George

BACKGROUND

The General Overview This is the third appeal to come before us in this case, a case that began in August 2015, when a group of plaintiffs—current (or former) sellers on eBay who had listings on eBay’s website—filed their original complaint. It named as defendants eBay, a global e-commerce platform alleged by plaintiffs to have well over 100,000,000 active users, and PayPal, the entity that provided online payment services for individuals and businesses. In November 2015, the case was removed to the Federal District Court, and four months later remanded to superior court. In October 2016, plaintiffs filed a first amended complaint (FAC), a putative class action against eBay and PayPal seeking “damages, restitution, injunctive and declaratory relief, and accounting.” Both defendants filed demurrers, and on April 13, 2017, the Honorable George Hernandez, a most experienced superior court judge, issued a comprehensive, four-page single- spaced, tentative ruling that, analyzing the FAC cause of action by cause of action, sustained the demurrer in its entirety, but granted leave to amend. And in the course of his ruling, Judge Hernandez expressed his overarching concern…