Class Action Roundup – March 18

It’s that time again. That’s right, it’s time for the Class Action Roundup! Today, we are taking a look at the big stories from the week – and it’s been a big week. Keep reading to find out the scoop on Splenda, the snoop on Yahoo, and stories on RushCard, HomeAway and a Department of Education proposal that could mean big things for students. Let’s get started.

Yahoo Settles E-mail Snooping Class Action

At this point, it’s fairly common knowledge that large e-mail providers (Google, Yahoo) scan the contents of its users’ e-mails to better target their advertisements, but it hasn’t always been clear what they do with the contents of non-user e-mails. A recent class action claiming that Yahoo would intercept, scan and store e-mails addressed to Yahoo customers – in violation of privacy law – reached a settlement on Tuesday.

The case claimed that because those who were not using Yahoo Mail could not agree to Yahoo’s terms of service that allow it to scan its users’ emails, they had not given their consent to have the same done to them. According to the terms of the settlement, Yahoo will only scan e-mails for content when they are in a Yahoo Mail user’s inbox or outbox and not from e-mails that are traveling between locations. Thanks to Ethan Baron over at SiliconBeat.com for writing a great article on the settlement.

RushCard Looks to Settle System Outage Suit

RushCard is looking to settle several class actions over a system outage that left hundreds of thousands of users locked out of their accounts. According to the suit, many RushCard users lost access to the only available cash they had, given that many low-income customers who may not qualify for standard checking accounts favor the prepaid cards. While the settlement terms will most likely not be made known to the public, they should be finalized by the end of May. You can find this information and more in a Yahoo Finance article by Mandi Woodruff that is definitely worth reading.

Is Splenda Really Causing Cancer?

Over the last week, we have seen a lot of information floating around about how the artificial sweetener Splenda may be linked to leukemia. But, as we learned from an article by Rheanna O’Neil Bellomo, there are more things to consider when reading about the cancer-causing effects of Splenda. The researchers involved in the study attempted to make known that, yes, their findings don’t support the data gathered from more than 100 previous studies on sucralose – Splenda’s main ingredient. They acknowledged that because all of the data before now paints a picture of sucralose being harmless, more studies are necessary to show if sucralose is really safe or not. So, we definitely need more information before we see the class actions start flying, or at the very least, to be able to tell if they would have any notable standing in the courtroom.

HomeAway Faces Potential Guest Fee Class Action

HomeAway has been hit with a proposed class action claiming that it illegally changed its fees and policies without letting customers know. According to the lawsuit, the damages lie in the fact that tens of thousands of HomeAway customers might have went with a cheaper or rival service had they known of the increased fees in advance. If you’d like more information and insight, Tnooz Editor-in-Chief wrote about it here.

DOE Proposal Would Make It Easier for Students to Sue Colleges

Last week, the Department of Education announced a proposal that would give students a fighting chance when they have been wronged by their colleges. More commonly than not, for-profit colleges include arbitration clauses in student agreements, meaning that if a dispute arises, students aren’t able to take their claims to court. But, the DOE’s proposal would make it harder for colleges to force their students into arbitration – with the context being that students should be able to have their federal loans forgiven if they have been defrauded by their schools. MarketWatch reporter Jillian Berman wrote an excellent article on the DOE’s proposal, student loans and arbitration – and how they are all tied together. Check it out here.