The D.C. Circuit Court has released a critical decision regarding issue class certification relative to damages claims, spotlighting the necessity for all stipulations of Rule 23 to be met. Often, the certification of damages claims is determined by whether individual issues precede common issues within the context of Federal Rule 23(b)(3). Class plaintiffs who confront…
In a recent ruling, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has insisted on a trial to determine whether an account user of PayPal received adequate notice concerning an agreement to arbitrate putative class claims against the company. The decision underlines the ongoing challenge for businesses in establishing and enforcing clear and effective user agreements that…
Aetna, CVS Health, CVS Pharmacy and associated parties have been served with an antitrust class action this week. The lawsuit accuses CVS Caremark of deliberately restricting independent pharmacies from accessing its network of Medicare Part D beneficiaries unless they agree to pay substantial fees, colloquially referred to as ‘DIR Fees’. This move, considered unprecedented, targets…
Recent class action lawsuits have accused certain crypto trading platforms of collecting facial scans of users without giving prior written notice. The allegations were first made public by Law.com Radar. As these allegations directly impact data protection and tech management aspects, they prove relevant to legal professionals providing counsel to businesses in the technology sector,…
Lawyer Chris Seeger, from Seeger Weiss in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, has garnered significant attention for negotiating two high-profile settlements within the past month. The deals involve corporations 3M and Philips, who faced lawsuits regarding faulty combat earplugs and recalled breathing machines respectively. After a more than five years-long battle, Seeger played a key role…
On October 24rd, from 10:00 AM – 10:45 AM PT, legal professionals worldwide will have the opportunity to participate in a webinar discussing recent trends in securities class action cases. This event, hosted by Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, promises to offer invaluable insights into an evolving sector. Participants can look forward to a…
Following a panel meeting on September 11 and 12, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee revealed that over-the-counter decongestants containing phenylephrine were ineffective. As a result, nearly 20 companies currently find their names mired in lawsuits. These infractions include industry leaders as well as major retail chains that sell store brand decongestants, amongst…
In a recent court ruling, Difederico v. Amazon.com, 2023 FC 1156, the Federal Court rejected the certification of a proposed class action against Amazon. The claim was based on allegations that Amazon had breached sections 45 and 46 of the Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34 (the “Act”). The court’s decision is representative of an…
In a continuation of an unfolding multi-part saga surrounding blockchain and cryptocurrency organizations in the United States, one of the chapters of the “DAO Jungle” Chronicles recently came to a close with a federal judge upholding the US Treasury Department’s sanction of Tornado Cash. Utilized for Ethereum transactions, Tornado Cash enables users to leverage blockchain…
In a decision that comes at the heart of the financial services industry, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York gave final approval on a settlement deal of over $2.2 million to close a class action lawsuit involving a New York-based credit union’s overdraft and insufficient funds fee practices. This resolution…
In a recent development, a leading technology corporation has agreed to settle a contentious class-action lawsuit by paying $62M, after allegations of unauthorized location tracking on their smartphones. The lawsuit claims that the company stored users’ private location data even when they had explicitly opted out of such tracking. The motion for preliminary approval of…
In a recent development, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has deviated from the trending pattern in district courts across the United States, granting a challenge against the prudence of BlackRock’s LifePath Index Target Date Funds. This decision paves the way for class action lawsuits challenging 401(k) plan investments in these funds….
The 3M Company’s $12 billion class action settlement with public water supply companies has been back in the spotlight following the initial announcement in June 2023. The settlement initially faced scrutiny due to terms concerning indemnity obligations, causing concerns among several state governments. These provisions mandated public water suppliers to indemnify 3M against claims made…
Over the past several years, there has been a noticeable increase in litigation surrounding the implementation of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, better known as COBRA. Since 2016, plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed more than 70 putative class actions, primarily aimed at considerable plan sponsors, due to alleged inadequacies in the election notice…
With enthrallment around generative AI subsiding, apprehensions are surfacing over copyright concerns. In recent weeks, OpenAI Inc., the originator of Chat GPT and legal tech platform Harvey, has been embroiled in a copyright infringement class action, resulting from allegations that it exploited copyrighted content to train its expansive language algorithms. This comes at a time…
In response to a petition filed last week by numerous consumer advocacy groups, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) announced that it will be seeking public input on a new rule that could potentially curtail mandatory pre-dispute arbitration provisions. The petition signatures suggest a heightened public interest in re-balancing arbitration practices. This announcement…
In a move that is garnering widespread attention, Sam Alito seems to be referring to witchhunters from the 1600s to elucidate the meaning of the Constitution. Yet, the Fifth Circuit has gone even further, engaging in an exploration of how the Bible might interpret a statute governing class action lawsuits. In lighter yet noteworthy news,…
In an interesting development set to stir conversations among corporate legal professionals, stockholders in the settlement class will gain access to the discovery record. This stipulation was marked by a recent order from Delaware’s Chancery Court. Owing to Delaware law, class members have the right to review the discovery record in order to evaluate the…
In a meaningful development for corporate law professionals, the Fourth Circuit, on August 18, 2023, decertified nearly 20 million putative class action claims originating from a 2018 data breach involving Marriot Hotels. The decision reversed the district court’s certification, requiring the latter to determine from square one if all the supposed plaintiffs had, in effect,…
In a recent decision, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of two law firms, Killmer, Lane & Newman and Towards Justice, and attorney Mari Newman, emphasizing that their public comments made regarding an ongoing class action lawsuit were protected by litigation privilege. This case was centered around a class action claim lodged on behalf…
Defense firms have long been warning of an impending wave of mass arbitration. However, the anticipated surge doesn’t seem to have materialized just yet. Instead, the prospect of mass arbitration remains, as Steven Weisburd, Los Angeles managing shareholder at Carlton Fields, describes it, a “theoretical possibility”. This information comes in the wake of the recent…
In a noteworthy turn of events, the Eleventh Circuit has accepted a broad-brush damages methodology at class certification in a data breach class action lawsuit, Brinker. One of the main impediments for class certification in this type of litigation is the difficulty in calculating damages on a class-wide basis. The problem arises when dealing with…
Decentralized finance (“DeFi”) protocol Uniswap and its investors have successfully avoided a class action lawsuit alleging fraudulent activities on Uniswap’s digital asset exchange. This case, a first of its kind, was dismissed in entirety by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 30, 2023. The parties implicated in the…
On September 11, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement with a group of entities engaged in the business of background reporting; namely, Instant Checkmate, LLC, TruthFinder, LLC, The Control Group Media Company, LLC, Intelicare Direct, LLC, and PubRec LLC (collectively referred to as the ‘background report companies’ or ‘the companies’). The claim…
Recent developments within the realms of ERISA lawsuits have led to a rare bench trial. Given that ERISA fiduciary claims are on the rise, it is of utmost interest that the case of Nunez et al., v. B. Braun Medical Inc. et al. was permitted to proceed to trial, given the long-standing rarity of such…