TTTBE #23: Early Answer for Patrons (Patreon)

This question asked about a class action breach of contract suit against a social media scammer that was selling private information over the Internet.

I'm not a huge fan of how this question is worded, because I think the law is trending towards recognizing the second cause of action (for the market value of their personal information) as a legitimate claim and measure of damages.

So, how do you approach a question like this?  Well, start with the principles of breach of contract, which are meant to achieve economic efficiency and not to impose moral approbation.  Thus, you can probably infer that you cannot sue for breach of contract for "embarrassment and humiliation."  (That's correct.)  So if you had just picked the answer that excludes that one, you would have arrived in the right place.  So, here's how that works in practice:

Answer A was "yes, because the service breached the duty of good faith in every contract" -- and that's not a thing.  So you can eliminate that one.

Answer B was "yes, because these are common types of damages authorized in breach of contract cases," and you can eliminate that because "embarrassment and humiliation" is NOT a common type of breach of contract damages, as we've just said.

Answer C began with the phrase "Internet laws protect absolutely all...," and you can stop listening at that point, because those sorts of statements are basically never correct (and also, that answer is nonsense and starts talking about freedom of speech).  Thomas correctly observed that this is a stupid answer.

Finally, Answer D is "No, humiliation is not valid damages in a breach of contract case and the unauthorized collection of personal data does not establish an economic loss."  Again, that second half is slightly dubious, but the first half is correct, and this answer doesn't say anything that's patently wrong.

So you should go with "D," which was (of course) Thomas's second choice.

Thomas, however, picked answer "B," which makes him now 11-for-23, and just below .500 (47.8%) for the first time since the first few questions.  Will be get back above water??  Stay tuned and find out.  Another exciting new question drops when Question #24 is released on Friday's Epsiode 68!