Page:Theodore H. Frank, et al. v. Paloma Gaos, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, et al..pdf/3

Rh successful. The District Court dismissed Gaos’ state law claims, but denied the motion as to her SCA claims. The court reasoned that because the SCA created a right to be free from the unlawful disclosure of certain communications, and because Gaos alleged a violation of the SCA that was specific to her (i. e., based on a search she conducted), Gaos alleged a concrete and particularized injury. Gaos v. Google Inc., 2012 WL 1094646, *4 (ND Cal., Mar. 29, 2012). The court rested that conclusion on Edwards v. First American Corp., 610 F. 3d 514 (2010)—a Ninth Circuit decision reasoning that an Article III injury exists whenever a statute gives an individual a statutory cause of action and the plaintiff claims that the defendant violated the statute. 2012 WL 1094646, *3.

After the District Court ruled on Google’s second motion to dismiss, we granted certiorari in Edwards to address whether an alleged statutory violation alone can support standing. First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards, 564 U. S. 1018 (2011). In the meantime, Gaos and an additional named plaintiff filed a second amended complaint against Google. Google once again moved to dismiss. Google argued that the named plaintiffs did not have standing to bring their SCA claims because they had failed to allege facts establishing a cognizable injury. Google recognized that the District Court had previously relied on Edwards to find standing based on the alleged violation of a statutory right. But because this Court had agreed to review Edwards, Google explained that it would continue to challenge the District Court’s conclusion. We eventually dismissed Edwards as improvidently granted, 567 U. S. 756 (2012) (per curiam), and Google then withdrew its argument that Gaos lacked standing for the SCA claims.

Gaos’ putative class action was consolidated with a similar complaint, and the parties negotiated a classwide settlement. The terms of their agreement required Google to include certain disclosures about referrer headers on