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Mealey's Class Actions

  • February 25, 2026

    Hims & Hers Faces Putative Class Action Over Misleading Diet Drug Advertisements

    CHICAGO — An online provider of compounded semaglutide for weight loss misled “consumers into believing its product is just as safe and effective as Ozempic® and Wegovy®, including because it uses ‘the same active ingredient,’ which is false,” two Illinois residents allege in a putative class action filed in an Illinois federal court.

  • February 25, 2026

    D.C. Federal Judge Nixes Bid To Amend Complaint In Dismissed PRT Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Roughly 11 months after issuing a dismissal without prejudice for lack of standing, a District of Columbia federal judge on Feb. 24 declined to let Alcoa USA Corp. retirees file a second amended putative class complaint challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • February 25, 2026

    U.S. High Court: Yearsley Doesn’t Provide Immunity To Federal Contractors

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yearsley v. W.A. Ross Construction Co. provides federal contractors with a possible merits defense only and not immunity, and so a ruling denying a contractor protection under Yearsley is not immediately appealable, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 25 in a forced labor class case against the operator of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center.

  • February 25, 2026

    Judge Grants Meta’s Bid To File Amended Answer In Facial Recognition Software Suit

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion by Meta Platforms Inc. seeking leave to file a second amended answer and defenses in a putative class action suit alleging violations of a state privacy law regarding Meta’s collecting biometric information using facial recognition software through its Facebook messenger and messenger kids applications, finding in part that Meta used due diligence in researching its defenses.

  • February 25, 2026

    Judge Denies Class Certification In Amazon Wage Suit As 2022 Briefs Are ‘Outdated’

    DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado denied a 2022 motion for class certification filed by an Amazon worker who alleges that he and others were incorrectly paid overtime based on a pay rate that did not include holiday incentive pay (HIP), opining that the discussion of superiority is now “outdated” following a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court in September 2024 that “seemingly resolved the ‘central issue’ of this case.”

  • February 25, 2026

    6th Circuit Partly Vacates Class Certification Order In Tornado Coverage Dispute

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partly vacated a lower federal court’s order on class certification in a coverage dispute arising from tornado damage to a Nashville-based church insured’s two properties, holding that the insured has standing to represent class members whose claims are governed by the state laws other than Tennessee and that the lower court abused its discretion by failing to conduct an Erie R. Co. v. Thompkins analysis with respect to five of the 10 states involved in the putative class action.

  • February 25, 2026

    Image Hosting Service: No Photos Shared For AI, No Injury For Proposed Class

    DENVER — An online image hosting site pushed back on claims that it intended to license users’ photographs for use in training artificial intelligence, saying negotiations with unnamed third parties and speculative future conduct cannot form the basis of a class action.

  • February 24, 2026

    Employers To Pay $1.7M In Attorney Fees Over Invasive Application Questions

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge granted final approval to a settlement of $1 per class member, amounting to approximately $172,000, and granted a motion for attorney fees of $1,775,000 to the plaintiffs’ attorneys to resolve class action claims against multiple employers for requiring job applicants to answer invasive medical inquiries, including when one plaintiff’s last menstrual period was, in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • February 24, 2026

    1st Circuit Terminates Appeal In Third-Country Noncitizen Removal Class Case

    BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals terminated an appeal filed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and several officials challenging a preliminary injunction issued by a trial court in a case by a class of noncitizens who are suing over 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.

  • February 23, 2026

    Judge: Government’s Portrayal Of High Court Ruling In LA Patrols Case Is ‘False’

    LOS ANGELES — A putative class complaint challenging the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “Operation At Large” in Los Angeles during which individuals in publicly accessible places are being stopped and asked about their legal status based on the location, type of work being done, language being spoken, accent and race or ethnicity may largely continue, a federal judge in California ruled, rejecting as “false” the federal government’s portrayal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case.

  • February 23, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Denies Service Members’ 2 Vaccine Mandate Petitions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 23 denied two petitions filed by members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force that asked the justices to consider in two class cases whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows for their reinstatement following their refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine to include awards of back pay and retirement points.

  • February 23, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Hear College’s Challenge Of Student Loan Settlement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 23 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a for-profit college that sought review of its failed attempt to intervene and challenge an approved student loan class settlement; the college was not a party to the settlement but was included in a settlement exhibit.

  • February 23, 2026

    $3.25M Data Breach Class Settlement Receives Final Approval; Judgment Entered

    SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah federal judge granted final approval of a $3.25 million class action settlement resolving nationwide negligence and California Consumer Privacy Act claims stemming from a September 2023 data breach, with final judgment entered three days later, closing the case.

  • February 23, 2026

    Notice Of Settlement Filed In Data Breach Class Case Against Medical Device Maker

    BOSTON — A medical device manufacturer and the patients who have accused the company of failing to protect their personal data from being stolen in two different breach incidents and made publicly available have until April 10 to file a motion for preliminary settlement approval, according to an electronic order filed by a federal judge in Massachusetts one day after the parties filed a joint notice of class settlement.

  • February 23, 2026

    $6 Million Settlement Approved In YouTube Biometric Privacy Class Action

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted final approval to a $6,022,500 nonreversionary class action settlement resolving claims that YouTube and Google violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and storing scans of users’ facial geometry through a pair of video editing features without providing written notice, obtaining consent or maintaining a retention policy.

  • February 20, 2026

    Amici Urge High Court To Review Federal Circuit Takings Ruling In Pension Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A retiree’s widow, public policy group Manhattan Institute (the Institute) and several law professors are among the amici curiae that filed briefs on Feb. 19 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari and reverse a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) “was not a physical taking and plaintiffs did not prove it was a regulatory taking” and therefore the attempt by a certified class of retirees to get federal compensation for cuts made to their vested pension benefits failed.

  • February 20, 2026

    Deal Including $13.4M Payment Proposed In ERISA Fees, Funds Lawsuit

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — In a settlement that a Massachusetts federal court has been asked to preliminarily approve, a class action where 401(k) plan participants challenge record-keeping and managed account fees and inclusion of two allegedly underperforming investment options would be resolved by a $13.4 million payment and nonmonetary relief; the parties reached a tentative agreement less than a month before a rare Employee Retirement Income Security Act jury trial was scheduled to begin.

  • February 20, 2026

    Parent Class Tells Supreme Court Trump’s EO Can’t Rewrite Citizenship Clause

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s citizenship clause guarantees U.S. citizenship to “virtually all children born in the United States . . . regardless of their parents’ immigration status or domicile,” a class of parents argue in their respondent brief filed Feb. 19 in their case challenging President Donald J. Trump’s 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.

  • February 20, 2026

    23andMe Data Breach MDL Dismissed After Settlements Approved In Bankruptcy Court

    The California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation against 23andMe Inc. and affiliates for a data breach in which millions of customers’ genetic data and personally identifiable information (PII) was hacked entered an order dismissing 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 and the final approval of a  $3.25 million settlement for Canadian class members.

  • February 20, 2026

    ECPA Suit Against Health Care Provider Dismissed Upon Joint Stipulation

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal judge in California dismissed a putative class action complaint alleging that a health care provider violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) by using Facebook pixels to purportedly gather and share patients’ protected health information (PHI) with third parties in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) the day after the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal.

  • February 20, 2026

    Judge Approves EEOC, Geisinger Consent Decree In Disability Bias Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — Certain Geisinger hospital entities accused of discriminating against employees who took medical leave by requiring them to reapply and compete for employment opportunities when returning from leave agreed to make practice and policy changes and pay $450,000 in back pay and statutory damages to six workers, according to a consent decree between the entities and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that was approved by a federal judge in Pennsylvania.

  • February 19, 2026

    9th Circuit: Ford Shimmy Manifestation Rates May Impact Class Certification Ruling

    PASADENA, Calif. — A trial court that certified multiple state classes in a case by consumers who allege suspension defects in various years and models of Ford trucks “abused its discretion by failing to evaluate shimmy manifestation rates across platforms in assessing predominance,” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially vacating the class certification order and remanding.

  • February 19, 2026

    Judge Dismisses Nonresponsive Subclass Members In ACA Risk-Corridor Class Action

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge dismissed without prejudice six specified subclass members for failure to respond to class counsel in a risk-corridor payment class action filed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

  • February 19, 2026

    Hawai’i High Court: Insurers Cannot Intervene In Wildfire Class Action Settlement

    HONOLULU — The Hawai’i Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s order denying subrogating insurers’ motion to intervene in class action settlement proceedings that resulted in a $4.03 billion aggregate “global settlement” in favor of individual plaintiffs affected by the Lahaina wildfire, relying on an In re Maui Fire Cases holding that the insurers’ sole remedy is a lien on the settlement when the insureds settle with defendants and noting that adopting the subrogating insurers’ argument “would  functionally eliminate mass tort class settlements.”

  • February 19, 2026

    Drugmakers: High Court Must Hear Class Certification Case To Resolve Circuit Split

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two drug companies on Feb. 18 told the U.S. Supreme Court that opposition to their petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund is “revisionist history in the extreme” and that the court should hear the case to resolve whether 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.