Yahoo hasn't commented on the lawsuit so far, but it unsurprisingly tried to fight the class action status. It claimed that the possible penalties from a large-scale case would be disproportionate to the actual damage done. However, the court doesn't buy that line -- it believes that the 500,000-plus affected Sprint subscribers have enough in common that they could be lumped together. If the suit is successful, then, Yahoo might find itself on the hook for millions of dollars.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez]