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Mealey's Class Actions

  • February 06, 2026

    Illinois Federal Judge: ERISA Forfeiture Case Mostly Survives Dismissal

    CHICAGO — Noting that the plan language “mandates the Plan Committee to utilize forfeitures to pay reasonable administrative expenses . . . before offsetting employer contributions,” an Illinois federal judge ruled that all claims except two prohibited transaction ones survive dismissal in a suit that is part of a wave of putative class cases challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions.

  • February 06, 2026

    AI Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Push Back On Dismissal Attempt

    SAN FRANCISCO — The filing of an amended complaint did not revive arguments deemed waived in an artificial intelligence discrimination case, and nothing in any statute or case law precludes a disparate impact action and a punitive damages claim, plaintiffs tell a federal judge in California in opposing dismissal.

  • February 06, 2026

    Judge Denies Motion To Reconsider Ruling In Cryptocurrency Sale Dispute

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida denied a motion filed by the co-founder of a cryptocurrency and the company that managed the cryptocurrency asking the judge to reconsider its grant of partial summary judgment to the investors who sued them for selling the cryptocurrency without filing a registration statement, finding that the defendants didn’t “present any ‘intervening change in law’ or ‘new evidence’ to suggest that the Court should reconsider its previous Order.”

  • February 06, 2026

    9th Circuit: Shareholders Sufficiently Alleged Falsity About Technology, Inventory

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court’s order dismissing shareholders’ putative class action alleging that Funko Inc. and certain of its executives violated federal securities laws by issuing misleading statements about the company’s inventory, storage and technology, finding that the plaintiffs pleaded with sufficient particularity factual allegations regarding the falsity of statements concerning existing technology and inventory management.

  • February 06, 2026

    2nd Circuit Addresses Standing For Representative ERISA Claims In Pension Case

    NEW YORK — Reversing a determination that the named plaintiff in the dispute over using a half-century-old mortality table to calculate joint and survivor annuities (JSAs) has standing “to seek monetary payments on behalf of the” pension plan, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 5 otherwise affirmed the lower court’s ruling in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case on interlocutory appeal.

  • February 06, 2026

    ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M

    Class settlements below $5 million were proposed, granted preliminary approval or finalized in 17 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between early November and late January.

  • February 05, 2026

    Judge Orders ‘Puff Bar’ Vape Sellers To Pay $129K In Deceptive Marketing Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Feb. 4, who previously refused to certify a consumer class action against two companies that sell “Puff Bar”-brand synthetic nicotine vapes, ordered the companies to pay more than $96,000 in statutory damages and roughly $32,000 in attorney fees for deceptively marketing their products to the plaintiff in violation of New York and New Jersey consumer protection laws.

  • February 05, 2026

    ‘Japanese’ Alcohol Brand Will Remove Deceptive Labels In Class Action Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — A consumer representing a certified statewide class in a lawsuit against a California company for deceptively marketing the origin of Japanese-style sake that is manufactured domestically filed a motion in California federal court for preliminary approval of a settlement under which the company will remove the allegedly deceptive origin labels from its products and pay the plaintiffs attorney fees of $645,000.

  • February 05, 2026

    TRO Granted To Putative Class Of Oregon ICE Facility Protesters, Journalists

    PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon, over the federal government’s argument against class relief before certification, granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to a putative class of journalists and protesters who allege that they were shot at and tear-gassed in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution while attending and covering immigration policy protests outside a building in Portland that they refer to as the “Portland ICE building.”

  • February 05, 2026

    Class Complaint Accuses AG1 Of Failing To Disclose Auto-Renewal Terms

    LOS ANGELES — A health supplement company that largely advertises itself via social media automatically renews customers’ subscriptions without disclosing the terms in violation of several California laws, including the Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) and the unfair competition law (UCL), a Los Angeles resident alleges in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in that state.

  • February 05, 2026

    Costco Hit With Class Suit Over ‘No Preservatives’ Promises On Rotisserie Chicken

    SAN DIEGO — Costco Wholesale Corp. advertises its signature rotisserie chicken as containing “no preservatives” even though the popular members-only store item contains sodium phosphate and carrageenan, two consumers allege in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in California.

  • February 04, 2026

    9th Circuit: Employer’s New Arbitration Terms During Class Suit Are Unenforceable

    SAN FRANCISCO — An employer’s attempt to roll out a new, mandatory arbitration agreement in the midst of class litigation that automatically opted employees out of the class unless they quit their jobs or opted out of the arbitration agreement “subvert[s]” Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s decision to decline enforcement of the agreement.

  • February 04, 2026

    Dismissing ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Case, Judge Gives Employer Outlier Win

    ST. LOUIS — Giving an employer an outlier victory in a putative class action that is similar to many other recent Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges, a Missouri federal judge on Feb. 3 dismissed the complaint with prejudice and said the statute at issue “does not impose a retroactive reimbursement requirement for tobacco cessation surcharges."

  • February 04, 2026

    Judge Seeks More Settlement Details In Class Suit Over Tire Company Data Theft

    MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge in Wisconsin denied preliminary approval of a tire company’s cyberattack class settlement that would provide the class of customers and employees with credit monitoring, losses of up to $5,000 per person or an alternative cash payment of $45, compensation for lost time and business changes and directed the lead plaintiff, a former employee of the defendant, to provide more information about the amount in controversy, the settlement class, the proposed payments to class members and the proposed attorney fees.

  • February 04, 2026

    Judge Denies Google Users’ Bid For $2.36B, Won’t Decertify Data-Gathering Classes

    SAN FRANCISCO — Following a California federal jury’s award of $425 million to two classes of mobile device users against Google LLC for tracking their online activity after telling them that it would not, a judge denied a posttrial motion by the plaintiffs for a permanent injunction and disgorgement of $2.36 billion of Google’s profits allegedly from “misconduct” and denied a motion by Google to decertify the plaintiffs’ classes.

  • February 04, 2026

    DOJ Files Statement Of Interest In ADA ‘Violation’ Online Retailer Class Suit

    OAKLAND, Calif. — The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest urging a California federal court to reject an amended settlement in which an online clothing retailer agreed to pay a gross settlement amount of $5.15 million in a putative class action alleging that the retailer violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and similar California law by not designing its website to be accessible to blind or visually-impaired persons.

  • February 04, 2026

    1st Circuit Upholds Luxury Hotel’s Unpaid Wages Settlement With Former Workers

    BOSTON —  A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s ruling that held the owner and leadership of a luxury hotel to a global settlement deal with several individuals and a certified class of former employees who sued for unfair wages after the hotel challenged the agreement, opining that the lone attorney who represented both the individuals and the class was allowed to negotiate all of the settlements, among other findings.

  • February 03, 2026

    Interlocutory Appeal Of August Partial Dismissal Of USAID Shutdown Suit Denied

    GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland denied federal government parties’ motion for certification of an August 2025 opinion for interlocutory appeal in a class case by former U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers who allege that actions by Elon Musk and others in the federal government to shut down the agency violate the U.S. Constitution; the August decision partially granted a motion to dismiss as to the claims brought against President Donald J. Trump.

  • February 03, 2026

    Illinois Graduate Class Certified In BIPA Case Against Ceremony Photographer

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Illinois graduates suing the company that captured photos of their ceremonies for allegedly violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting their biometric identifiers to use facial recognition to identify all photos in which each graduate appears and offer them for sale may proceed as a class, a federal judge in Illinois ruled, granting a motion for class certification.

  • February 03, 2026

    5th Circuit: District Court Wrong To Dismiss Stock Drop Suit With Prejudice

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a lower court was wrong to dismiss investors’ putative class action against a telecommunications corporation and certain of its executives for misleading investors about its failure to remedy old lead-sheathed telephone cables, finding that the lower court did not provide an analysis to support dismissing the complaint with prejudice.

  • February 03, 2026

    Third-Party Payer Class Tells High Court That Review Not Needed In Certification Spat

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that found no error in the certification of a national third-party payer (TPP) class of entities that paid for the diabetes drug Actos, despite the court recognizing that there is no way to calculate the number of class members that were not harmed, does not warrant review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund argues in an opposition filed Feb. 2.

  • February 03, 2026

    Judge Approves $3M Settlement Of Consumers’, Employees’ Data Breach Claims

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington granted final approval to a settlement worth $3 million, including $1 million in attorney fees, in favor of a class of more than 34,000 individuals who alleged that their sensitive data was breached during a hack of a workflow solutions company and its subsidiaries in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws.

  • February 03, 2026

    23andMe Bankruptcy Judge Approves $50M Settlement; Data Breach MDL To Be Dismissed

    The parties to multidistrict litigation in California federal court against 23andMe Inc. and affiliates for a data breach in which millions of customers’ genetic data and personally identifiable information (PII) was hacked filed a joint status report on Feb. 2 stating the plaintiffs will move to dismiss the MDL following the final approval in Missouri federal bankruptcy court of a settlement worth up to $50 million to resolve U.S. customers’ claims against 23andMe, with 25% allocated for attorney fees.

  • February 03, 2026

    Public Interest Firm, Other Amici Support Trump’s View Of Birthright Citizenship

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Kirkwood Institute Inc. and two legal scholars in a Feb. 2 amicus curiae brief are the latest to support in the class case before the U.S. Supreme Court the view of birthright citizenship held by President Donald J. Trump and federal agencies on whether a January 2025 executive order (EO) that declared that children born in the United States are not citizens when their mother is “unlawfully present in the United States” or their mother’s presence is “temporary” and their father is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident complies with the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

  • February 03, 2026

    Google Assistant Users Seek Approval Of $68M Settlement For Eavesdropping Claims

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge terminated a hearing date after a group of plaintiffs moved for preliminary approval of a $68 million settlement of their putative class claims against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. (collectively Google) for allegedly eavesdropping on Google Assistant (GA) users in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and privacy laws.