History was made last Friday night, April 12, when the largest-ever privacy class-action verdict was announced. A federal jury in Oregon decided, in Wakefield v. ViSalus, it would tell health supplement marketer ViSalus to pay $925 million in damages after it was charged by a certified class of 800,000 people with making 2 million illegal robocalls without consumers’ consent, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It’s unusual and newsworthy not only in that it’s the highest amount ever awarded, but also in that privacy class-action cases often don’t ever go to trial. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Jay Edelson, whose firm argued the case for the plaintiffs’ bar, talks us through the legal victory, the significance of the ruling, and what it could mean for the future of privacy litigation in the U.S.
15 April 2019
