Julio del Rio, et al. v. CrowdStrike, Incorporated, et al.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 is an economic deregulation statute intended to promote reliance on competitive market forces in the airline industry. To prevent the States from interfering with federal deregulation and ensure uniformity, the Act preempts state laws and regulations “related to a price, route, or service of an air carrier that may provide air transportation under this subpart.” 49 U.S.C. § 41713(b)(1). Respondents CrowdStrike, Inc. and its parent company CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (together, “CrowdStrike”) developed defective commercial cybersecurity software that caused a massive information technology system outage in July 2024 (the “CrowdStrike Outage” or “Outage”). Petitioners brought state-law tort and product liability claims against CrowdStrike for injuries and damages they suffered as a result of the CrowdStrike Outage’s massive disruption of all businesses employing its software and, specific to this case, global air travel. The District Court and Court of Appeals below held the ADA preempted Petitioners’ claims against CrowdStrike. The question presented is: Whether the Airline Deregulation Act’s preemption of claims “related to a . . . service of an air carrier” extends to claims arising from an independent third-party software vendor’s development of defective software when the thirdparty vendor does not transport passengers, does not provide services to passengers, and has no commercial relationship with airline passengers.