In re Google Play Consumer Antitrust Litigation
- James Donato
- 3:20-cv-05761
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In re Google Play Consumer Antitrust Litigation: Judge Donato decertified the consumer class after excluding expert testimony essential to class certification.
The consumer plaintiffs, the consumer class, and Google. The consumer class was decertified, and the earlier class-certification order was vacated.
What happened
In re Google Play Consumer Antitrust Litigation involved a consumer class that the court had previously certified under a federal class-action rule. The earlier certification relied in part on Dr. Singer’s testimony, including a formula for estimating how costs passed through to consumers.
The court later excluded that formula and opinions based on it. Because the formula was essential to the consumers’ certification argument, the court vacated the certification order and decertified the consumer class; it also terminated an associated request to keep materials secret as moot.
Judge James Donato issued the order on September 13, 2023.
The detailed version
- In re Google Play Consumer Antitrust Litigation · No. 3:20-cv-05761
- James Donato
- Sept. 13, 2023
Background
The court had previously certified a consumer class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3). At that stage, the court also denied Google’s request to exclude Dr. Singer’s testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. The court says the record then supported both decisions.
New Evidentiary Ruling
After new developments in the record, the court excluded Dr. Singer’s pass-through formula and his opinions based on applying that formula in the litigation. The opinion states that the same formula was an essential part of the consumer plaintiffs’ argument for class certification.
Disposition
Because the formula was excluded, the court vacated the order that had granted class certification and decertified the consumer class. The court also terminated the parties’ associated sealing motion as moot, meaning the motion no longer required a ruling. Judge James Donato entered the order. The opinion does not decide the underlying antitrust claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.