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Mealey's Class Actions

  • July 26, 2024

    2nd Circuit Says Plaintiffs Must Show Intent To Trigger CAFA, Affirms Remand

    NEW YORK — Citing the “consistent desire” of plaintiffs asserting personal injury claims stemming from their use of Zantac “to avoid federal jurisdiction,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed that a motion to consolidate did not trigger federal jurisdiction and affirmed a district court decision to remand nine cases to state court.

  • July 26, 2024

    Consumer Asks Court To Approve Settlement Removing ‘Natural’ From ChapStick Label

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California woman filed a motion in California federal court for approval of a settlement of class claims against GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Holdings (US) LLC (GSK) and Pfizer Inc. for deceptively labeling certain ChapStick products, writing that the defendants have agreed to remove the phrase “100% Natural” from the product’s label and for her attorneys to receive roughly $500,000.

  • July 26, 2024

    Class Suit Says ‘Refueling Difficulties’ Make Toyota Hydrogen Battery Cars ‘Unsafe’

    LOS ANGELES — A group of consumers filed a putative class action complaint in California federal court contending that their Toyota-brand Mirai-model cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are so difficult to refuel that the cars are “unsafe, unreliable and inoperable” and seeking damages for misleading marketing in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • July 25, 2024

    Judge: Investors Show Falsity Of Some Equipment Testing Claims From Company

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California largely granted a technology company’s motion to dismiss a second amended putative class complaint brought by investors alleging that the company and certain of its executives issued false statements about the testing of equipment that would be used to create a new type of battery; however, the judge found that the investors had adequately substantiated their claims regarding three allegedly false statements issued by the company.

  • July 25, 2024

    End-User Chicken Purchasers Reach Price-Fixing Settlement With Mountaire, Koch

    CHICAGO — End-user consumer plaintiffs (EUCPs), one of the groups of chicken purchasers accusing broiler sellers of fixing the prices for chicken, filed in a federal court in Illinois a notice of settlement with two groups of defendants, noting that that those two groups along with the other defendants will not “be participating in the EUCP trial.”

  • July 25, 2024

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing In Appeal Over Class Scope Ambiguity Tolling

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by Union Pacific Railroad Co. after a panel ruled while answering a question that it stated was one of first impression that where a class definition is narrowed, any dispute or ambiguity regarding the applicability to certain plaintiffs “should be resolved in favor of tolling so that bystander members of the class need not rush to file separate actions to protect their rights.”

  • July 25, 2024

    Citing Mator, 3rd Circuit Revives ERISA Suit Over Record-Keeping Fees

    PHILADELPHIA — Noting a recent decision that “reversed the opinion on which the trial court relied and clarified the pleading standards for excessive fee claims under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a nonprecedential July 24 opinion reviving a putative class action over record-keeping fees.

  • July 25, 2024

    California Woman Says Retailer Used AI Company To Illegally Analyze Calls

    VENTURA, Calif. — A clothing retailer uses a third-party artificial intelligence company to intercept and analyze customer calls in violation of California law, a woman alleges in a class action filed in California state court.

  • July 25, 2024

    Objector: Court Abused Its Discretion In Approving PACER Class Settlement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A trial court exceeded its jurisdiction and abused its discretion when it approved a $125 million settlement for a class claiming that they paid excessive fees to obtain court records via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (PACER), a settlement objector argues in his corrected appellant brief filed in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • July 24, 2024

    Judge Gives 1st Nod To $434M Settlement In Under Armour Securities Suit

    BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge granted preliminary approval to a proposed $434 million settlement in a class action brought by investors claiming that Under Armour Inc. and its former CEO violated federal securities laws by making false claims about demands for the company’s products, finding that the proposed settlement is fair and adequate for the purposes of preliminary approval.

  • July 24, 2024

    Converse Granted Summary Judgment In Class Suit Over Privacy Of Chat Feature

    LOS ANGELES — A Converse Inc. website user who sued the footwear and clothing company alleging that its website’s chat features recorded users’ messages without consent failed to establish any violation of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), including allegations that Converse aided and abetted third-party vendor Salesforce Inc., a federal judge in California ruled granting the retailer’s motion for summary judgment.

  • July 24, 2024

    Judge Dismisses Putative Class Suit Against Google For Health Care Data Collection

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed a consolidated class action complaint in which 12 anonymous plaintiffs accused Google LLC of violating of federal privacy statutes and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by providing source code for “pixel tracking” of their private health care data, writing that the plaintiffs’ “vague” claims do not establish that Google intended to collect or did in fact receive their data.

  • July 24, 2024

    Federal Judge: Email Recipient Who Sued Over ‘Spy Pixels’ Showed No Concrete Injury

    PHILADELPHIA — An Arizona woman who filed a class complaint against Urban Outfitters Inc. (UO) over alleged embedded trackers in the company’s email that record, without consent, if and when marketing emails are opened failed to allege any concrete harm, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled, dismissing the woman’s complaint for lack of standing.

  • July 24, 2024

    3rd Circuit Determines Correct Analysis For Student-Athletes As Employees Dispute

    PHILADELPHIA — A trial court erred by applying the Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. test rather than “an economic realities analysis ground in common-law agency principles” when determining whether Division I student-athletes were employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority ruled, partially vacating the trial court’s ruling in an interlocutory appeal.

  • July 24, 2024

    Federal Judge Dismisses Deceptive Trade Practices Claim In Data Breach Class Suit

    NEW YORK — Union members who in a putative class complaint accuse their union of not keeping their personal information secure failed to sufficiently allege a claim under New York’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) as they did not allege that they “ever saw or relied upon the website’s privacy policy” and their “counsel conceded during oral argument that plaintiffs had not viewed it,” a federal judge in New York ruled, granting in part a motion to dismiss filed by UNITE HERE.

  • July 23, 2024

    Judge Certifies Class In Securities Case Brought Against Electric Vehicle Maker

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California granted a motion for class certification filed by investors who say an electric car manufacturer and certain of its executives hid from investors that the company knew that it would be selling its vehicles at a significant loss ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), finding that the investors had satisfied all four requirements for class certification.

  • July 23, 2024

    3M: Former Firefighter’s PFAS Case Belongs In MDL For Aqueous Film Forming Foam

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 3M Co. has filed a brief with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) contending that it should transfer to the multidistrict litigation in South Carolina federal court the case brought by a former firefighter who contends that he was injured by exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) because the case “substantially overlaps with myriad similar cases already pending in the MDL.”

  • July 23, 2024

    Splenda Maker Must Face Class Suit For Improper Diabetes Claims, Judge Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge largely denied an artificial sweetener company’s motion to dismiss a putative class action against it brought by plaintiffs who claim that it violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by misleadingly marketing its products containing sucralose as beneficial for diabetics.

  • July 23, 2024

    High Court Told ERISA Prohibited-Transaction Differences Don’t Need Review

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a July 22 respondent brief filed at the request of the U.S. Supreme Court, Cornell University and related entities urge denial of a certiorari petition regarding an Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling, arguing in part that “no court of appeals that has considered a prohibited-transaction claim challenging a contract for routine plan services has allowed the claim to proceed.”

  • July 23, 2024

    Florida Federal Judge Remands Data Breach Class Action For No Diversity

    TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida has remanded a class action against a Tampa hospital filed in the wake of a data breach, citing the absence of “minimal diversity” and calling the hospital’s argument for removal under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) “wrong three times over.”

  • July 23, 2024

    Plaintiffs Seek Preliminary Approval Of $115M Class Settlement With Oracle

    SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs have moved in California federal court seeking preliminary approval of a $115 million class settlement in a dispute with Oracle America Inc. over allegations that the company’s business practices “amount to a deliberate and purposeful surveillance of the general population via their digital and online existence.”

  • July 23, 2024

    Getty Images Says Stability Stole For AI At ‘Staggering Scale’

    WILMINGTON, Del. — In an amended complaint in a Delaware federal court, one of the world’s largest digital content distributors accuses artificial intelligence company Stability AI Ltd. of “brazen infringement” at a “staggering scale” through the copying of more than 12 million photographs from the company’s collection.

  • July 23, 2024

    Residents To Appeal Dismissal Of Jackson, Miss., Drinking Water Crisis Lawsuit

    JACKSON, Miss. — Residents of Jackson filed a notice in Mississippi federal court, indicating that they will be appealing a judge’s ruling that dismissed their lawsuit against the city in their drinking water contamination case.

  • July 23, 2024

    $19M Class Settlement Gets Final OK In ERISA Row Over Proprietary Funds

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge has granted final approval to a $19 million class settlement resolving claims over the use of proprietary investments in two New York Life Insurance Co. 401(k) plans and the use of a stable value fund as the default investment, also approving a 33% attorney fee and all awards as requested.

  • July 23, 2024

    2nd Circuit Sets Argument In Mortgage-Backed Securities Appeal Over ERISA Claims

    NEW YORK — The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has set oral argument for Sept. 5 in a dispute involving whether a pension fund’s investment in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) made the underlying residential mortgages Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan assets and exposed the mortgage servicers to ERISA fiduciary liability.