IADC amicus brief program.

The IADC amicus curiae program has been very active over the first six months of 2016, participating in eight matters covering a broad variety issues important to our members and their clients. Courts have also decided important cases in the first half of 2016 in which the IADC participated as amicus curiae. Among the most notable of these briefs are the following:

In Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins (July 9, 2015; decision issued May 16, 2016), the International Association of Defense Counsel joined with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The American Hotel & Lodging Association, The American Tort Reform Association, The National Association Of Manufacturers, and The National Federation Of Independent Business, in support of defendant and petitioner Spokeo, arguing that, to establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must allege concrete, particularized injury-in-fact, and not a mere technical violation of a statute. In May 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of Spokeo and reaffirmed that the injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing in federal court requires a plaintiff to allege an injury that is both "concrete ' and "particularized." The Court provided additional guidance on what amounts to "concrete" harm by making clear that just because Congress may have enacted a statute that "identifies] and elevat[es] intangible harms" to give rise to a cause of action, including statutory damages, "does not mean that a plaintiff automatically satisfies the injury-in-fact requirement whenever a statute grants a person a statutory right and purports to authorize that person to sue to vindicate that right)' In other words, "a bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm," such as dissemination of an incorrect zip code in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, is not enough to create standing. The Spokeo decision will impact purported class actions across the country brought under a variety of different statutes which govern how companies gather, share, or sell consumer information (including the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transmission Act (FACTA)).

In Cogent Communications, Inc. v. Joan Ambrosio, et al. (January 28, 2016), the International Association of Defense Counsel filed a brief in support of petitioner Cogent Communications's argument that a court's assessment of damages for purposes of class certification must incorporate the...