SALTO v. Auction.com

Background

Plaintiff Alexander Del Salto filed a putative (proposed) class action lawsuit against Auction.com, LLC, alleging the company installs third-party tracking software on visitors' web browsers when they visit www.auction.com. Del Salto alleged this conduct violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. § 2511, and various California laws. He claimed to have visited the website in or around May 2026 to research real estate, and that the site's code caused trackers to be installed on his browser.

Jurisdictional Concern and Show-Cause Order

Upon reviewing the complaint, the court raised concerns about its own subject matter jurisdiction — i.e., whether a federal court had constitutional authority to hear the case. The court issued an order to show cause (OSC), directing Del Salto to explain why Article III standing existed. Article III of the U.S. Constitution limits federal courts to resolving actual "Cases" and "Controversies," which requires a plaintiff to have a "personal stake" in the outcome — known as standing. The three elements of standing are: (1) a concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent injury in fact; (2) a causal connection between the injury and the defendant's conduct; and (3) redressability — the likelihood that a favorable court ruling would fix the harm. In a class action, at least one named plaintiff must independently satisfy these requirements.

Applicable Legal Standard: Concrete Injury in Privacy Cases

The court applied the framework from TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 594 U.S. 413 (2021), which holds that intangible harms like disclosure of private information or intrusion upon seclusion can qualify as "concrete" injuries, but only when they bear a close relationship to harms that have traditionally been actionable under the common law.

The court also relied on Popa v. Microsoft Corp., 153 F.4th 784 (9th Cir. 2025), a closely analogous case in which the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal for lack of standing where a plaintiff alleged session-replay technology captured her information during ordinary browsing. The Ninth Circuit held that the nature of the collected information — not just the fact of collection — must be "embarrassing, invasive, or otherwise private" and must resemble the "highly offensive" conduct that was historically actionable at common law. The court emphasized that "the kind of harm and not the degree" governs the standing inquiry.

Analysis and Ruling

The court found Del Salto's complaint fatally deficient. The complaint alleged only that trackers collected "identifying information" from plaintiff and class members, but provided no specifics about what data was actually gathered, what targeted advertising resulted, or why any such collection was highly offensive. Del Salto's written response to the OSC did not cure these deficiencies — it noted that Auction.com's tracking "created a persistent identifier" for Del Salto and tracked "his browsing activity across websites and sessions," but identified no further detail. Critically, the response itself acknowledged that "[t]he Complaint does not identify any property, neighborhood, school, price range, search term, or other detail Del Salto viewed," and explicitly stated Del Salto was not asking the court to assume any such details.

The court also cited Lien v. Talkdesk, Inc., No. 24-CV-06467, 2025 WL 551664 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 19, 2025), for the proposition that whether a privacy interest is infringed depends on whether the information is "actually personal and private" and bears a close relationship to harms traditionally recognized in American courts. The court concluded Del Salto had made no such showing and, based on his own response, could not make it.

Disposition

The court dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without prejudice to Del Salto pursuing his claims in state court. The dismissal without prejudice means Del Salto is not barred from refiling in a court of appropriate jurisdiction — the court specifically noted state court as a potential avenue.