Plaintiff in Meta Pixel Tracking Case Opposes Consolidation, Citing Case Differences

The “drastic relief” plaintiffs in In Re Meta Pixel Tax Filing Cases and Mary Smith v. Google request in their Oct. 6 administrative motion to consider whether Justin Hunt v. Meta Platforms should be severed and related is “not about consolidation,” said Hunt’s Tuesday opposition (docket 5:23-cv-03527 ) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose. Instead, “it is a brazen attempt to exert control over a separate case that alleges entirely different claims -- violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and Internal Revenue Code -- and features a different Defendant, H&R Block," Hunt said. The Meta and Google class actions both arise from allegations that when class members used certain tax filing websites, their filing information was “unlawfully shared” with either Google or Meta. Hunt doesn’t dispute that the class action he filed is related to the other two; he opposes severance of his claims, said the opposition. That plaintiffs in the other two cases “failed to serve” Hunt with their motion is a maneuver “approaching bad faith,” he said. The severance request must be rejected because it would require the court to “engage in impermissible claim-splitting,” said Hunt. In an Oct. 5 email, Hunt's counsel told counsel for In re Meta and Google his client decided to drop from his lawsuit the only claims that overlapped with the other two complaints: his Federal Wiretap Act claim and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) claim, said the opposition. The email "did not contest that the Hunt matter may be related to In re Meta and Google"; it instead informed counsel that Hunt couldn't consent to severance of his and putative class members’ claims, it said. Hunt’s Oct. 5 amended complaint "makes clear that he seeks something drastically different from what the In re Meta and Google plaintiffs seek: to prosecute civil RICO claims and Internal Revenue Code Violations on behalf of a national class against defendants H&R Block, Meta and Google," said the opposition. The amended complaint removes all Federal Wire Tap and CIPA claims alleged in the original complaint, and all California class claims. Hunt requests a hearing on the motion due to the “extraordinary nature” of relief sought.