Saskatchewan Court Denies Certification Of Cambridge Analytica Class Action

Editor's Note: In a recent Osler Update, Mark Gelowitz, Robert Carson, and Lauren Harper discussed a recent Saskatchewan case denying certification against Facebook. A condensed version of the update is reproduced below.

On July 14, 2021, the Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan dismissed the plaintiff's application for class certification in Kish v. Facebook, Inc., a putative privacy class action. Justice Keene's reasons address the evidentiary requirement of "some basis in fact" and reinforce that the certification process is a meaningful screening device in privacy class actions.

Justice Keene's primary basis for denying certification was the plaintiff's failure to satisfy the evidentiary requirements for certification. Justice Keene struck out all of the evidence led by the plaintiff - which consisted of a proposed expert report and two affidavits from the plaintiff herself - because the evidence did not meet the threshold requirements for admissibility.