LinkedIn, the professional networking site, has agreed to pay a $13 million out of court settlement in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit, which originated in California in 2013, was filed by LinkedIn users who claim their reputations have been damaged by the company’s ‘Add Connections’ feature.
This feature relentlessly messaged their email contacts with requests to connect with them on LinkedIn, it was reported by Fortune Magazine. The users said they were embarrassed by the emails sent on their behalf and also said that it was difficult to get LinkedIn to stop sending more emails. In the complaint, the users claim their professional reputations were damaged by the barrage of contact request emails.
The out of court settlement affects LinkedIn users who signed up for the ‘Add Connections’ feature between September 2011 and October 2014. LinkedIn will pay out $13 million, with $3.25 million of that amount going to the attorneys who worked for several years on the case.
The amount that each claimant will receive is yet to be calculated because payouts will depend on how many people file claims, with many people notified that they’re eligible to claim still yet to file. However, the settlement stipulates that if individual payments work out to an amount that’s lower than $10, LinkedIn must add an additional $750,000 to the payout fund to increase individual payout amounts.
Whilst the out of court settlement includes all LinkedIn users who signed up for the ‘Add Connections’ feature, it doesn’t include users who opted not to sign up, but were still hit with an onslaught of contact requests from their email contacts.
LinkedIn’s emails are famous for their irritating nature. In a blog this July, the company announced it is “not immune to the late night talk show host jokes. We get it.”