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

Mealey's Class Actions

March 13, 2025
Putative Class Says Girl Scout Cookies Contain Toxic Heavy Metals, Glyphosate

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Two women have filed a putative class action in New York federal court against the Girl Scouts of the United States of America alleging that the cookies sold by the organization contain heavy metals, including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, as well as glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.
March 13, 2025
GoDaddy’s Deadline Extended For Response To Motion To Appeal Settlement Ruling

MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge in Alabama on March 12 set April 3 deadlines for a response from GoDaddy.com LLC to a motion by class representatives to certify for appeal a February order declining enforcement of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class settlement and for a response from class representatives to GoDaddy’s motion to dismiss claims by a deceased class representative; that order was filed one day after the judge declined to reconsider the February decision and directed GoDaddy to respond to the motion to certify the order for appeal.
March 13, 2025
Crypto Companies Seek Interpretation Of CEA Venue, Nationwide Service Provisions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two cryptocurrency companies filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in a suit brought against them by an investor alleging that they conspired to deflate the value of a crypto asset, asking the court to determine whether the paired venue and nationwide service provisions of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) should be interpreted independently or as a whole.
March 12, 2025
Labcorp To High Court: Article III Requires All Members To Show Injury

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it ruled that a class containing uninjured members may be certified, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings’ (Labcorp) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its petitioner brief in a case over the inaccessibility of the company’s self-service kiosks for those who are visually impaired.
March 12, 2025
Plaintiffs Suing Over Fake Discounts May Seek Equitable Relief Based On Pleadings

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a window coverings seller’s motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit alleging that it violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other statutes by misrepresenting its regular prices as time-limited sales, siding with other federal courts within the Ninth Circuit that reserve “stricter” scrutiny of equitable relief pleadings for the summary judgment stage.
March 12, 2025
Defendants Win Compensation Row; Judge Rules Plan A Bonus One Exempt From ERISA

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finding that the plan at the center of a compensation dispute “is a bonus plan exempt from” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and other defendants in a putative class action.
March 11, 2025
Putative Class Claims Over Sugary Protein Bars May Proceed, Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a protein bar maker’s motion to dismiss a putative class action accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and New York consumer laws by advertising and labeling its products as healthy when they in fact contain high levels of sugar.
March 11, 2025
Workday Says AI-Hiring Suit Inappropriate For Collective Action

SAN FRANCISCO — A lawsuit targeting artificial intelligence hiring software involves too many individual questions surrounding applications, qualifications and the plaintiffs and are “dissimilar in virtually all the ways that matter,” Workday Inc. told a federal judge in California in opposing certification as a collective action.
March 11, 2025
Prisoners With Gender Dysphoria File Class Suit Over Gender-Affirming Health Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three prisoners housed in federal facilities in New Jersey, Florida and Minnesota filed a class complaint against President Donald J. Trump and other federal government officials in a federal court in the District of Columbia alleging that a Jan. 20 executive order (EO) that bans gender-affirming health care for those in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
March 11, 2025
Consolidation Bid Yields Coordination Order In ERISA Suits Challenging 2016 Deal

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge declined to consolidate related Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuits challenging the same July 2016 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) deal but directed that the cases — one filed by plan participants in 2022 and the other filed the U.S. Department of Labor in 2024 — proceed on the same schedule.
March 10, 2025
Company Seeks Exit From Shale Antitrust Case Citing ‘Implausibility’ Of Claims

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Expand Energy Corp., which is a defendant in antitrust multidistrict litigation related to shale oil, has filed a brief in support of a motion to dismiss in New Mexico federal court arguing that the consolidated class complaint should be dismissed because of the “implausibility of Plaintiffs’ allegations” as they relate to claims that Expand participated in a conspiracy with Wall Street investors, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others to restrict the production of crude oil.
March 10, 2025
2nd Circuit Sets Argument In Appeal Over Timeliness Of ERISA Pension Case

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set March 20 oral argument in an appeal seeking revival of a putative class action where all claims in a joint and survivor annuity (JSA) dispute over allegedly outdated mortality tables were ruled time-barred; the appeal has drawn input from amici curiae the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the American Benefits Council, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America.
March 07, 2025
Privacy, Biometric Claims Over CapCot Video-Editing App Survive Dismissal

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge largely granted a motion by ByteDance Inc. to dismiss putative class claims over the purported collection of personal data from users of its CapCot video-editing app, finding that a group of the app’s users did not establish claims for unfair competition, unjust enrichment and violation of several federal and California state privacy laws.
March 07, 2025
Final Judgment Entered For $27.5 Million Thomson Reuters Data-Selling Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — One week after a California federal judge granted final approval to a $27.5 million settlement of a class action over Thomson Reuters Corp.’s online gathering and sale of personally identifying information (PII) of Californians, he issued final judgment in the four-year-old suit, dismissing unjust enrichment and unfair competition claims against the company.
March 07, 2025
Financial Advisers’ Stay, Intervention Bids Fail In Compensation Row

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers who said they are unwilling members of a putative class in a compensation dispute were denied permission to intervene after both sides opposed their motion, with the docket showing that a North Carolina federal judge issued an oral order.
March 07, 2025
Final Approval Of $9.8M Settlement Granted In Apparel Company Stock Drop Suit

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to a settlement of a class action brought by investors against executives of apparel company Sequential Brands Group Inc. and the company’s auditing company, with the company executives agreeing to pay $6.25 million and the auditing company agreeing to pay $3.5 million. The investors alleged the defendants made false and misleading statements regarding the company’s financial well-being, which the investors alleged caused the company’s stock price to drop.
March 06, 2025
Suits Consolidated Against Microsoft For ‘Stealing’ Affiliate Link Benefits

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge consolidated nine putative class actions against Microsoft Corp. brought by app operators and online content creator that earn money from online marketing and claim that Microsoft’s in-browser shopping extension “systematically steals commission payments from their rightful owners.”
March 06, 2025
Amended ERISA Case Challenging Forfeitures Survives Dismissal Bid

OAKLAND, Calif. — Although “sparse,” revised factual allegations are sufficient to survive dismissal in one of numerous Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits over the common practice of using forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions to offset the plan’s sponsor’s required contributions instead of paying plan expenses that participants would otherwise bear, a California federal judge ruled.
March 06, 2025
Final Approval Of Settlement Granted In Case Against Seller Of BPDN Investments

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to a $6.2 million settlement between a company that sells borrower payment dependent notes (BPDN) investments and the investors who sued it for allegedly intentionally and negligently misleading investors about those investments, causing the investors to suffer significant losses.
March 06, 2025
More Partial Class Settlements Reached Over Toxic PFAS In Georgia Drinking Water

ROME, Ga. — Three more defendants in a Georgia federal court case with admitted involvement in contaminating groundwater with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in northwest Georgia have agreed to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to a temporary drinking water fund through two proposed partial class action settlement agreements reached with a group of water subscribers and ratepayers.
March 06, 2025
Class Certification Petition In Pet Supplement Case Denied By U.S. High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the makers of Cosequin, a pet supplement, who asked the justices to consider whether expert testimony relied on to support a motion for class certification must satisfy the requirements for admissibility.
March 05, 2025
Fact Witness Testimony Limited In RESPA Class Suit Over Captive Reinsurance Pacts

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge in California barred a fact witness in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) case from providing opinion testimony based on scientific, technical or specialized knowledge but allowed testimony regarding performed analysis and data review in connection with risk transfer and reinsurance services that he and a partner were hired to provide.
March 05, 2025
Final Approval Of $40M Settlement Granted In Securities Fraud Class Action

BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland granted final approval of a $40 million settlement in a securities fraud class action brought by investors against a COVID-19 vaccine contractor that experienced contamination issues at its Bayview, Md., manufacturing facility and several of its executives.
March 05, 2025
2nd Circuit Revives ERISA Suit Over Multiemployer Fund Trustee Compensation

NEW YORK — Saying in a summary order that the “complaint plausibly alleges a concrete injury,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated and remanded dismissal of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where a multiemployer profit sharing fund participant challenged compensation that he alleged trustees paid themselves.
March 05, 2025
$9.5 Million Settlement Of Payroll Firm Data Breach Suit Gets Final Approval

LOS ANGELES — Six months after a $9.5 million settlement of privacy and unfair competition claims over a payroll services provider’s 2023 data breach was preliminarily approved, a California judge gave the final stamp of approval to the agreement, also granting the plaintiffs’ motion for attorney fees, costs and class representative service awards.