A federal district court judge in Boston has granted preliminary approval to a $2.16 million settlement between the New England Patriots organization and a class of fans who claim their personally identifiable information (PII) was shared without their permission while using the team’s app.
The original complaint was filed by Anthony Serra in February 2024 on behalf of users of the Patriots mobile app. Serra’s complaint alleged that the team violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by installing and running two tools — Rover’s SDK and Google’s Anvato API— on its mobile phone application, thereby allegedly disclosing their PII including what videos materials or services they have requested or obtained and their precise geographic locations.
The Patriots organization has denied, and continues to deny, the allegations and the proposed settlement does not constitute an admission or indication of any wrongdoing by the National Football League (NFL) team.
The Patriots moved to dismiss Serra’s complaint on April 30, 2024. While that motion was still pending, the parties began discussions about a resolution. On February 3, 2025, the parties sought a stay of the litigation and on May 8, 2025, the parties finalized the settlement now before the court.
Under the proposed settlement, the Patriots will create a $2.16 million cash fund for the benefit of claimants and also will agree to suspend operation of Rover’s SDK and Google’s Anvato on the Patriots app to the extent they transmit precise geolocation data.
Assuming there are 105,000 eligible class members and that 10% of them will submit claims, pro rata payments from the net settlement fund would amount to approximately $120 to each claimant.
Judge Margaret R. Guzman has set a final hearing on the plan for October 9.
The VPPA prohibits video tape service providers from disclosing personal information about consumers’ video rentals or activities without their written consent. This 1988 law was initially enacted to address video rentals but has since been applied to online video content and streaming services as well.
The Anvato API tool is used by businesses like the Patriots to incorporate into their mobile phone applications to deliver videos to consumers, track consumers’ actions, and report those actions back to Google for targeting and delivering advertisements. The Anvato API allegedly allows businesses, and by extension Google, to track the precise geolocation of consumers and allows Google to build detailed profiles about app users, including which videos they’ve watched, and facilitates the businesses’ use of Google’s advertising services.
Similarly, the Rover API also allegedly tracks consumers’ actions in order to better target consumers for engagement and monetization. It is also is alleged to collect the titles of any videos viewed by consumers in an app.
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