Data Marketing Partnership, LP v. United States Department of Labor et al

  1. April 09, 2025

    Data Co. Can't Make DOL Accept Health Plan, Judge Says

    A data-mining company can't force the U.S. Department of Labor to acknowledge that a health insurance plan offered in exchange for participants' user data is covered by federal benefits law, a Texas federal judge ruled, saying the case's thin record prevented the court from deciding issues the Fifth Circuit told it to consider.

  2. June 03, 2024

    DOL Fights Injunction Bid In Data-For-Insurance Fight

    The U.S. Department of Labor pushed back against two companies' permanent injunction bid in a lawsuit that had challenged a now-vacated finding from the agency that a data-for-insurance health plan offering wasn't covered by federal benefits law, arguing a Texas federal court should instead end proceedings in the case.

  3. August 11, 2023

    Texas Judge Denies DOL's Voided ERISA Advice Remand Bid

    A Texas federal judge denied the U.S. Department of Labor's request to remand insurance plan guidance to the agency for a rework after the district court invalidated it in 2020, finding Friday that the Fifth Circuit made explicit that the dispute should be resolved in court.

  4. January 03, 2023

    DOL Wants Another Shot At Voided ERISA Advice

    The U.S. Department of Labor urged a Texas federal judge to put a battle over nullified agency guidance on insurance plans into a holding pattern, saying the court should kick the matter back to the DOL to put together a new version of the advisory opinion.

  5. January 05, 2022

    5th Circ. Critical Of DOL In Data-For-Insurance ERISA Case

    The Fifth Circuit appeared skeptical Wednesday of the U.S. Department of Labor's challenge to a ruling that federal benefits law covered a company's offering of health insurance to individuals in exchange for their user data, lobbing questions that indicated the court might avoid tackling whether the insured individuals qualified as employees. 

  6. September 29, 2020

    Data Outfit Gets Green Light For Health Plan In Win Over DOL

    A Texas federal judge ruled Monday that a health insurance plan provided by a company that offers health care in exchange for tracking and selling its participants' electronic data was covered by ERISA, striking down a U.S. Department of Labor finding to the contrary and allowing Data Marketing Partnership LP to provide benefits to 50,000 people.

  7. March 10, 2020

    DOL Insists Data-Generating 'Partners' Are Not Employees

    The U.S. Department of Labor has told a Texas federal judge to toss a data-mining company's challenge to a DOL advisory opinion that said the company's health plan doesn't comport with ERISA, saying the information-generating "partners" in the plan don't qualify as employees.  

  8. February 20, 2020

    Data Co. Calls DOL Opinion On Health Plan 'Unlawful'

    The U.S. Department of Labor was wrong to say that ERISA doesn't cover a health plan a data company offered to "partners" who were paid for sharing their personal information, the company told a Texas federal judge, warning that the agency's finding spells doom for a plan that covers more than 50,000 people.