Dive Brief: - Microsoft is negligent for allowing a low-level hum that isn’t detected by dBA monitors to affect the quality of life in the neighborhood surrounding one of its data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and owes millions to residents as compensation, a lawsuit filed in a federal district court claims. - The proposed class action is the latest of several filed this year that targets a data center’s operations rather than its development. - These lawsuits are “early entrants in what is likely to become a substantial and creative field of litigation,” attorneys at Wilmer Hale say in a client alert. Dive Insight: At least half a dozen noise-related lawsuits against data centers have been filed this year. In June, residents in a widely followed case filed a lawsuit seeking damages from artificial intelligence company xAI for the noise, vibration and air pollution coming from dozens of gas turbines the company is operating to support the energy supply at its Southaven, Mississippi, data center. “xAI has made no meaningful effort to halt the harm,” attorneys at Weitz & Luxenberg, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of residents, said in a blog post. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Vineland, New Jersey, Dowagiac, Michigan, North Tonawanda, New York, and Hood County, Texas, according to the Wilmer Hale alert. The lawsuits are relying on nuisance and negligence claims to stop what plaintiffs say are factors the data centers could have controlled. “These causes of action are well established,” the Wilmer Hale attorneys say. What’s new is the target. “Data center operators as the defendants in such lawsuits is new.” The lawsuit against Microsoft for its Fairwater data center in Mount Pleasant could pose a problem for facilities managers if it settles or is decided in favor of plaintiffs because the