Verizon customers can sue ad company over “zombie” cookies, judges rule

Enlarge / Zombie cookies. (credit: Eric Sonstroem)

The online advertising company at the center of Verizon's "zombie" cookie controversy cannot avoid a proposed class action lawsuit filed by Verizon Wireless customers, a federal appeals court ruled this week.

Turn, Inc. is an online advertising clearinghouse that allegedly attached un-deletable tracking cookies to Verizon customer identifiers to collect and send their Web browsing and usage data to Turn's servers. Verizon customers Anthony Henson and William Cintron filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Turn on behalf of all Verizon customers in New York, but the company argued that the customers should be forced into arbitration.

Previously, the US District Court in Northern California granted Turn's motion to compel arbitration. But a panel of three judges at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously overturned that ruling on Tuesday.

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