LOS ANGELES, CA – The U.S. District Court in the Central District of California denied Ring LLC’s motion to stay case pending appeal, allowing the federal case to proceed. Non-Purchaser Plaintiffs remain unbound by Purchaser Plaintiffs’ Arbitration Agreement per Ring’s Terms of Service. The Court found Ring has no basis for compelling non-purchaser plaintiffs to arbitrate their claims. In response to Ring’s argument that non-purchaser plaintiffs constitute “Authorized Users” under the Terms of Service, the Court noted, “As Plaintiffs helpfully put it: ‘Ring cannot seriously dispute that the only reasonable interpretation of ‘Authorized User’ is someone with meaningful access to the account.”
Regarding Ring’s argument that it will suffer irreparable harm, the Court stated, “nearly all courts have concluded that incurring litigations expenses does not amount to an irreparable harm” nor do the “risk of substantial class action costs warrant[…] a stay.” Finally, the Court’s ruling concerning the public interest held that “the strong public policy in favor of arbitration does not extend to those who are not parties to an arbitration agreement.”
“Ring has been trying to slow or stop these important cases since they were filed. But justice delayed is justice denied,” said Hassan Zavareei of Tycko & Zavareei LLP, lead interim class counsel. “For this reason we are pleased that Judge Fitzgerald rejected the latest iteration of Ring’s effort to slow down the train of justice.”
The case is In Re Ring Privacy Litigation, Case No. CV 19-10899-MWF (RAOx). On February 11, 2020, the Court consolidated numerous related cases into this putative class action and Tycko & Zavareei LLP, Robinson Calcagnie, Inc, and Adhoot & Wolfson, PC were appointed Interim Co-Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs and the Class.