Federal rules require that class-action settlements be “fair, reasonable, and adequate.” A petition before the Supreme Court in Marek v. Lane argues that a settlement that pays lawyers and helps a defendant, but leaves class members out in the cold, meets none of those requirements.
The deal in question came after Facebook users sued the company for publicizing their online purchases without permission. The social-networking site agreed it was in the wrong, but the settlement that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit approved did not compensate the more than three million absent class members, the petition argues.
