InfoBytes Blog
Facebook's Forum-Selection Clause Enforceable Against Plaintiff Minors
On March 8, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois ruled that minors who used Facebook are bound by the forum-selection clause contained in the website’s terms of service, to which they agreed when they signed up for Facebook. E.K.D. v. Facebook Inc., No. 11-461 (S.D. Ill. Mar. 8, 2012). The plaintiffs, a group of minors suing Facebook for improperly using their images in advertising, argued that because they were minors when they signed up, the forum selection clause could not be enforced. The court rejected this argument, holding that under California contract law the minor plaintiffs could not void the forum selection because they continued to use and benefit from Facebook after agreeing to the terms of service. The court further held that transferring the case to the Northern District of California would not unduly burden the plaintiffs and was permitted by 28 U.S.C § 1404.