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Mealey's Class Actions

  • January 16, 2026

    U.S. High Court Grants Petition On Role Of Benchmarks In ERISA Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 16 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari by retirement plan participants who asked the justices to decide a question concerning fund underperformance claims and whether a “meaningful benchmark” must be alleged; the high court left pending a similar petition in Parker-Hannifin Corporation, et al. v. Michael D. Johnson, et al. that was scheduled to be considered at the same conference.

  • January 16, 2026

    $30 Million Settlement Of Kids’ Privacy Suit Against Google Gets Final OK

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — About four months after preliminarily approving a $30 million agreement that would settle invasion of privacy claims against YouTube LLC and Google LLC (Google, collectively) for the purported collection of minors’ personally identifiable information (PII) in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a California federal magistrate judge granted a final approval motion, ending the more than six-year-old class action.

  • January 16, 2026

    3 U.S. Citizens File Class Suit Alleging Constitutional Abuses By ICE In Minnesota

    MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) are engaging in unconstitutional practices in Minnesota by stopping and questioning people they perceive to be Somali and Latino without “reasonable suspicion” of removability and arresting people without warrants and probable cause, three residents of Minnesota who are U.S. citizens allege in a Jan. 15 putative class complaint filed in a federal court in their state.

  • January 15, 2026

    Judge: Plaintiffs In ‘Important’ AI Employment Case Must Explain Discovery Delay

    SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs in what the court described as “an important case alleging use of biased artificial intelligence in hiring implicating potentially hundreds of millions of putative class members” must explain why discovery required for a certification motion appears incomplete, a federal judge in California held Jan. 14.

  • January 15, 2026

    $332M Settlement Of ERISA Class Action Over Residual Annuities Wins Final OK

    NEW YORK — Saying a separate order would follow regarding the pending motion for attorney fees and costs in the long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities (RAs), a New York federal judge on Jan. 14 granted final approval to a $332 million class settlement the plaintiffs said will “yield the 1,177 Class members an average net settlement benefit of almost $200,000” even if the fees and costs are awarded as requested.

  • January 15, 2026

    NFL, Teams Seek High Court Opinion On Enforcement Of Arbitration In Race Bias Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should hear an appeal concerning the enforceability of arbitration agreements entered into by National Football League coaches as the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) permits parties to select their own arbitration procedures, including arbitrators, the NFL and three teams argue in a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in a race bias putative class suit after a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that denial of arbitration was proper based on the provision designating the NFL commissioner as the default arbitrator and allowing the commissioner to develop the arbitral procedures.

  • January 14, 2026

    $9.6M Class Settlement Of ERISA Forfeiture Case Wins Initial OK

    NEW YORK — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act case squarely focused on using forfeited nonvested matching retirement funds to reduce company contributions would be resolved under a $9.6 million class settlement that won preliminary approval in a New York federal court on Jan. 13.

  • January 14, 2026

    GEO Group Seeks U.S. High Court Review Of Immigration Detainee Class Wage Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The operator of immigration detention centers across the United States filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause permits a state, in this case Washington, to find detainees participating in a voluntary work program as employees who are owed state-mandated minimum wages.

  • January 13, 2026

    Judge Tosses Breach Of Contract Suit Against Insurer, Cites Misrepresentation

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on Jan. 12 dismissed without prejudice a putative class action breach of contract suit filed against an auto insurer for its alleged failure to compensate a driver for her son’s auto accident while driving her insured vehicle, finding that the misrepresentation in the policy application by not listing her son as a driver “was material” because it prevented the insurer “from adequately assessing the risk” of insuring her vehicle.

  • January 13, 2026

    U.S. High Court Declines Fraud Concealment Question In Sherman Act Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 declined to decide whether an alleged unwritten no-poach agreement between companies that allegedly suppress wages for naval engineers is sufficient to constitute an affirmative act of fraudulent concealment tolling the Sherman Act’s statute of limitations in a putative class lawsuit.

  • January 13, 2026

    Defendants Win Dismissal Of Case Involving PRTs To Prudential And RGA

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a putative class pension risk transfer (PRT) case notable for focusing on transfers to nonparties Prudential Insurance Company of America (PICA) and RGA Reinsurance Company (RGA), concluding that the Verizon Communications Inc. retirees who filed the suit lacked standing and failed to state their claims.

  • January 13, 2026

    3rd Circuit Affirms That Prudential Fiduciaries’ Process Was Prudent

    PHILADELPHIA — Issuing a nonprecedential disposition affirming summary judgment against a class of retirement plan participants, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court that the fund selection and monitoring process at issue were “adequate to satisfy the duty of prudence imposed on fiduciaries by” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • January 12, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review 9th Circuit ERISA Releases Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A certiorari petition that drew U.S. Supreme Court interest for a ruling concerning Employee Retirement Income Security Act releases in a long-running class action concerning severance benefits was denied in the court’s Jan. 12 order list.

  • January 12, 2026

    DOL Becomes Latest Amicus To Urge 4th Circuit Reversal On Standing In PRT Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Saying, “The magnitude of this case and these issues are hard to overstate,” the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Jan. 9 became the latest amicus curiae to urge the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched string of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges; among other things, the retirees generally allege that the use of offshore captive reinsurers makes the insurers that are responsible to pay annuities because of the PRTs more likely to fall short of their obligations.

  • January 09, 2026

    2nd Circuit Urged Not To Let DOL Withdraw 2023 Amicus Brief In ERISA Appeal

    NEW YORK — Pushing back on a recent request by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to withdraw a December 2023 amicus curiae brief in an appeal involving whether the “could have” standard used in damages instructions is grounds for overturning judgment in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action that went before a jury, retirement plan participants on Jan. 8 urged the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to deny the request because “DOL fails to provide any logical basis, let alone reasoned analysis, for abandoning the persuasive argument in its amicus brief.”

  • January 09, 2026

    High Court OKs Dismissal Of Petition On ERISA Burden-Shifting Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Jan. 8 text-only docket entry, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a one-paragraph dismissal motion the parties filed the previous day regarding a certiorari petition for which the U.S. government filed an amicus curiae brief urging the high court to grant; the petition concerned an issue the high court has passed on several times and asked whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • January 09, 2026

    Judge Dismisses Claims Over Most Of Alleged Misstatements In Stock-Drop Suit

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois dismissed investors’ claims against Walgreens Boots Alliance and several of its current and former executives as to numerous alleged misstatements the company made regarding its primary care clinic venture, leaving the claims as to only three alleged misstatements; the judge found the majority of the alleged misstatements not to be false or misleading.

  • January 09, 2026

    DOL Again Sides With Retirement Plan Sponsor In ERISA Forfeiture Appeal

    SAN FRANCISCO — Almost exactly six months after the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) first filed an amicus curiae brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals supporting a retirement plan against plan participants’ efforts to revive their putative class action challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, the agency on Jan. 8 did the same in one of the three similar appeals also pending in the Ninth Circuit.

  • January 09, 2026

    Investors, Online Home-Selling Company Reach $39M Settlement In Stock-Drop Suit

    PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona granted final approval to a $39 million settlement in a suit brought by retirement funds alleging that an online home-selling company made false statements about its artificial intelligence-powered pricing algorithm that the retirement funds alleged resulted in the funds’ losses.

  • January 09, 2026

    5th Circuit Won’t Rehear Decision To Allow Division Of Investor Subclasses

    NEW ORLEANS — A  Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied investors’ petition for panel rehearing and petition for rehearing en banc, deciding not to reconsider its decision to affirm a district court’s order that partially granted and partially denied class certification in its securities fraud class action against an offshore development company.

  • January 08, 2026

    9th Circuit Rules On 5 Appeals In Veterans’ Class Case Over L.A. Land, Housing

    PASADENA, Calif. — A class of disabled veterans who sued the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development over the leasing out of land in Los Angeles that was deeded for veterans housing will maintain their class status, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially affirming and partially reversing a trial court’s ruling on how the land should be used.

  • January 08, 2026

    Judge OK’s $10 Million Settlement Of Child Privacy Claims Against Disney

    LOS ANGELES — A proposed stipulation between the United States and Disney Worldwide Services Inc. to settle claims that the entertainment company enabled the collection of children’s personally identifiable information (PII) was approved by a California federal judge, who greenlighted a $10 million civil penalty against Disney and a permanent injunction requiring the company to make procedural changes regarding its posting and designation of videos directed toward children on YouTube.

  • January 08, 2026

    6th Circuit Declines Review Of Class Certification In TCPA Suit Against Humana

    CINCINNATI — A health insurance company accused of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) failed to show that a trial court abused its discretion when it certified a class even though the issue of whether class members consented to the calls may not be determined on a classwide basis, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, denying the company’s petition for permission to appeal the certification decision.

  • January 07, 2026

    Amicus Filers Support Drugmakers’ Petition For Review Of Class Certification Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A pair of organizations representing business and biopharmaceutical research interests urged the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by two drug makers to resolve “an important, recurring question concerning courts’ authority to deviate from” the requirements under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) in a putative class action.

  • January 07, 2026

    Right Before Conference, Parties Agree To Drop ERISA Burden-Shifting Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two days before a scheduled U.S. Supreme Court conference on a certiorari petition that the U.S. government recently filed a consequential amicus curiae brief urging the high court to grant, the parties on Jan. 7 filed a one-paragraph dismissal motion, saying they agreed to each bear their own costs; the petition concerns an issue the high court has passed on several times and asks whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.