Privacy Class Action vs. Apple Is Transferred to Northern Calif.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle for Eastern Pennsylvania signed an order Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-00070) granting defendant Apple’s unopposed motion to transfer plaintiff Joaquin Serrano’s privacy class action to Northern California. Serrano’s complaint is one of several that allege Apple unlawfully records and uses consumers’ personal information and activity on its consumer mobile devices and apps, even after consumers explicitly indicate through Apple’s device settings that they don’t want their data and information shared. The first-filed rule and section 1404(a) support transfer on the grounds that a substantially similar case, Libman v. Apple (docket 5:22-cv-07069), was filed in Northern California nearly two months before Serrano’s complaint, said Apple’s Jan. 31 motion (see 2302020009).