LinkedIn May Owe You $1,500 for Spamming Your Inbox

If you felt like you were being inundated with spam from LinkedIn for several years you were not alone. 

After a Two-year legal battle LinkedIn itself admitted as much, saying they were “sending too much email” and agreeing to pay $13 million total to potentially thousands of users.

Anyone who used the service between Sept. 17, 2011 and Oct. 31, 2014 is eligible to file a claim. Ironically, Sept. 17, 2011 was the first day of Occupy Wall Street, a movement which was focused on runaway corporate excess. 

According to the Huffington Post, LinkedIn broke normal spamming procedures in a uniquely sleazy way:

The way the "Add Connections" service works is that an email invitation is sent out by LinkedIn to the contact. But if the person does not respond to the invitation within a certain amount of time, LinkedIn follows up by sending them two more reminder emails.

According to the lawsuit, LinkedIn members did not consent to the additional emails when they chose to use the feature.

LinkedIn, for its part, says they "need to do a better job of figuring out when to send you an email", which is corporate-ese for "we will caliber our spam so as to maximize marketing outreach without getting sued and having lots of bad PR."

You can click here to file a claim. Though the law firm handling the suit says that users could get up to $1,500 the actual amount will likely be much lower since it largely depends on how many people end up filing the claim, according to KTLA.

Good luck and remember when you get that big check who brought it to your attention.

You're welcome.