Mealey's Class Actions : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Class Actions

January 23, 2025
Judge Gives Final OK To $2.2M Settlement Of Data Breach Suit Against Health Care Firm

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida federal judge granted final approval to a dual-fund settlement of a class complaint over a health care provider’s 2021 data breach, concluding that the $2.2 million total settlement, as well as an accompanying request for more than $424,000 in attorney fees, is reasonable.
January 23, 2025
LinkedIn Used Private Messages To Train Generative AI, User Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — A user of the professional networking and social media site LinkedIn filed a putative class action lawsuit in California federal court accusing the company that operates the site of violating federal law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by accessing Premium users’ private messages to train artificial intelligence models without their consent.
January 23, 2025
Plaintiffs Seeks Damages From Apple For Selling Smartwatch Bands That Contain PFAS

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs have filed a putative class action against Apple Inc. in California federal court contending that its smartwatch bands contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which the plaintiffs argue constitutes fraudulent business practices because Apple “intentionally misrepresented and/or concealed material facts with the intent to deceive” customers.
January 23, 2025
Consumers’ Claims Over Lead In Stanley Tumblers Inadequately Pleaded, Judge Says

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge dismissed putative class claims against the manufacturer of Stanley-brand drinkware for violating several states’ consumer protection laws, including California’s unfair competition law (UCL), by failing to disclose the presence of lead in its products, writing that the plaintiffs didn’t allege a “plausible risk” from lead’s “mere presence,” but granted the plaintiffs leave to amend.
January 23, 2025
State Privacy Claim Against LinkedIn Dismissed For Lack Of Jurisdiction

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Two weeks after dismissing a woman’s Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) putative class claim against LinkedIn Corp. for the second time, a California federal judge dismissed her remaining state law claim over the online professional network operator’s purported data sharing for lack of jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
January 22, 2025
High Court Hears Argument On Stating ERISA Prohibited Transaction Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22 heard oral argument concerning what is necessary to state an Employee Retirement Income Security Act prohibited transaction claim involving a service provider, with respondents seeking affirmation of a ruling that makes exemptions claim elements that must be negated and petitioners and amicus curiae the U.S. government urging reversal on grounds including that the exemptions are affirmative defenses for which defendants bear the burden.
January 22, 2025
Mylan Agrees To Pay $73M To Settle Antitrust Claims Involving EpiPen

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Mylan NV, Mylan Specialty LP and Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (collectively, Mylan) have agreed to contribute $73 million to a settlement fund to end claims that they conspired with others in an attempt to delay entry of generic competitors for the EpiPen epinephrine autoinjector (EAI) into the market, according to a motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement agreement filed by a pharmacy and other plaintiffs.
January 22, 2025
Class Certified In Breach Of Contract Case Over Life Insurance Policies

BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland certified a class of life insurance policy owners who allege breaches of contract in connection with certain charges deducted from the policies’ accumulated value and in the same opinion denied the life insurance company’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint.
January 22, 2025
U.S. Says Settlement In Student-Athletes NIL Case May Not ‘Cure’ Problems

OAKLAND, Calif. — The United States filed a statement of interest in the lawsuit in a federal court in California by college athletes who have accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and five conferences of violating the Sherman Act by restricting compensation for the commercial use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL), saying that the preliminary approved settlement that the athletes have said will result in “$20 billion more flowing to student-athletes over the next ten years” will actually allow the NCAA “to continue fixing the amount its member schools can pay students for the use of their” NIL.
January 22, 2025
Partial Stay Granted In Software Data Breach MDL To Finalize Agreement

MIAMI — The Florida federal judge overseeing a four-track multidistrict litigation over a 2023 data breach attributed to vulnerabilities in a file-transfer software application granted a motion by some of the parties to stay any deadlines related to two insurance company defendants to allow the corresponding parties to hammer out details of a written settlement agreement.
January 22, 2025
Class Suit Accuses Pa. Borough Of Towing, Disposing Of Cars Without Due Process

PHILADELPHIA — A borough in southeastern Pennsylvania tows, impounds and disposes of vehicles without providing owners with basic due process protections of a notice and hearing, a Pennsylvania man alleges in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in his state.
January 22, 2025
‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Settlement Providing Discharge Changes Preliminarily OK’d

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal magistrate judge in California granted preliminary approval of a class settlement between veterans and the federal government that will remove references to sexual orientation from the discharge paperwork of servicemembers discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) and other similar policies.
January 22, 2025
7th Circuit Orders Remand Of FACTA Class Suit Against Military Retail Service

CHICAGO — A customer’s Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) putative class complaint against the Army and Air Force Exchange Service originally filed in state court was incorrectly dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, instructing the trial court to send the action back to state court as 28 U.S. Code Section 1447(c) stipulates that the lack of jurisdiction determination requires remand.
January 21, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Appeal On Jurisdiction For FCC Orders

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Orders by the Federal Communications Commission and other agencies that interpret federal statutes do not under the Hobbs Act need to be treated by trial courts as binding precedent, and instead direct review should be conducted in the courts of appeals, the attorney representing a chiropractic practice argued Jan. 21 before the U.S. Supreme Court in the appeal of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class case while citing Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, Inc. v. PDR Network, LLC.
January 21, 2025
9th Circuit Dismisses Inmate’s Appeal Of $725M Facebook Profile-Sharing Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a mandate, stating that a judgment in which it dismissed as untimely an inmate’s appeal of the $725 million settlement of the consolidated class action over Facebook Inc. (now known as Meta Platforms Inc.) sharing users’ profile data with Cambridge Analytica, was now in effect.
January 21, 2025
Settlement Of Just Over $1.4M Gets Initial OK In Suit Over Insurer’s Denials

UTICA, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on Jan. 17 granted preliminary approval to a $1,415,000 settlement in a class action over allegations that United Behavioral Health violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by issuing blanket denials for residential treatments for mental health and chemical dependency claims when it considered even a single aspect of the facility’s treatment experimental.
January 21, 2025
MOVEit Data Breach MDL Plaintiffs Oppose Review Of Dismissal Denial

BOSTON — A December ruling that denied dismissal of three lawsuits against one of the defendants in a multidistrict litigation over a 2023 data security incident related to MOVEit software does not merit reconsideration, the consolidated plaintiffs argue in an opposition brief, telling a Massachusetts federal court that a health tech firm did not offer any new arguments or evidence to support its quest for dismissal under the home-state exception of the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
January 21, 2025
Judge Rules On What Experts Can Testify To In Suit Over Prisoner Searches

CHICAGO — Experts on both sides of a civil rights violation class action over searches of inmates and their cells can opine on the generally accepted correctional practices, but an Illinois federal judge limited testimony that is unsupported by a methodology found reliable under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
January 21, 2025
Judge Dismisses Class Action Alleging Insurer Violated Insureds’ Right To Privacy

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted an insurer and an association of insurance companies’ motions to dismiss a putative class action alleging that they retained and disclosed the insureds’ protected health information in violation of their right to privacy pursuant to Illinois state law, finding the negligence and invasion of privacy claims barred by the immunity provision in the Illinois Insurance Code.
January 17, 2025
Former Detainee Argues No Circuit Split Exists On Standing, Class Service Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former detainee who accuses an Illinois county and sheriff of denying him and others sufficient dental care filed an opposition to a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that no circuit split exists regarding whether a settling class representative has standing to appeal the denial of class certification and his case presents a poor vehicle to address the legality of class service awards.
January 17, 2025
Argument Set For Hawaii Supreme Court Case On Wildfire Settlement Subrogation

HONOLULU — An amicus curiae group called the “Consolidated Class Plaintiffs” will take part in Feb. 6 oral argument after the Hawaii Supreme Court expanded the time allotted in the case concerning reserved questions on how the subrogation rights of property and casualty insurance carriers bear on a proposed global settlement of claims related to the August 2023 Maui wildfires; additionally, a pending opposed motion seeks to stay a lower court’s allocation proceeding.
January 17, 2025
Local Controversy Exception Sends Development Class Action Back To State Court

ANDERSON/GREENWOOD, S.C. — A South Carolina federal judge has remanded a construction defect class action for a large residential development because the case qualified for the local controversy exception for removal under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
January 17, 2025
Judge Tentatively OKs $7.5M ‘Virtual Diamonds’ Refund In Gambling App Settlement

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge at a Jan. 16 hearing presented his tentative ruling granting a motion for preliminary approval of a settlement between a mobile casino games developer and a putative class represented by two players who accused the developer of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and state gambling laws, deeming “fair” the settlement, which is projected to require an in-game currency refund to players worth a total of $7.5 million, injunctive relief purportedly worth $163.2 million and attorney fees greater than $1.4 million.
January 17, 2025
$4.95M Class Settlement Gets Preliminary OK In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Suit

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge on Jan. 16 granted preliminary approval to a $4.95 million class settlement proposed in a suit that was filed months before a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plans’ tobacco surcharges.
January 16, 2025
‘ZzzQuil’ Maker Accused Of Misleading ‘Natural’ Marketing In Putative Class Suit

SAN DIEGO — A consumer filed a putative class action against The Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) in California federal court claiming that it misleadingly markets a sleep aid as providing benefits “naturally” in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) because it is actually made with “synthesized” artificial ingredients.