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Mealey's Class Actions

  • July 10, 2025

    DOL, Other Amici Urge 9th Circuit To Uphold Dismissal Of ERISA Forfeiture Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — On July 8 and 9, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other amici curiae opposing revival of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions weighed in on the much-watched Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dispute.

  • July 10, 2025

    Judge Approves $13M Settlement In Vehicle Marketplace Stock Drop Class Action

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York gave final approval to a $13 million settlement between shareholders and the officers and the trustee of a consignment-to-retail used vehicle marketplace and its parent company in a class action that alleged the company and its officers misrepresented the company’s business model in violation of federal securities laws.

  • July 10, 2025

    Class Provisionally Certified, Injunction Granted In Birthright Citizenship Case

    CONCORD, N.H. — A class of infant and unborn children was provisionally certified and granted a preliminary injunction on July 10 by a federal judge in New Hampshire in a case challenging President Donald J. Trump’s January 2025 birthright citizenship executive order (EO).

  • July 10, 2025

    2nd Circuit Lets ERISA Determination Stand In Deferred Compensation Row

    NEW YORK —  In a July 9 summary order, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed interlocutory cross-appeals on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction in the dispute that involves arbitration and drew four briefs from amici curiae; the appellate court therefore let stand a determination that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs the compensation incentive and equity incentive plans at issue in a suit over a Morgan Stanley deferred compensation program.

  • July 10, 2025

    Forum Selection Clause Issue Certified For Appeal In Crypto Wallet Data Breach Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — Declining to grant partial final judgment as to dismissed claims and defendants in a putative class action over a crypto-asset wallet firm’s 2020 data breach, a California federal judge, instead, granted interlocutory appeal on the issue of whether subcontractors of the wallet maker can avail themselves of a forum selection clause in the lead defendant’s terms of service (TOS).

  • July 09, 2025

    Attorney Fees In Broiler Chicken Antitrust Case Modified, More Settlements OK’d

    CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed with modification attorney fees awarded to counsel for the end user consumer plaintiff (EUCP) class in an antitrust case accusing broiler sellers of fixing the prices for chicken, opining that class counsel were entitled to 26.6% of the net common fund; the panel’s ruling was filed two days after another group of settlements between the EUCPs and a number of sellers totaling $22.35 million was granted final approval by a federal judge in Illinois.

  • July 08, 2025

    Prenatal Tests Maker To Settle Class Action Claims Of False Positives For $8.25M

    OAKLAND, Calif. — The manufacturer of noninvasive prenatal tests will pay up to $8.25 million in a class action settlement to resolve claims that its tests returned false positive test results for some rare genetic conditions despite advertising its products as reliable and accurate, according to a motion for preliminary approval of class action settlement filed in a California federal court.

  • July 08, 2025

    Preshift COVID-19 Screening Compensation Case Stayed Pending 7th Circuit Ruling

    CHICAGO — In a former employee’s purported class action against his employer seeking to recover unpaid wages for mandatory preshift COVID-19 screening under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), the Illinois Wage and Payment Collection Act (IWPCA) and quantum meruit, which alleged that the time spent screening and awaiting screening was controlled by the employer and necessary to his job and, thus, compensable, an Illinois federal judge on July 7 stayed the case pending the result of a similar case in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • July 07, 2025

    $48.5M Deal Gets Initial OK In ERISA Fees Suit After Federal Jury Verdict

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge has preliminarily approved a settlement that would include a $48.5 million payment and other relief in a suit over the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP); in the granted motion, the class of retirement plan participants said the deal would be nearly $10 million higher than the verdict a jury issued in their favor.

  • July 07, 2025

    U.S. Marshal’s Race Bias Class Suit Stayed Pending EEOC Approval Of Settlement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., stayed a putative class complaint filed in 2024 by a former deputy U.S. marshal who has spent more than three decades litigating over alleged racial discrimination, opining that judicial economy and hardship to the government both weigh in favor of a stay pending resolution of appeals challenging a 2023 settlement between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).

  • July 07, 2025

    3rd Circuit Affirms $3.2M In Attorney Fees, Costs In Wawa Data Breach Suit

    PITTSBURGH — Assessing a trial court judge’s review on remand of a $3.2 million attorney fees and costs award to consumers’ class counsel in a class action over Wawa Inc.’s 2019 data breach, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld the judge’s finding that the award did not contain a clear sailing agreement and was not the result of collusion.

  • July 07, 2025

    DHS: 8 Deported To South Sudan After U.S. High Court Clarifies June Stay Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced June 5 that “eight barbaric, violent criminal illegal aliens” from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, South Sudan, Burma and Vietnam were deported to South Sudan after the U.S. Supreme Court on July 3 clarified a June 23 order that stayed a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. Judge Brian E. Murphy of the District of Massachusetts in the case by a class of noncitizens who are challenging a policy or practice by the federal government of removing members of the class to a country other than the initial or alternative countries identified in immigration proceedings without first providing an opportunity for them to apply for protection from removal.

  • July 03, 2025

    Panel Reverses Dismissal Of Candy Maker’s Ex-Employees’ Data Breach Complaint

    CHICAGO — Two former employees of a candy manufacturer adequately alleged injury and standing to bring their putative class claims based on a 2021 data breach that exposed their personally identifiable information (PII), an Illinois appeals panel found, mostly reversing a trial court’s dismissal ruling.

  • July 02, 2025

    $48.5M Deal Is Proposed In ERISA Fees Suit After Federal Jury Verdict

    NEW YORK — Saying the total would be nearly $10 million higher than the verdict a jury issued in their favor, a class of retirement plan participants who challenged the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP) on July 2 asked a New York federal court for preliminary approval of a settlement that would include a $48.5 million payment and other relief.

  • July 02, 2025

    Procter & Gamble Says PFAS Dental Floss Case Fails For Lack Of Injury, Standing

    NEW YORK — Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) on July 1 filed a reply brief in New York federal court arguing that a putative class action filed against it alleging that its dental floss contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) should be dismissed because the plaintiff’s brief opposing the motion to dismiss “does not seriously contest his lack of standing based on his regular purchases” of dental floss after commencing the lawsuit and, therefore, there is a “lack of any genuine injury upon which to premise his claims.”

  • July 02, 2025

    Jury Awards Over $314M In Class Suit Against Google Over Data ‘Misappropriation’

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California state court jury on July 1 awarded $314,626,932 to plaintiffs in a class action against Google LLC alleging that it misappropriated their cellular data allowances via passive transfers of information between Google and their mobile devices.

  • July 02, 2025

    Some Forfeiture, Tobacco Surcharge Claims Survive Dismissal In ERISA Suit

    URBANA, Ill. — Ruling on a dismissal motion in a putative class action involving two recent hot topics in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation, an Illinois federal judge concluded that key claims regarding the use of forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions survive but only one claim regarding a health plan’s so-called tobacco surcharge does.

  • July 02, 2025

    DuPont Affiliates Seek Dismissal Of PFAS Drinking Water Case Based On Jurisdiction

    BOSTON — EIDP Inc. and affiliates of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. have filed a motion in Massachusetts federal court seeking to dismiss a consolidated class complaint for drinking water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), arguing that the plaintiffs cannot satisfy their burden of establishing that the district court has jurisdiction.

  • July 02, 2025

    Split En Banc 6th Circuit Vacates Class Certification In GM Transmission Case

    CINCINNATI — Twenty-six statewide subclasses certified in a case accusing General Motors LLC of selling vehicles with faulty transmissions failed to “meet the rigorous requirements for handling all of these cases in one district court, whether as one case or as 26 cases,” a split en banc Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, vacating the trial court’s class certification order.

  • July 02, 2025

    Stay Denied, Settlements With More Real Estate Firms Approved In Commissions Suits

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A federal judge in Missouri denied a request by two real estate companies to stay, in light of another pending settlement, a consolidated class action by home sellers accusing the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and real estate franchises of conspiring to artificially inflate the cost of commissions in residential real estate transactions; that order was filed a week after the same judge issued two orders granting final approval of more than $20 million in settlements, bringing the total recovery for the class to nearly $1.04 billion.

  • July 02, 2025

    U.S. High Court Denies Mortgagors’ Petition In Appraisal Class Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal of mortgagors who sought a determination in a home appraisals case on whether a class may be certified “when some members of the proposed class lack any Article III [of the U.S. Constitution] injury.”

  • July 02, 2025

    Man Says ‘Gas Station Heroin’ Mimics Opioids In Proposed Class Action Against Maker

    ATLANTA — An Illinois man seeks to represent a class of consumers who purchased over-the-counter dietary supplements that contain tianeptine, a highly addictive substance that can mimic the effects of illicit substances such as marijuana, cocaine and opioids, according to a complaint filed in a Georgia federal court.

  • July 01, 2025

    Panel Reverses Breach Of Contract Ruling In Class Action Filed Against Bank

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a district court’s ruling in a putative class action filed against a bank by an account holder after determining that the lower court erred in granting summary judgment to the bank on a breach of contract claim because the bank’s terms and conditions (T&C) agreement, as it pertains to the bank’s assessment of overdraft fees, is ambiguous.

  • July 01, 2025

    Caltech’s $16.75M Price-Fixing Financial Aid Settlement Granted Final Approval

    CHICAGO — A $16.75 million settlement by California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of more than a dozen schools accused in a class case of “participating in a price-fixing cartel that is designed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a locus of competition” was granted final approval by a federal judge in Illinois.

  • July 01, 2025

    Consumers Oppose Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s High Court Petition On FAA Reach

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision affirming a trial court’s denial of arbitration in a putative class complaint accusing Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Ticketmaster LLC of engaging in anticompetitive practices in online ticket sales does not create a circuit split or warrant review, consumers tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a respondent brief opposing the two companies’ petition for a writ of certiorari.