A Court authorized the notice because you have a right to know about a proposed Settlement of this class action lawsuit and about all of your options, before the Court decides whether to give final approval to the Settlement. The Notice explains the lawsuit, the Settlement, and your legal rights.

The Honorable Matthew F. Leitman, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, is overseeing this case. The case is called Kain v. The Economist Newspaper NA, Inc., Case No. 4:21-cv-11807-MFL-CI. The person who sued is called the Plaintiff. The Defendant is The Economist Newspaper NA, Inc.

In a class action, one or more people called class representatives (in this case, Rebecca Kain) sue on behalf of a group or a “class” of people who have similar claims. In a class action, the court resolves the issues for all class members, except for those who exclude themselves from the Class.

This lawsuit claims that Defendant violated Michigan’s Preservation of Personal Privacy Act, H.B. 5331, 84th Leg. Reg. Sess., P.A. No. 378 §§ 1-4, id. § 5, added by H.B. 4694, 85th Leg. Reg. Sess., P.A. No. 206, § 1 (Mich. 1989) (the “PPPA”), by disclosing information related to its customers’ magazine subscriptions to third parties before July 30, 2016. The Defendant denies it violated any law. The Court has not determined who is right. Rather, the Parties have agreed to settle the lawsuit to avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with ongoing litigation.

The Court has not decided whether the Plaintiff or the Defendant should win this case. Instead, both sides agreed to a Settlement. That way, they avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with ongoing litigation, and Class Members will get compensation sooner rather than, if at all, after the completion of a trial.

The Court decided that everyone who fits the following description is a member of the Settlement Class:

All persons with a Michigan street address who subscribed to a The Economist Publication to be delivered to a Michigan street address or electronically between February 4, 2015, and July 30, 2016.

Monetary Relief: A Settlement Fund has been created totaling $9,500,000.00. Class Member payments, and the cost to administer the Settlement, the cost to inform people about the Settlement, attorneys’ fees (inclusive of litigation costs), and an award to the Class Representative will also come out of this fund (see Question 12).

A detailed description of the settlement benefits can be found in the Settlement Agreement, a copy of which is accessible on the Important Documents page.

The amount of this payment will depend on how many requests for exclusion are submitted. Each Class Member will receive a proportionate share of the Settlement Fund, which Class Counsel anticipates will be approximately $261. You can contact Class Counsel at (646) 837-7150 to inquire as to the number of requests for exclusion that have been received to date.

The hearing to consider the fairness of the settlement was on March 15, 2023. The Court has approved of the settlement. All eligible Class Members will receive their payment 28 days after the Settlement has been finally approved and/or after any appeals process is complete. The payment will be made in the form of a check, and all checks will expire and become void 180 days after they are issued. Alternatively, you may request that the payment is issued through PayPal or Venmo (see Question 9 below for further details).

If you were a Class Member in this case and you cashed or claimed your initial Settlement payment, you were deemed eligible for a second payment under the terms of the Settlement. The second payment represents your pro rata share of the remaining Settlement Fund consisting of uncashed checks from other eligible class members after their initial payment was voided. Secondary payments were sent to eligible class members on February 23, 2024.

If you are a Class Member who received a Notice via postcard and you want to get a payment, do nothing and you will automatically receive a pro rata share of the Settlement Fund, which Class Counsel anticipates will be approximately $261. Your check for a pro rata shares of the Settlement Fund will be sent to the postal address identified in the Notice you received. If you have changed addresses or are planning to change addresses prior to April 12, 2023, you can complete and submit a change of address form on the Settlement Website. If you wished to receive your payment via PayPal or Venmo, you could have done so by submitting an Election Form on the Settlement Website. The deadline to submit an Election Form has passed. We estimate payment will be sent out on May 25, 2023. Secondary payments were sent to eligible class members on February 23, 2024.

If you are a Settlement Class Member who did not receive a Notice via postcard and you wanted to get a payment, you must have been completed and submitted a Claim Form. You could’ve submitted a Claim Form either electronically on the Settlement Website at www.EconomistNewspaperSettlement.com, or by printing and mailing in a paper Claim Form, copies of which are available on the Important Documents page of the settlement website. Claim Forms must have been submitted online by 11:59 p.m. EST on April 12, 2023, or postmarked and mailed by April 12, 2023. The deadline to submit a Claim Form has passed.

Now that the Settlement has become final, you have given up your right to sue the Defendant and other Released Parties for the claims being resolved by this Settlement. The specific claims you are giving up against the Defendant are described in the Settlement Agreement. You will be “releasing” the Defendant and certain of its affiliates, employees and representatives as described in Section 1.27 of the Settlement Agreement. Unless you excluded yourself, you “released”” the claims. The Settlement Agreement is available through the “Important Documents” link on the website.

The Settlement Agreement describes the released claims with specific descriptions, so read it carefully. If you have any questions you can talk to the lawyers listed in Question 11 for free or you can, of course, talk to your own lawyer if you have questions about what this means.

The Court has appointed Joseph I. Marchese and Philip L. Fraietta of Bursor & Fisher, P.A., Frank S. Hedin and Arun G. Ravindran of Hedin Hall LLP, and E. Powell Miller of The Miller Law Firm, P.C.to represent the class. They are called “Class Counsel.” They believe, after conducting an extensive investigation, that the Settlement Agreement is fair, reasonable, and in the best interests of the Settlement Class. You will not be charged for these lawyers. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer in this case, you may hire one at your expense.

Now that the settlement is final, the Defendant has agreed that Class Counsel attorneys’ fees and costs will be paid out of the Settlement Fund. The amount paid to Class Counsel in attorneys’ fees was $3,325,000.00. The fee petition sought no more than 35% of the Settlement Fund, inclusive of reimbursement of their costs and expenses

Additionally, Defendant has agreed that the Class Representative will be paid a service award of $5,000 from the Settlement Fund for her services in helping to bring and resolve this case.

If you had wanted to exclude yourself from the Settlement, you could have written to the Settlement Administrator about why you wanted to exclude yourself from the Settlement by no later than February 20, 2023. The deadline to exclude yourself from the Settlement has passed.

If you did not exclude yourself, you cannot sue the Defendant for the same thing later. Unless you excluded yourself, you gave up any right to sue the Defendants for the claims being resolved by this Settlement.

No. If you excluded yourself, you cannot get a payment from this Settlement. If you excluded yourself, you should not have submitted a Claim Form to ask for benefits because you won’t receive any.

If you are a Class Member, you could have objected to the Settlement if you didn’t like any part of it. To object, you must have filed with the Court a letter or brief stating that you object to the Settlement and sent a copy to Class Counsel and Defendant’s Counsel. Class Counsel filed with the Court and posted on the website its request for attorneys’ fees. If you wanted to appear and speak at the Final Approval Hearing to object to the Settlement, with or without a lawyer, you must have said so in your letter or brief. The deadline to file an objection was February 20, 2023 and has passed.

Objecting simply means telling the Court that you don’t like something about the Settlement. You can object only if you stay in the Class. Excluding yourself from the Class is telling the Court that you don’t want to be part of the Class. If you exclude yourself, you have no basis to object because the case no longer affects you.

The Court held the Final Approval Hearing at 9:30 a.m. EST on March 15, 2023. The Court determined the Settlement as fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the Class; to consider the Class Counsel’s request for attorneys’ fees and expenses; and to consider the request for a service award to the Class Representative. At that hearing, the Court heard all objections and arguments concerning the fairness of the Settlement.

The Notice summarizes the Settlement. More details are in the Settlement Agreement. You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement on the Important Documents page. You may also write with questions to Economist Newspaper Settlement, c/o JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91231, Seattle, WA 98111. You can call the Settlement Administrator at (877) 415 0642 or Class Counsel at (646) 837-7150, if you have any questions. Before doing so, however, please read the full Notice carefully. You may also find additional information elsewhere on the case website.