Oh v. Sunvalleytek International, Inc.

Opinion

1 Jonas B. Jacobson (Cal. Bar No. 269912) jonas@dovel.com 2 Simon Franzini (Cal. Bar No. 287631) simon@dovel.com 3 Alexander Erwig (Cal Bar No. 334151) 4 alexander@dovel.com DOVEL & LUNER, LLP 5 201 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 600 Santa Monica, California 90401 6 Telephone: (310) 656-7066 7 Facsimile: (310) 656-7069 8 Counsel for Plaintiff 9 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA DAVID OH, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Case No. 5:22-cv-00866-SVK Plaintiff, [PROPOSED] ORDER ON v. SUNVALLEYTEK INTERNATIONAL, INC. Defendant. 1 [PROPOSED] ORDER 2 The Court, having considered the Parties’ Joint Statement of Discovery Disputes, Request 3 for Conference, and the argument and representations made at the February 7, 2023 discovery 4 hearing, hereby ORDERS as follows: 5 Compromises agreed to by the parties: 6 • As agreed to by the parties, Defendant Sunvalleytek International Inc. (“Sunvalleytek”) 7 must conduct a reasonable search of its current and former employees’ Google Drives 8 for documents responsive to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production, and a search of the 9 work laptops and desktops of current employees. • As agreed to by the parties, Sunvalleytek must apply the following search strings (independently) to all email accounts that it has collected, from current and former employees: (review or reviews) & (pay or paid or payment); (review or reviews) & (compensate or compensation); (review or reviews) & (“gift card” or “gift cards”); (review or reviews) & (coupon or coupons); (review or reviews) w/p (negative or remove). Sunvalleytek will use these same search terms to search the content of attachments (not just the title of the attachment). Sunvalleytek must identify to the Plaintiff each email account searched in this manner. • As agreed to by the parties, Sunvalleytek must attempt to obtain access to @sunvalley.co emails (including danny@sunvalley.co, ying@sunvalley.co, hamad@sunvalley.co, rashed@sunvalley.co, and kai@sunvalley.co) and search those emails for relevant information. Disputed issues: Control over documents in the possession of Sunvalley HK Limited: • Plaintiff has made a sufficient showing that Defendant has control and access to documents from its parent company, Sunvalley HK Limited. “District courts in this circuit have found that a wholly-owned subsidiary has access and control over documents in the possession of its parent corporation when it markets the products of the 1 documents and records, and when the subsidiary is able to obtain high-level documents 2 from the parent company when it requests them.” Dri-Steem Corp. v. Nep, Inc., No. 3 1:14-cv-00194, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205713, at *6 (D. Or. Sep. 5, 2014); see Choice- 4 Intersil Microsystems, Inc. v. Agere Sys., 224 F.R.D. 471, 473 (N.D. Cal. 2004). As 5 discussed in detail at the February 7, 2023 hearing, applying this law, the Court finds 6 that Defendant has control over documents in the possession of its parent, Sunvalley HK 7 Limited. For all of Plaintiff’s document requests, Defendant must search for and 8 produce documents in Defendant’s possession, custody, and control, as well as 9 documents in the possession, custody, or control of Defendant’s parent company, Sunvalley HK Limited. Email domain searches: • Sunvalleytek must collect potentially relevant @sunvalleytek.com domains (including, but not limited to, the email account amazon@sunvalleytek.com) and apply the search terms identified in the compromise above. Sunvalleytek must identify the email accounts that it searched to Plaintiff. • Sunvalleytek must attempt to access or contact Microsoft to obtain access to the @outlook.com email accounts influentialuser@outlook.com, headphoneuser@outlook.com, and giftcardfree4k@outlook.com, and search those email addresses for relevant information. Sunvalleytek must identify the email accounts that it searched to Plaintiff. Communications with Amazon: • Sunvalleytek must search for all communications between Sunvalleytek and Amazon or between its parent company (Sunvalley HK Limited) and Amazon, concerning the alleged practice of paying for reviews. Sales and revenue data: • Sunvalleytek must search for and provide sales and revenue data responsive to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production. Timing of production: e Defendant is ordered to produce all responsive documents to Plaintiff no later than February 22, 2023. Follow-up 30(b)(6) deposition: e Plaintiff is entitled to a follow-up 30(b)(6) deposition of Sunvalleytek on the topic of document search efforts to ensure compliance with each of the terms of this order, to be completed no later than March 1, 2023. Dated: February 9, 2023 _ sien vo Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen