Cy pres-only class action settlements are alive and well in the Ninth Circuit, where a unanimous panel of the court recently affirmed a settlement that provides no monetary relief whatsoever to the class, but awarded millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees to class counsel and distributed monetary relief to nine, third-party cy pres recipients. The case, In re Google Inc. Street View Electronic Communications Litigation, revolved around the collection of private data by ... Keep Reading »
A Year in Review: Top 10 Class Action Cases of 2021
This year has been an important one for class action law. Here are 10 of the most important class action cases of 2021 and their impact on class action litigation. TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez In TransUnion, a class of 8,185 individuals sued TransUnion under the Fair Credit Reporting Act after the company had erroneously indicated that their names potentially matched a name on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control list of terrorists, drug ... Keep Reading »
New York City Creates Right to Sue Over Use of Biometric Data
New York City’s new biometrics law, NYC Admin. Code §§ 22-1201–1205, went into effect in July 2021. The law creates a new private right of action for persons “aggrieved” by violations. Violations might arise from at least two different requirements. First, the law creates signage requirements for “commercial establishments,” which include places of entertainment, retail stores, and food and drink establishments. Second, the law creates a blanket ban on any person or ... Keep Reading »
New Cybersecurity Enforcement Through DOJ’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative and the False Claims Act
On October 6, 2021, the Department of Justice opened up a new front in cybersecurity compliance when it announced a Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative using the False Claims Act and other civil enforcement tools against government contractors and grant recipients. This raises the specter not just of DOJ enforcement, but more numerous claims by private actors — specifically, whistleblowers or qui tam relators seeking a share of the government’s recovery. For example, ... Keep Reading »
Inherently Transitory Exception to Save Transgender Inmate Putative Class?
Mootness, as one of the big three justiciability requirements, is a jurisdictional requirement on which judges do not normally postpone adjudication. But in a recent putative class action of transgender inmates, the D.C. district court held off on its determination to examine a rarely invoked exception to the mootness doctrine applied only in the class context. Sunday Hinton, a transgender woman who was housed in the men’s unit of the D.C. jail, brought a putative ... Keep Reading »
Eleventh Circuit Judge Suggests Substantive Canon of Interpretation Favoring Arbitration Conflicts With Textualism
This blog has occasionally advised corporate counsel to review their company's arbitration agreements for scope and clarity. This is another such warning. Simply put, buttoned-up contracts containing arbitration provisions (including class action waivers) prevent class action exposure. But as Sixt Rent A Car just found out, less carefully drafted provisions result in class action litigation in court. And as Judge Newsom warned in a concurrence to his own opinion, ... Keep Reading »
Class Action Survey Post-Launch Highlights
The 2021 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey reveals a spike in class action spending, with U.S. companies spending a total of $2.9 billion in 2020 defending class action lawsuits. Spending is expected to rise more this year, amid a wave of pandemic disputes and data breach litigation. Along with a rise in costs, class action suits have become increasingly high-risk for organizations. Companies reported that of the class action suits they faced in 2020, 34.3% were ... Keep Reading »
Supreme Court: “Unharmed” Class Members Are Not Entitled to Damages; $40M TransUnion Judgment Reversed
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in TransUnion v. Ramirez, a case addressing Article III standing in the context of a class action. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a split decision, had approved a $40 million award to a class of 8,185 individuals alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, despite serious questions regarding whether a large percentage of class members had suffered any real injury. The class ... Keep Reading »
Eleventh Circuit Approves Largest, Most Comprehensive Data Breach Recovery in U.S. History
On June 3, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, with one caveat, the Northern District of Georgia’s approval of the settlement of the consolidated class actions against Equifax Inc. and its affiliates arising from the 2017 data privacy breach. The district court described the parties’ settlement as “the largest and most comprehensive recovery in a data breach case in U.S. history by several orders of magnitude.” Notably, the Federal Trade Commission, the ... Keep Reading »
MDL Court Denies Class Certification of Proposed “NAS Babies” Class
The opioid MDL court (the Northern District of Ohio) recently denied class certification to plaintiffs seeking class certification as guardians of individual children diagnosed at birth with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). The court noted that these children are sometimes referred to colloquially as “NAS babies.” The primary basis for the court’s denial of class certification was its determination that the proposed class failed the test of ascertainability as ... Keep Reading »
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