Ninth Circuit strips class status in LoSavio v. Tesla

The Ninth Circuit's decision turns on a narrow procedural point: the statement at issue sat on Tesla's Autopilot page, and buyers did not have to visit that page to complete a purchase. That meant plaintiffs could not show every class member was exposed to it, which is why the panel found individual questions dominated. The memorandum is unpublished, so under Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3 it holds no other case, though the exposure reasoning likely reaches further.

The legal win arrives against a difficult financial backdrop. Tesla's second quarter brought $28.24 billion in revenue, but non-GAAP EPS of $0.33 missed the $0.5367 estimate and free cash flow was -$1.092 billion. The shares trade at 369 times earnings and have returned -21.12% in 2026, sitting closer to the 52-week low of $297.38 than the high of $498.83. The stock's 2.13% decline to $354.72 tracked a broader tech selloff rather than the ruling.

Potential damages in the case were never disclosed, so the savings cannot be sized. The larger question is whether self-driving software and robotaxis deliver the revenue a $1.40 trillion valuation assumes, a contrast highlighted by Alphabet's Waymo unit, which runs driverless rides inside a company funded by profitable search and cloud businesses.