WASHINGTON—In a case involving $8.5 million that Google had agreed to pay class-action plaintiffs for alleged privacy violations, the Supreme Court this week punted on the question of whether to abolish an increasingly controversial practice in which lawyers in class-action lawsuits funnel settlement money to charities they favor but which the plaintiffs may not.
Google agreed to pay plaintiffs for allegedly violating privacy provisions of the Stored Communications Act, which regulates voluntary and compelled disclosure of “stored wire and electronic communications and transactional records” held by third-party internet service providers, commonly known as ISPs.
