Mealey's Class Actions : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Class Actions

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.
July 01, 2025
Oral Argument Set In Federal Circuit For ACA Reinsurance Takings Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oral argument is scheduled for July 9 in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appeal by two self-insured group health plan trusts challenging a U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruling that found they failed to establish a property appropriation by the federal government in a lawsuit over the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
June 30, 2025
Class Suit Alleging Defective Braking Systems In Ferraris Voluntarily Dismissed

NEWARK, N.J. — Consumers who brought a putative class complaint in a federal court in New Jersey alleging that certain Ferrari North America Inc. vehicles had defective braking systems filed a voluntary notice dismissing with prejudice claims against Ferrari and the braking system maker.
June 30, 2025
Through Criticism, Defendants Win ERISA Proprietary Funds Row After Bench Trial

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge who conducted a 10-day bench trial found in favor of defendants in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenging the selection and retention of proprietary funds, saying in part that the class “cannot tie any specific decision to the Committee’s process failures, with one exception” — and failed to show that the exception caused any loss.
June 30, 2025
High Court Seeks Input On ERISA Ruling Concerning Meaningful Benchmarks

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in a June 30 orders list invited the U.S. solicitor general to provide the federal government’s perspective on a petition to review a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 2-1 revival of a putative class action over a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs); the decision concerns the role benchmarks play in pleading Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.
June 27, 2025
Split U.S. High Court: Universal Injunctions ‘Likely Exceed’ Courts’ Authority

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nationwide or universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts,” a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 27, partially staying nationwide injunctions issued in three cases challenging President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 birthright citizenship executive order (EO),
June 26, 2025
Insurer Was Not Contractually Bound To Provide COVID-19 Premium Relief, Judge Says

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on June 25 granted an auto insurer’s motion for summary judgment on a claim alleging that the insurer breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by not sufficiently refunding policyholders a percentage of premium payments made during the COVID-19 pandemic because the insurer was not contractually bound to refund any premiums under its auto policies.
June 26, 2025
Shareholder Sues Hims After Partnership That Allowed Compounded Semaglutide Ends

SAN FRANCISCO — Hims & Hers Health Inc., a telehealth company that touted a collaboration with Novo Nordisk Inc. that would allow it to sell compounded semaglutide products, was hit with a securities fraud class action on June 25 by a shareholder who alleges that the stock value plummeted when Novo Nordisk ended the partnership.
June 26, 2025
Florida Solid Waste Company Will Pay $1.4M To Settle Racial Discrimination Suit

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida solid waste and recycling company on June 25 agreed to pay a class of Black and Haitian-American employees $1.4 million and implement several equal employment opportunity policies and practices stemming from allegations of racial discrimination over a course of nearly three years.
June 26, 2025
Former Player’s NCAA Class Suit Over Scholarship Limits Voluntarily Dismissed

DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado dismissed without prejudice a former college baseball player’s putative class complaint that alleged that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) bylaw limiting the number of baseball and other sports scholarships a school may offer constitutes “wage fixing” and violates the Sherman Act; the dismissal was pursuant to a notice of voluntary dismissal filed by the plaintiff.
June 26, 2025
$45 Million Settlement Of Suits Over MGM Data Breaches Gets Final Approval

LAS VEGAS — A $45 million settlement of a consolidated class action against MGM Resorts International over two data breach incidents that provides for payments of up to $15,000 in documented losses for class members was declared “fundamentally fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the Settlement Class” by a Nevada federal judge, as she granted final approval to the agreement.
June 26, 2025
Nissan Asks U.S. High Court To Decide When Class Members Must Show Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should decide a question left open in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez regarding when class members must show standing, whether it’s before certification or only after they seek to recover damages, Nissan North America Inc. argues in its petition for a writ of certiorari, which also asks the justices to determine whether a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) class may still be certified if “no one in the class has suffered or will suffer an Article III [of the U.S. Constitution] injury.”
June 25, 2025
Widower Can Replace Dead Wife In Google Gift Card Scam Suit, Judge Says

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a dead plaintiff’s widower’s motion for leave to substitute himself as plaintiff, add new plaintiffs and amend the dead wife’s putative class action against Google LLC and affiliates for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by failing to protect customers from Google Play gift card scammers.
June 25, 2025
Final Approval Given To Settlement Between Investors, Startup Over Stock Drop

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California gave final approval to a $7.25 million settlement between an electric vehicle startup, its predecessor and its CEO and investors who alleged that the companies provided false or misleading statements regarding a reverse merger that led the startup’s stock price to be artificially inflated.
June 25, 2025
Judge Issues Final Approval Order For $69M Settlement Of Target Date Funds Case

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge on June 24 entered final approval and awards orders in a case concluded by a $69 million deal that the class representative called “the largest-ever ERISA settlement alleging breach of fiduciary duty for failure to remove underperforming investment options.”
June 25, 2025
2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of NFL Videos VPPA Class Lawsuit

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a putative class complaint accusing the National Football League (NFL) of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing personal data about users of the NFL’s website, mobile application and video service with a third party, citing Solomon v. Flipps Media, Inc. as “‘binding and dispositive.’”
June 24, 2025
Plaintiffs In Shrinking Crocs Suit Can Amend Claims, Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part Crocs Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action accusing it of misrepresenting its Crocs-brand shoes as resistant to weather, finding that the claims were sufficiently pleaded in part and that the court’s denial of class certification in a separate suit involving similar claims against Crocs does not bar the present plaintiffs from seeking certification.
June 24, 2025
Government Asks U.S. High Court To Clarify Stay Order In Noncitizen Removal Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government filed a motion June 24 in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking clarification of a June 23 stay order in a 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; the motion states that hours after the June 23 order, a federal judge in Massachusetts “issued an order asserting that its related ruling enforcing that injunction ‘remains in full force and effect,’ ‘notwithstanding todays [sic] stay of the Preliminary Injunction.’”
June 24, 2025
2 AT&T Data Breach MDLs Preliminarily Settle For Total Of $177 Million

DALLAS — A Texas federal judge granted preliminary approval to two settlement funds, totaling $177 million, to resolve multidistrict litigations in Texas and Montana related to two data security incidents experienced by AT&T Inc.