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Mealey's Class Actions

  • March 23, 2026

    Health Plan Administrator Wins Transfer Of ERISA Case Under First-To-File Rule

    DETROIT — Saying “there appears not to be directly on-point precedent about the first-to-file rule’s application to a class action that was filed after an individual action,” a Michigan federal judge applied the rule in a suit over a shared savings program (SSP) and so-called “flip logic” and granted a transfer motion filed by the third-party administrator (TPA) of companies’ self-funded health plans.

  • March 23, 2026

    3rd Circuit Vacates Injunction Order, Says Jurisdiction Lacking In Fracking Case

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has issued a nonprecedential per curiam opinion vacating an order of a district court, which had denied a motion for a preliminary injunction sought by residents in a dispute with hydraulic fracturing companies related to alleged contamination of their drinking water. The Third Circuit panel ruled that without a facial showing of jurisdiction pursuant to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), it was not error for the district court to deny the injunction motion.

  • March 23, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Declines To Review Order That Certified National TPP Class

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court announced on March 23 that it will not consider a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by two drug companies that argued the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in certifying a national third-party payer (TPP) class of entities that paid for the diabetes drug Actos.

  • March 23, 2026

    Judge Dismisses Potbelly’s Suit Against Employment Practices Liability Insurer

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington granted an employment practices liability insurer’s motion to dismiss with prejudice a breach of contract lawsuit brought by the owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shops in Washington state seeking a declaratory judgment that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against an underlying putative class alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act by not providing wage and salary information to job applicants in Washington, concluding that the underlying action does not assert that Potbelly engaged in discrimination to trigger coverage under the policy.

  • March 23, 2026

    Cert Denied In Class Ad Market Antitrust Violations Dispute Against Apple, Google

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 23 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a professional certification school seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a lower court’s ruling compelling arbitration and dismissing a class action antitrust suit alleging that Google and Apple violated state and federal antitrust laws by unlawfully agreeing to divide online search and search advertising markets.

  • March 23, 2026

    Citing Trauernicht Ruling, Judge Vacates Class Certification In ERISA Case

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Vacating his recent grant of class certification in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over the administrative costs of a multiple employer plan (MEP) 401(k), a Virginia federal judge cited a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling issued days earlier but offered no substantive explanation.

  • March 20, 2026

    Class Certification Bid Fails In ERISA Suit Over PrEP Treatment Costs

    MINNEAPOLIS — Saying the plaintiffs “have not demonstrated that class membership can be determined through objective and administrable criteria,” a Minnesota federal judge denied class certification in a case over cost-sharing for medical services associated with preventive treatment that reduces the risk of HIV infection.

  • March 20, 2026

    $7.75 Million Class Action Settlement Approved In Data Breach Dispute

    GREENVILLE, S.C. — A South Carolina federal judge granted final approval to a $7.75 million class action settlement resolving claims that a financial services company and its affiliated lending subsidiaries failed to safeguard consumers’ names and Social Security numbers in a February 2023 data breach.

  • March 19, 2026

    $5M Class Deal In Geisinger Data Breach Case Wins Final Approval

    WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge granted final approval of a $5 million settlement agreement between a Pennsylvania health care provider and its tech services vendor who were sued over a 2023 data breach, while separately approving $2,000 service awards for each of the named plaintiffs.

  • March 19, 2026

    $5M Class Deal In Geisinger Data Breach Case Wins Final Approval

    WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge granted final approval of a $5 million settlement agreement between a Pennsylvania health care provider and its tech services vendor who were sued over a 2023 data breach, while separately approving $2,000 service awards for each of the named plaintiffs.

  • March 19, 2026

    Judge Denies Dismissal For Lack Of Standing In Stolen PII Data Breach Class Suit

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge adopted a magistrate judge’s memorandum and recommendation advising denying dismissal for lack of standing of a motion filed by a utility company and third-party benefits administrator in a putative class action against them and an employee benefit plan services company for failure to secure personally identifiable information (PII) in a data breach, finding that some of the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged injury from identity thefts to establish standing.

  • March 19, 2026

    Tenn. Federal Judge OKs Final Approval Of Settlement In Data Breach Class Action

    KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge granted final approval of an $807,500 class action settlement resolving consolidated claims that a restaurant franchisee failed to safeguard employees’ personally identifiable information (PII), resulting in a January 2023 data breach that exposed the data of more than 100,000 current and former workers.

  • March 18, 2026

    Minors Sue XAI Over Grok’s Alleged Creation Of Illegal Nude Images

    SAN FRANCISCO — Three minors filed a putative class action lawsuit in California federal court against x.AI Corp. and x.AI LLC (collectively, xAI) over the alleged creation by its generative AI tool Grok of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) using their images seeking injunctive relief and damages against xAI for violation of CSAM laws as well as California’s unfair competition law (UCL), saying “[t]heir lives have been shattered” by the images being spread online.

  • March 18, 2026

    Treating Stay Applications As Petitions, U.S. High Court Will Hear TPS Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court treated as petitions for a writ of certiorari before judgment two applications to stay orders issued in two putative class lawsuits that postpone the termination of temporary protected status (TPS) for individuals from Syria and Haiti; granting the petitions, the high court consolidated the cases and set one hour for oral arguments “during the second week of the April 2026 argument session.”

  • March 18, 2026

    1st Circuit Stays Order Largely Barring 3rd-Country Removal Of Noncitizen Class

    BOSTON — A split First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted federal government parties’ emergency motion to stay pending appeal a February ruling in a class lawsuit challenging the removal of noncitizens to any third country in which a federal judge in Massachusetts declared the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) March 2025 third-country removal policy “unlawful.”

  • March 18, 2026

    Wash. State Target Workers Ink $1.5M Class Settlement In Federal Wage Law Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — Tens of thousands of current and former hourly Target employees in Washington will receive portions of a $1.5 million payment under a settlement of a class action after the corporation allegedly failed to pay adequate wages and provide legally required breaks over a nearly four-year period.

  • March 18, 2026

    Massachusetts Highest Court Reverses $2.6M For Class In Assisted Living Fee Case

    BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for a class of assisted living residents who paid a $2,800 “community fee” and the more than $2.6 million they were awarded and remanded for entry of judgment in favor of the facility operator, ruling that there was a sufficient showing by the operator of the expenditures that the fee was intended to cover.

  • March 18, 2026

    Tesla Says Certified Class Did Not Prove Members Saw ‘Self-Driving’ Claim

    SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Inc. and its affiliates ask the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellant brief to reverse the certification of a class action against them for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by misrepresenting the capabilities of Tesla vehicles’ “self-driving” technology, writing that the plaintiff did not present sufficient evidence that purchasers were exposed to allegedly false statements.

  • March 17, 2026

    Split 6th Circuit Revives 2 ERISA Cases, Requires Reasonable Assumptions

    CINCINNATI — In a 2-1 ruling, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 16 revived two putative class suits contesting the use of decades-old mortality tables in calculating certain pension benefits, with the majority concluding that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “prohibits employers from using unreasonable, inappropriate actuarial assumptions” when making those calculations.

  • March 17, 2026

    Judge Says PFAS Smartwatch Case Against Apple Valid As Plaintiffs Have Standing

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on March 16 denied Apple Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class’s claims for fraudulent concealment and other causes of action in a case alleging that its smartwatch bands contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), ruling that the plaintiffs demonstrated standing and adequately pleaded an injury.  The judge granted Apple’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ fraudulent misrepresentation and implied warranty of merchantability claims, however.

  • March 17, 2026

    122K Cy Pres Award Approved In $27.5M Thomson Reuters Data-Selling Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge approved the cy pres distribution of $122,101.51 in remaining funds to a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization from a $27.5 million settlement of a class action over Thomson Reuters Corp.’s online gathering and sale of personally identifiable information (PII) of Californians, holding that the nonprofit has the requisite nexus to the privacy claims asserted on behalf of the class.

  • March 16, 2026

    Video Game Distributor To Pay $2.7M In Class Settlement For Privacy Violations

    NEW YORK — A video game distributor will pay $2.72 million to settle a class action complaint alleging that it sent personally identifiable information to Facebook and other third parties without its users’ knowledge or consent in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) after a New York federal magistrate judge gave final approval to the settlement agreement.

  • March 16, 2026

    Ga. Appeals Panel Upholds Class Certification In Condo Owners’ Assessment Challenge

    ATLANTA — A Georgia trial court did not abuse its discretion when it certified a class of Atlanta-area condominium owners who allege that their condo association incorrectly imposed an assessment on them for balcony repairs without first submitting the claim to its insurer, a Georgia appellate panel ruled.

  • March 16, 2026

    Deadlines Set In Suit Against JPMorgan Over Alleged $328M Crypto Scam

    SAN FRANCISCO — Deadlines and a case management conference were set in California federal court for a putative class action against JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. brought by a plaintiff who claims that the bank “enabled” a cryptocurrency “Ponzi scheme” that misled him into liquidating and then losing his retirement account in the scam, allegedly in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws.

  • March 16, 2026

    La. Appellate Panel Increases Fees For Class Counsel In 20-Year-Old Case By $16.7M

    LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana appellate court affirmed attorney fees for the class counsel in a 20-year-old case over property boundaries, royalties and inverse condemnation but increased the fees by more than $16.7 million plus interest on the fee award running from 2017 until the full amount is paid and assessed costs of the appeal to the class representatives who sought to replace class counsel and challenged the fees, finding that the trial court abused its discretion when it failed to apply a multiplier or enhancement to the baseline lodestar fee.