Ashley M. Simonsen

Specializing in the defense of class actions and mass torts, Ashley M. Simonsen of Covington & Burling LLP polished her national reputation with a major win for Facebook Inc. in a "Fake Clicks" case. She defeated class certification for her client, then won summary judgment on the plaintiffs' appeal.

That success, affirmed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November 2022, has had important consequences for other tech companies facing Unfair Competition Law misrepresentation claims, particularly those involving ad traffic. The case has been cited by defendants such as Google LLC, LinkedIn Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. in at least seven other cases and by three courts.

"It can be rare to see a case all the way through certification and summary judgment and affirmance and generate some helpful precedent," said Simonsen. She credited Covington colleagues for contributing to what became, due to its size and its eventual appellate component, what she called "a cross-functional collaborative matter" for the firm. dotStrategy Co. v. Facebook Inc., 3:20-cv-00170 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 8, 2020); dotStrategy Co. v. Facebook Inc., 21-17056 (9th Cir., op. filed Nov. 28, 2022).

In a major social media case, Simonsen has now been retained to co-lead Covington's team, serving as national lead defense counsel for Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta Platforms Inc. Meta, along with Snap Inc.'s Snapchat, ByteDance's TikTok and Google's YouTube were sued for allegedly building addictive features into their products that contribute to a youth mental health crisis.

The suits contain a novel legal theory that the platforms are defectively designed -- an effort to plead around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields online companies from suits based on user content.

The plaintiffs include more than 1,000 individual personal injury and public nuisance claims plus complaints by state attorneys general and several school districts. The cases are grouped into a federal multidistrict litigation matter in the Northern District before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland and a state proceeding in Los Angeles coordinated by the Judicial Council and assigned to Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl. In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, 4:22-md-03047 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 6, 2022); Social Media Cases, JCCP 5255 (L.A. Super. Ct., coord. Dec. 7, 2022).

In the federal case, Rogers has ruled that Section 230 barred many of the complaint's key allegations regarding duty, breach and child sex abuse material. Without them, Simonsen and her colleagues assert in a Dec. 22, 2023, motion to dismiss, the entire case must fail. The motion is pending.

--John Roemer