In re Pokémon Go Nuisance Litigation
In re Pokémon Go Nuisance Litigation
3:16-cv-04300-JD

Summary of the Proposed Settlement

The settlement provides only injunctive (non-monetary) relief to the Class. If approved by the Court, it will require Niantic to follow a series of procedures outlined below.

Specifically, for at least the next three years, Niantic has agreed to the following in connection with Pokémon Go in the United States.

 

1. A straightforward complaint process for complaints about alleged trespass or nuisance by Pokémon Go players.

  1. Niantic will maintain a form on its website at https://pokemongolive.com/en/report-location/ (or a similar URL) where you can submit complaints to Niantic relating to any alleged interference with your private property rights by people you believe to be Pokémon Go players, and where you can request that Niantic remove from the Pokémon Go game any Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop located near your property that you believe may be related to such alleged interference.
  2. For complaints properly submitted to Niantic through the form listed above relating to nuisance or trespass or a request to remove a Pokéstop or Pokémon Gym, Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to resolve the complaints and communicate a resolution within no more than 15 days of wait time for the requestor, for 95% of cases each year.
  3. Niantic will agree to confirm compliance with these obligations by way of an audit, at Niantic’s expense, conducted by an independent firm that Niantic will select. Should the audit conclude that Niantic was materially non-compliant with the settlement terms) during the audited period, a second audit will be conducted, at Niantic’s expense, after 30 days’ notice.
  4. For complaints where the resolution requires the removal of a Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop from the Pokémon Go game, Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to perform that removal within five business days of the communication from Niantic agreeing to such action.

2. Removal of any Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop located on or within 40 meters of single-family residential property.

  1. Using the form on Niantic’s website listed above, you can request that any Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop located on or within 40 meters of your single-family residential property be removed from the Pokémon Go game. You can make this request regardless of whether you have experienced any specific interference with your private property rights by people you believe to be Pokémon Go players.
  2. If Niantic determines that the complained-of Pokéstop or Pokémon Gym is on or within 40 meters of your property, Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to perform that removal within five business days of the communication from Niantic agreeing to such action.

3. Niantic will maintain a database of complaints so as to avoid problems recurring in the future.

  1. Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain a database of complaints related to nuisance or trespass and requests to remove a Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop, for a minimum of 1 (one) year from the date of the complaint.
  2. Where Niantic has previously removed a Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop from a single-family residential property, and in cases where Niantic does so in the future during the settlement period, Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to avoid replacing that Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop on that same single-family residential property.

4. Niantic will honor requests for limited hours of operation for Pokémon Gyms and Pokéstops in parks.

  1. Niantic will maintain a form on its website where public parks can request that the Hours of Operation of a specific park be applied to any Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop located within that park. Government parks authorities can also use this form to request that the “Hours of Operation” of each park within their jurisdiction be applied to any Pokémon Gyms and Pokéstops located within each park.
  2. At least once a year, Niantic will make a public post on its website reminding parks that Niantic has agreed to limit the hours of operation of Pokémon Gyms and Pokéstops within public parks upon request from the proper park administrator.

5. Additional reminders to Pokémon Go players to be respectful of private property.

  1. Niantic will add a new warning to the rotating warnings that appear at the launch of the game (which currently include “do not trespass while playing Pokémon GO” and “do not play Pokémon GO while driving”) that states: “Be courteous to members of real-world communities as you play Pokémon GO” or similar.
  2. For Raids which Niantic’s systems indicate will involve more than 10 participants, Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to cause a warning message to appear on participants’ screens before the raid begins reminding players to be courteous to others and respectful of their real-world surroundings.

6. Additional safeguards to avoid placing new Pokémon Gyms or Pokéstops in locations that are likely to lead to issues with nuisance or trespass.

  1. Niantic will add specific instructions to the current review form that Niantic’s user-reviewers use to evaluate new locations nominated to become Pokémon Gyms or Pokéstops that direct user-reviewers to increase scrutiny regarding any proposed locations that may be on or within 40 meters of a private single-family residential property or that appear to be in neighborhood parks. (For more information about Niantic’s process for evaluating new locations for Pokéstops,see https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/pokemongo/?l=en&p=web&s=pokestops&f=what-makes-a-high-quality-pokestop.) At a minimum, such instructions will include directions for the user-reviewer to examine the proposed new location using a variety of sources, including but not limited to mapping services maintained by private companies, such as Google Maps.
  2. After such review, Niantic will use commercially reasonable efforts to avoid placing a new Pokémon Gym or Pokéstop on any property that appears to the reviewer to be a single-family residential property.
  3. Niantic will manually review a statistically significant percentage of new locations nominated to become Pokémon Gyms or Pokéstops via a Niantic employee or contractor for the principal purpose of trying to avoid placing new Pokémon Gyms or Pokéstops in locations that are more likely to lead to issues with nuisance or trespass.

7. Class Counsel available to assist with further disputes.

  1. For a period of two years after the Court approves the settlement, Class Members who have already gone through Niantic’s customer service process can contact Class Counsel using the information provided below or at pokemongosettlement@pomlaw.com with any issues they experience with the processes outlined in this section.

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Mail

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