In In re Facebook PPC Advertising Litigation, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Facebook to reproduce all documents previously produced in .pdf format and further ordered Facebook not to use third-party vendor Watchdox.com's online production software. 

Several plaintiffs sued Facebook for allegedly misrepresenting the quality of its "click filters," which are filters used to prevent charging merchants when advertisements are inadvertently clicked.  During discovery, Facebook produced relevant documents in two ways.  First, Facebook converted native documents into .pdf formats which eliminated search and usable features.  One such document was an 18,000 page customer complaint which lacked any searchable features.  Second, Facebook uploaded documents to Watchdox.com and provided plaintiffs with access to the online service.  Documents on Watchdox.com could not be printed and Facebook retained the ability to cause documents to expire, track who viewed which documents and render such documents non-searchable or non-annotatable.   Facebook cited concerns of confidential documents being disclosed. 

In reviewing Facebook's production methods, the Court noted that "each of these steps make the discovery process less efficient without providing any real benefit."  Moreover, the Court found that Facebook's privacy concerns were unreasonable given that a two tiered protective order already existed in the case.  Further, the Court believed that confidential documents could be marked as such to prevent inadvertent disclosures.  The Court held that Facebook's use of Watchdox.com was unduly burdensome on the Plaintiffs and prohibited Facebook from using it any further.  The Court also ordered Facebook to reproduce all documents which were already produced in an unsearchable format. 

For a full copy of the opinion, click here.