California District Court Denies CIPA Class Certification Over Individualized Standing Issues
In-house counsel defending California Invasion of Privacy Act class actions must note this ruling, which applies the Popa v. Microsoft standard to require individualized proof of standing for each class member, raising the bar for class certification in these cases.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied class certification in a California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) action, relying on the Ninth Circuit’s 2024 Popa v. Microsoft precedent. The court held that individualized questions of whether each class member suffered a concrete, particularized injury required for Article III standing predominated over common questions, precluding class treatment. For in-house counsel, this ruling creates a viable defense pathway for CIPA class actions: defendants can challenge class certification by highlighting variations in alleged privacy harms across class members, while plaintiffs will face higher hurdles to prove common issues predominate for class certification.