SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. District Judge Edward Chen has refused to allow software company Carrier IQ and a group of cellphone makers sweep an enormous privacy class action into arbitration.

Plaintiffs sued Carrier IQ and manufacturers, including Samsung and HTC, over the installation of Carrier IQ’s tracking software on their phones. The defendants tried to make use of contracts containing arbitration clauses that consumers signed with their carriers to drive the case out of district court.