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TRANSUNION LLC v. RAMIREZ 

Opinion of the Court 

tutes a concrete harm, the plaintiffs advance a separate ar-
gument based on an asserted risk of future harm.  They say
that the 6,332 class members suffered a concrete injury for 
Article  III  purposes  because  the  existence  of  misleading
OFAC alerts in their internal credit files exposed them to a
material risk that the information would be disseminated 
in the future to third parties and thereby cause them harm.
The  plaintiffs  rely  on  language  from  Spokeo  where  the 
Court said that “the risk of real harm” (or as the Court oth-
erwise  stated,  a  “material  risk  of  harm”)  can  sometimes
“satisfy  the  requirement  of  concreteness.”    578  U. S.,  at 
341–342 (citing Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l USA, 568 U. S. 398 
(2013)).

To  support  its  statement  that  a  material  risk  of  future 
harm  can  satisfy  the  concrete-harm  requirement,  Spokeo
cited  this  Court’s  decision  in  Clapper.  But  importantly, 
Clapper involved a suit for injunctive relief.  As this Court 
has recognized, a person exposed to a risk of future harm 
may  pursue  forward-looking,  injunctive  relief  to  prevent
the harm from occurring, at least so long as the risk of harm
is sufficiently imminent and substantial.  See Clapper, 568 
U. S., at 414, n. 5; Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U. S. 95, 102 
(1983); see also Gubala, 846 F. 3d, at 912. 

But a plaintiff must “demonstrate standing separately for
each form of relief sought.”  Friends of the Earth, 528 U. S., 
at 185.  Therefore, a plaintiff ’s standing to seek injunctive 
relief  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  the  plaintiff  has 
standing to seek retrospective damages. 

TransUnion  advances  a  persuasive  argument  that  in  a 
suit  for  damages,  the  mere  risk  of  future  harm,  standing
alone,  cannot  qualify  as  a  concrete  harm—at  least  unless 
the exposure to the risk of future harm itself causes a sepa-
rate concrete harm.  Brief for Petitioner 39, n. 4; Tr. of Oral