California Court Rejects Class Action over Application Form Question Where Class Representatives Were Not Harmed

On December 10, the California Court of Appeal granted summary judgment in favor of Starbucks Corporation, finding that plaintiffs seeking to represent a potential class of 135,000 job applicants failed to show they were harmed by an allegedly improper application form question. Although Starbucks defeated the class action, the case (Starbucks Corp. v. Superior Court) demonstrates that employers operating in California should ensure that job applications and other employment documents unambiguously comply with California law, especially with respect to the location of California-specific instructions on documents.

For the full story, please view the PDF.