Mealey's Class Actions

  • November 05, 2026

    Pasta Consumers Appeal Order Striking Expert Evidence On Consumer Perception

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 4 docketed consumers’ appeal of a California federal magistrate judge’s order terminating their class action against a pasta maker for allegedly marketing its products in a manner that could deceive consumers into believing the pasta was made in Italy in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • November 05, 2026

    Zillow, Investors Reach Proposed $212.5M Settlement In Securities Fraud Action

    SEATTLE — After the U.S. Supreme Court denied Zillow Group Inc. and its executives’ petition for a writ of certiorari regarding certification of a securities fraud class action over alleged misstatements about improvements to Zillow’s pricing model, the investor’s class counsel announced that the parties had reached a proposed $212.5 million settlement.

  • November 05, 2026

    Division III Athletes Say NCAA Scholarship Ban Illegally Suppresses Pay

    LOS ANGELES — Current and former Division III college athletes have filed a putative class action lawsuit in a federal court in California seeking a permanent injunction and alleging that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has engaged in a conspiracy to fix the price of athlete labor to $0 by not allowing Division III athletes to receive athletics scholarships.

  • November 05, 2026

    $47.75M Deal Gets Final OK In Execs’ Suit Over Terminated Top-Hat Plans

    ATLANTA — Following final approval of a $47.75 million class deal under which class members will have an average gross recovery of more than $252,000, a Nov. 4 judgment entered in Georgia federal court wrapped up a long-running suit over lump-sum payments from terminated “top hat” plans that had provided life annuities for NCR Corp. executives.

  • November 04, 2026

    Class Claims Over Deceptive McDonald’s ‘McRib’ Marketing May Proceed, Judge Rules

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge denied in part McDonald’s Corp.’s motion to dismiss putative class claims brought by plaintiffs alleging that it violated the consumer deception laws of several states, including California’s unfair competition law (UCL), by using the “McRib” name to market a sandwich that does not in fact contain any rib meat but granted the motion as to the plaintiffs’ contract-based and negligent misrepresentation claims.

  • November 04, 2026

    Amicus Trade Groups To High Court: Review 9th Circuit ERISA Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing in part that the challenged decision “will invite unnecessarily expensive litigation,” three trade organizations submitted a joint amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling that cited the effective vindication doctrine in affirming denial of a motion to compel individual arbitration in a suit that seeks planwide relief for allegedly imprudent management of a retirement plan.

  • November 04, 2026

    Judge Limits Fees In $47.75M Hawaiian Electric Securities Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted final approval of a $47.75 million settlement to end a securities class action alleging that Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. (HEI) and certain executives inflated the company’s stock price by misleading investors about its efforts to mitigate wild fire risk before the August 2023 Maui fires but cut the amount of requested attorney fees from 30% of the fund to 20% after finding problems with the counsel’s billing.

  • November 04, 2026

    ACA Reinsurance Plans Ask High Court To Revisit Tolling Precedent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in John R. Sand & Gravel Co. v. United States was “wrong when it issued and even more clearly wrong today,” group health plans whose claims challenging exactions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) were dismissed as untimely by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) and whose dismissals were affirmed by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals request the high court in a petition for a writ of certiorari to overrule the precedent holding that the Tucker Act’s six-year statute of limitations is jurisdictional and not subject to equitable tolling.

  • November 04, 2026

    Deal Closing ERISA Severance Case Wins Final Approval

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Noting that only one of the 220 class members had opted out of the settlement in the decade-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over severance benefits, a California federal judge issued a final approval order under which class members will receive payments totaling more than $9,531,455 and class counsel will separately get $3.5 million for attorney fees and costs.

  • November 04, 2026

    Class, Subclass Decertified In Contract Price-Hike Suit Against Ricoh

    LOS ANGELES — Common questions of law and fact don’t predominate over individual questions in a lawsuit accusing Ricoh USA Inc. of breach of contract, unfair competition and other violations in connection with yearly price increases that allegedly exceed the contractual percentage permitted, a federal judge in California ruled, decertifying a class and subclass that had been certified in June.

  • November 03, 2026

    9th Circuit Panel Affirms 2 Challenged Travel Insurance Class Settlements

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California man who is an attorney and who separately objected to the settlement agreements reached in two separate travel insurance cases failed to show any abuse of discretion in either case, including when it came to incentive awards for the class representatives, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority ruled in two memorandums issued the same day.

  • November 03, 2026

    Judge Excludes 2 Swifties From Parallel Class Action, Denies Discovery Motion

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge adopted as final his tentative ruling in which he agreed to exclude two Taylor Swift fans who are plaintiffs in a ticket sales antitrust suit against online ticket seller Ticketmaster LLC, its parent company Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and a venue owner from being considered members in an earlier-filed class action against Live Nation for similar claims but declined to exclude hundreds of other plaintiffs from membership and declined to order production of discovery from the parallel case.

  • November 03, 2026

    $8.75M Deal Gets Initial OK In Long-Running Multiplan ERISA Suit

    AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas federal judge granted preliminary approval to an $8.75 million settlement that would resolve an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action filed over allegations that retirement and health benefit plan service providers breached their fiduciary duty to the participants in thousands of plans by, among other things, charging excessive fees.

  • November 03, 2026

    Stay Of Injunction Halting Detentive Stops Without Reasonable Suspicion Denied

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California on Nov. 2 denied an ex parte application filed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other federal government parties seeking to stay an October preliminary injunction that enjoined the government from using apparent race and class without reasonable suspicion to conduct detentive stops within the Central District of California.

  • November 02, 2026

    4th Circuit Won’t Reconsider Boeing Class Certification Decision

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a request from investors to rehear the court’s decision to reverse class certification in their securities fraud suit against The Boeing Co. and its former officials over alleged misstatements about the company’s emphasis on safety that artificially inflated the company’s stock price.

  • November 02, 2026

    ICE Officials To High Court: Hold Petition In Alien Class Detention Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and other federal government parties filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hold their petition in a class case by detained aliens seeking bond hearings under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) until a ruling is issued in Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, a case that raises a similar question and was granted cert on Oct. 1.

  • November 02, 2026

    7th Circuit Dismisses DuPont Appeal Over Lead Exposure Monitoring Class

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed a chemical manufacturer’s appeal of a class certification ruling in a lead exposure lawsuit following the manufacturer’s filing of an unopposed voluntary motion to dismiss.

  • October 30, 2026

    Rescoring Settlement OK’d, Objections Overruled In Former NFL Players’ Suit

    BALTIMORE — Overruling objections, a Maryland federal judge granted final approval to a class settlement implementing rescoring of neuropsychological test scores to resolve a suit former NFL players filed over what they alleged was “race-norming” of the scores used to determine whether they receive disability and related benefits.

  • October 30, 2026

    Pension Funds Sue Insurance, Reinsurance Company Over Concealed Casualty Risks

    NEW YORK — Two pension funds filed a securities class action against a Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance company and four executives in New York federal court, alleging that they misled investors about the adequacy of the company’s casualty loss reserves, concealed risks associated with its underwriting practices and overstated earnings, resulting in investor and shareholder losses.

  • October 30, 2026

    Class Action ERISA Claims Dismissed; Texas Federal Judge Rejects Fund Benchmarks

    DALLAS — A Texas federal judge said retirement plan participants can no more meaningfully compare a challenged Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Co. guaranteed income fund to an industry benchmark than “they can compare the moon to a baseball, though they are both spheres,” dismissing with prejudice an amended class action alleging that retirement plan fiduciaries breached their duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by retaining an underperforming fund despite concerns about offshore reinsurance arrangements and Prudential Retirement’s financial condition.

  • October 28, 2026

    5th Circuit Revives Union Pacific Worker’s ADA Suit, Finds Class Tolling Applies

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a Texas federal judge’s ruling rejecting a former Union Pacific Railroad Co. conductor’s assertion that he was entitled to American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah tolling in an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) suit filed over denial of a follow-up vision test needed to remove work restrictions, finding that the company did “not prevail” because the employee “was not unambiguously excluded from” a previously filed class action’s revised class definition.

  • October 28, 2026

    5th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Eyewear Website Data-Sharing Class Action

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a Texas federal judge’s dismissal of a putative class action alleging that an eyewear retailer shared customers’ individually identifiable health information (IIHI) with Meta Platforms Inc. through website tracking technology, finding that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged that their prescription eyewear searches and eye examination scheduling disclosed identifiable health information to Meta without their consent, constituting an injury sufficient to establish Article III standing.

  • October 28, 2026

    2nd Argument Scheduled In Appeals From Wave Of Tobacco Surcharge Cases

    The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral argument on Dec. 10 in the second of at least six appeals arising from a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges; in another recent development, employers in three of the appeals have filed notices of supplemental authority regarding frequently asked questions (FAQs) that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other agencies released in August.

  • October 27, 2026

    Federal Judge Grants Final Approval Of $2.5M Data Breach Class Action Settlement

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge granted final approval of a $2.5 million class action settlement resolving claims against a legal services firm arising from a 2024 data breach that allegedly compromised the personal information of tens of thousands of individuals, finding the settlement fair, reasonable and adequate and dismissing the action with prejudice.

  • October 27, 2026

    Magistrate Advises Tossing Suit Alleging Computer Rigged Racing Betting Scheme

    CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation advising that a court should dismiss a putative class action accusing horse racing betting companies and certain computer-assisted wagering (CAW) companies of participating in a scheme with a group of privileged bettors by using computer technology and algorithms based upon artificial intelligence to “rig” betting pools and divert money away from average bettors, saying in part that the suit should be dismissed for lack of standing.