Floyd v. Amazon.com Inc

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: April 9, 2024
• Docket: 2:22-cv-01599
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 Honorable Kymberly K. Evanson 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 10 AT SEATTLE 11 STEVEN FLOYD, individually and on behalf 12 of all other similarly situated, Case No. 2:22-cv-01599 KKE 13 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING APPLE’S 14 v. MOTION TO SEAL 15 AMAZON.COM INC. and APPLE INC.,

16 Defendants. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Apple Inc.’s unopposed motion to seal 2 parts of the declaration of Mark A. Perry and all of the attached exhibits (Dkt. No. 88), which were 3 filed in support of Apple’s and Defendant Amazon.com Inc.’s opposition to Plaintiff’s motion for 4 leave to amend the first amended complaint and to intervene. Dkt. No. 84. The Court grants the 5 motion to seal for the following reasons. 6 “In this circuit, we start with a strong presumption in favor of access to court records.” 7 8 Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003). The party seeking to 9 seal a court record generally “bears the burden of overcoming this strong presumption by meeting 10 the compelling reasons standard. That is, the party must articulate compelling reasons supported 11 by specific factual findings that outweigh the general history of access and the public policies 12 favoring disclosure[.]” Kamakana v. City & Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178–79 (9th Cir. 13 2006) (cleaned up). The Local Rules of this district require a party filing a motion to seal to inter 14 15 alia identify the interests that warrant sealing and the injury that would result if the motion is not 16 granted, and to explain why a less restrictive alternative than sealing is insufficient. Local Rules 17 W.D. Wash. LCR 5(g)(3)(B). 18 The Court finds that Apple has shown compelling reasons to seal the materials identified 19 below, because they contain confidential business information regarding Apple’s internal systems 20 and processes for protecting data that, if made public, could harm Apple’s competitive standing. 21 No means other than sealing will protect the confidential business information, the protection of 22 23 which outweighs the public right of access to court records. See, e.g., Ctr. for Auto Safety v. 24 Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1097 (9th Cir. 2016) (indicating that compelling reasons to 25 grant a motion to seal would exist “when a court record might be used … ‘as sources of business 26 information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing[]’” (quoting Nixon v. Warner 27 Commnc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598–99 (1978))). 28 1 Additionally, Apple has shown compelling reasons to seal the exhibits attached to the Perry 2 declaration, because they contain personally identifiable information (“PII”) related to Plaintiff 3 Steven Floyd’s devices that, if made public, could harm Floyd’s personal privacy and data security 4 interests. No means other than sealing will protect the PII, the protection of which outweighs the 5 6 public right of access to court records. See, e.g., Activision Publ’g, Inc. v. EngineOQwning UG, No.

7 || CV 2:22-cv-00051-MWF (JCx), 2023 WL 2347134, at *1 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 27, 2023) (“[T]here are 8 || compelling reasons to seal the various parties’ customers’ personal information, which includes the 9 | customers’ names, account numbers, IP addresses, email addresses, and/or customer activities on 10 | certain platforms, in order to protect the customers’ privacy.”). il Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Apple’s motion to seal. Dkt. No. 84. Exhibits A-P 12 attached to the Perry declaration shall be maintained under seal until further order of the Court. 13 Furthermore, the Perry declaration shall be partially sealed until further order of the Court, 15 || consistent with the table below: 16 17 Portion of Document Document Title Reason to Seal Sought to be Sealed 18 2:7-10 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 19 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 20 Apple devices and users. 2:14 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 21 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 22 Apple devices and users. 2:19 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 23 confidential, internal processes and 4 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 5 2:24 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 26 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 27 28 ORDER GRANTING ADDT DC'°l wAA4rVvTIIrym) Tf) SCAT

1 2:28 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 2 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 3 3:1 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 4 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 5 Apple devices and users. 3:6 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 6 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 7 Apple devices and users. 3:11 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 8 confidential, internal processes and 9 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 10 3:16 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 11 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 12 3:21 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 13 systems for maintaining data about 14 Apple devices and users. 3:26 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 15 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 16 Apple devices and users. 4:3 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 17 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 18 Apple devices and users. 19 4:8 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 20 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 21 4:13 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 22 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 23 4:18 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 24 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 25 Apple devices and users. 4:23 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 26 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 27 Apple devices and users. 28 1 4:28 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s confidential, internal processes and 2 systems for maintaining data about Apple devices and users. 3 5:5 Perry Declaration Reflects information regarding Apple’s 4 confidential, internal processes and systems for maintaining data about 5 Apple devices and users. 6 7 Dated this 9th day of April, 2024. 8 9 A 10 Kymberly K. Evanson 11 United States District Judge

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