Mashable Defeats Online Tracker Suit Over Lack of Jurisdiction

Mashable succeeded in convincing a federal judge to dismiss a complaint that alleged it installed trackers on a California resident’s computer to better monetize its website.

Simply operating a “website that is accessible in a forum state does not necessarily subject the website owner” to personal jurisdiction there, Judge Charles R. Breyer of the US District Court for the Northern District of California said in the Thursday order.

Dawn Fregosa sufficiently pleaded that Mashable intentionally installed the trackers, but didn’t allege that it “expressly aimed its activities at California,” Breyer said.

He was unpersuaded by Fregosa’s argument that providing IP ...