Mealey's Class Actions

  • September 28, 2026

    ‘Natural American Spirit’ Smokers Oppose Rehearing In Labeling Class Action

    DENVER — Consumers of “Natural American Spirit” (NAS) cigarettes filed a brief opposing three tobacco companies’ petition urging the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear en banc a challenge to certification of a class action representing smokers in 12 states who brought claims in a multidistrict litigation alleging that NAS are misleadingly labeled as “natural” and “additive-free,” writing that the panel properly evaluated the certification orders.

  • September 28, 2026

    Nonprofits, Individuals Argue Against Petition In Noncitizen Removal Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal government parties in a noncitizen removal class case seeking consideration of three questions concerning the lawfulness of a presidential proclamation that limited asylum and withheld removal applications and the availability of classwide relief as the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority “correctly held that the President may not invent by fiat a new removal system that eviscerates the protections Congress mandated by statute,” three nonprofits and 13 individuals argue in their opposition brief.

  • September 28, 2026

    Petitioners Citing Trauernicht In Petition Again Say Question Is Certworthy

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Petitioners whose certiorari petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision focuses on the Fourth Circuit’s recent Trauernicht v. Genworth Fin. Inc. ruling have filed a supplemental brief highlighting two developments they say “underscore that this case raises a certworthy question on the scope of ‘appropriate relief’” under part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • September 28, 2026

    Drugmaker Seeks Dismissal Of Heart Medication Contamination Class Action

    SEATTLE — The manufacturer of a generic drug used to treat high blood pressure and other heart-related disorders asked a Washington federal court to dismiss a proposed class action alleging that its generic carvedilol was contaminated with a potentially harmful nitrosamine, arguing that the named plaintiff failed to allege that she purchased any recalled or defective tablets.

  • September 25, 2026

    Indian Allottees Seek U.S. Supreme Court Review Of Pipeline Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Individuals with ownership interests in Indian trust lands on a North Dakota reservation filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to decide in a long-running putative class pipeline dispute whether they have “a federal common-law cause of action for trespass on their allotments.”

  • September 25, 2026

    Woman Amends Class Complaint Involving ‘Nature’s Ozempic’ After Dismissal Motion

    LOS ANGELES — A woman seeking to represent nationwide and California classes of purchasers on Sept. 24 amended her complaint against Veracity Wellness Inc. that alleges that the company deceptively markets its Metabolism Ignite dietary supplement as “Nature’s Ozempic” and as a natural alternative to prescription weight-loss drugs, asserting claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law and other laws.

  • September 25, 2026

    Lead Exposure Suit Survives ‘No Injuries’ Statements In Class Certification Brief

    HAMMOND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge adopted the result of a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and denied two motions for partial judgment on the pleadings filed by manufacturing companies accused of exposing to lead 11 minors who lived in homes and attended elementary school in an area later discovered to be contaminated, writing that “throwaway lines in a brief” regarding four plaintiffs not having injuries do not constitute “judicial admissions” that would warrant dismissal of their claims.

  • September 24, 2026

    $8.95M Deal Gets Initial OK In Case That Is Part Of Tobacco Surcharge Wave

    CHICAGO — One of the cases in a wave of tobacco surcharge challenges would be resolved for $8.95 million under a class settlement an Illinois federal judge has granted preliminary approval.

  • September 24, 2026

    4th Circuit Sets Argument In ERISA Case Concerning Opt-Out Class

    RICHMOND, Va. — Following briefing that was conducted on an accelerated schedule, the Fourth Circuit has scheduled oral argument for Oct. 30 in an interlocutory appeal concerning certification of an opt-out class in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where the initial certification of a mandatory class was vacated under the Trauernicht v. Genworth Fin. Inc. ruling the appellate court handed down in March.

  • September 24, 2026

    Judge: Early $13.4M Payment Was Condition Of ERISA Fees, Funds Settlement

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Noting that interest from the defendants’ early payment of $13.4 million had grown the common fund to $13,524,410.05, a Massachusetts federal judge gave final approval to the class settlement of a case in which 401(k) plan participants challenged recordkeeping and managed account fees and inclusion of two allegedly underperforming investment options.

  • September 23, 2026

    $980K Settlement Gets Final Approval In Class Action Arising From Data Breach

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri state judge granted final approval of a $980,000 nonreversionary common fund that resolves privacy claims brought in a class action by those whose personal and financial information was potentially accessed in a cyberattack on the law firm’s IT network.

  • September 23, 2026

    Split 9th Circuit Affirms $62M Google Location Data-Tracking Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued its mandate after affirming in a split opinion a lower court’s final approval of a $62 million class action settlement providing injunctive relief and resolving claims that Google LLC unlawfully stored users’ location data after they disabled the “Location History” feature, with the majority holding that direct distribution was infeasible and that the approved cy pres recipients had a sufficient nexus to the class’s privacy interests; one judge dissented on the basis that the record did not establish that direct distribution to class members was infeasible.

  • September 22, 2026

    Newspaper, Class Representative Oppose Petition Challenging Incentive Payment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The New York Times and the class representative in a settled case over an alleged illegal “automatic renewal” scheme filed separate opposition briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing a class member’s petition seeking review of class representative payments.

  • September 22, 2026

    Bayer Asks U.S. High Court To Take Up Class Certification Lack Of Injury Question

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bayer HealthCare LLC petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review of a question in a supplement labeling lawsuit concerning whether class certification is permitted “when virtually all members of the proposed class lack evidence of an Article III injury.”

  • September 21, 2026

    $5M Class Action Settlement Given Final OK In Case Arising From Data Breach

    CINCINNATI — An Ohio federal judge on Sept. 18 granted final approval to a class action settlement under which one of the largest vision benefits companies in the U.S. agreed to establish a $5 million nonreversionary common fund after a company email account was breached in 2020 and hackers were able to obtain current and former clients’ protected health information (PHI) and personally identifying information (PII).

  • September 21, 2026

    U.S. Substituted As Defendant In Health Center Data Breach Class Action

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska federal judge granted a federally supported healthcare provider’s motion to substitute the United States as the sole defendant and denied remand in a proposed class action over a cyberattack that allegedly exposed patients’ personal and health information, despite the government’s opposition to substitution, finding that the act of safeguarding electronic health records (EHR) is sufficiently tied to the provision of medical care to trigger federal immunity.

  • September 21, 2026

    Direct Purchaser Class Ends Pork Antitrust Claims With Conduct Reform Agreement

    MINNEAPOLIS — Direct purchaser class plaintiffs (DPPs), one of four groups of pork purchasers pursuing antitrust claims against certain pork producers in a federal court in Minnesota, concluded the last of their claims with a conduct reform agreement with Agri Stats Inc.; the DPPs’ other settlements total more than $180 million.

  • September 21, 2026

    LTD, Other Voluntary Benefits Are Focus Of Putative Class Complaint

    WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An employee welfare benefit plan that offered voluntary benefits including long-term disability (LTD), life insurance and critical illness coverage is the focus of a putative class complaint filed in New York federal court, with plan participants accusing their employer of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by making choices that resulted in “excessive charges embedded in premiums, diminished Plan and participant assets, and the loss of value and loyalty owed by a fiduciary operating free of self-dealing.”

  • September 18, 2026

    Medical Monitoring, Damages Claims Dismissed In PFAS Firefighter Gear Class Suit

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut partially dismissed putative class claims brought by firefighters, unions and the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut (UPFFA), alleging harm from certain personal protective equipment containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); the judge found that the unions lacked associational standing to bring medical monitoring and damages claims on behalf of their members, that defendant 3M Co. can’t be liable for manufacturing PFAS when the alleged defects of PFAS “are characteristic of PFAS itself” but may still be liable for making PFAS-containing products and that standalone claims for medical monitoring and statutory punitive damages can’t proceed.

  • September 17, 2026

    Consumers Denied Class Certification In Ford Transmission Case

    CHICAGO — Consumers suing Ford Motor Co. for allegedly selling and leasing certain F-150 trucks with defective transmissions are precluded from pursuing warranty-related claims as a class due to a class action waiver in the warranty and failed on their non-warranty-related claims “to present sufficiently persuasive evidence to show that the class vehicles suffer from a common defect attributable to a common cause,” a federal judge in Illinois ruled.

  • September 17, 2026

    Remaining Class Claims Voluntarily Dismissed In Case Over Gender Transition Ban

    INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge in Indiana approved voluntary dismissal with prejudice of the class claims that remained in a lawsuit by minors and parents challenging the state’s ban on providing gender transition procedures to minors.

  • September 17, 2026

    Pfizer, GBT Agree To Pay Up To $750,000 To Settle Oxbryta Economic Loss Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — Pfizer Inc. and Global Blood Therapeutics have agreed to fund up to $750,000 in reimbursements for certain out-of-pocket purchases of the sickle cell disease drug Oxbryta to settle a proposed class action alleging that consumers would not have bought the medication had they known that it was ineffective, according to an unopposed motion for preliminary approval filed in a California federal court.

  • September 17, 2026

    Objections To Continuing Student-Athletes’ NIL Injunctive Relief Pact Denied

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California overruled three pro se objections filed by student-athletes seeking to halt the continuation of a June 2025 second amended injunctive relief settlement in a name, image and likeness (NIL) class case brought by student-athletes against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and five conferences.

  • September 16, 2026

    Federal Judge: Stay-At-Home Order Discharged Promise Of In-Person Education

    PHILADELPHIA — Any promise a Pennsylvania university made for in-person education was discharged in March 2020 when the state’s governor issued an executive order temporarily closing schools in the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, granting summary judgment to Villanova University in a student’s putative class action seeking damages for breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

  • September 16, 2026

    Sunoco Tells High Court $100M Oil-Interest Class Judgment Deepens Rule 23 Split

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sunoco Inc. and Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals L.P. (together, Sunoco) filed a reply brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari and resolve two circuit splits by reviewing the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a $100 million judgment in favor of an oil-well interest class despite the class’s alleged inability to ascertain the identity of thousands of class members, an argument that the respondent contends is based on “false premises.”