegations that Google had developed and circulated an "internal narrative" that YouTube is a "must buy" for kids between 6 and 11, which enabled the court to reasonably infer that Google targeted children in connection with the main YouTube website and that platform's data tracking, Law360 reported.
Judge van Kuelen also allowed to some allegations that Google violated the consumer protection statutes of more than a dozen states when they appropriated minors' information without parental consent, to move forward, allowing them to pursue damages under the laws of Indiana, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Additionally, the judge found that their allegations of privacy loss were sufficient to allow the plaintiffs to seek equitable relief claims under the statutes of Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and Tennessee, Law360 reported.
Silver Golub & Teitell partners David Golub, Steven Bloch and Ian Sloss represent the plaintiffs in the case, Nichole Hubbard v. Google, No. 5:19-cv-07016, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.