Hulu Hoops: Standing & Damages as Threshold Issues in Privacy Cases

January 22, 2014

BY TOM COUNTS AND RYAN NIER

One of the widely-accepted axioms of law is "no harm, no foul" -- in other words, someone has to be injured in order to file (and win) a lawsuit. In the privacy arena, this has proven to be a substantial burden -- how does one establish that tiny little browser cookies, or automated processing of anonymous data, actually "harmed" them? A district court in California recently decided that in some cases, no harm is necessary. We analyze that decision and offer some insight into the continued evolution of the standing and damages requirements in privacy cases.

Click here for a PDF of the full text