The Ninth Circuit affirmed certification of putative class actions brought against ConAgra Foods, Inc. (“ConAgra”) by consumers who claimed that ConAgra’s “100% Natural” labels on Wesson cooking oils were false or misleading....more
1/18/2017
/ Administrative Feasibility ,
Ascertainable Class ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
ConAgra ,
Food Labeling ,
Food Manufacturers ,
FRCP 23 ,
FRCP 23(f) ,
Natural Products ,
Putative Class Actions
The Ninth Circuit affirmed certification of putative class actions brought against ConAgra Foods, Inc. (“ConAgra”) by consumers who claimed that ConAgra’s “100% Natural” labels on Wesson cooking oils were false or misleading....more
The Sixth Circuit recently affirmed approval of a class action settlement agreement, holding that “a post-settlement change in the law does not alter the binding nature of the parties’ settlement agreement, nor does it...more
The Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc of its September order holding that the district court erred in deciding whether two drivers who sued Uber Technologies, Inc. (“Uber”) on behalf of themselves and a putative class...more
1/4/2017
/ Arbitration ,
Background Checks ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Pre-Employment Agreements ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Sharing Economy ,
Uber
Ernst & Young’s (“E&Y”) employment agreements contained “separate proceedings” and arbitration provisions, which together required that disputes be resolved individually through arbitration, rather than collectively through...more
9/6/2016
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Ernst & Young ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Section 7
The Northern District of Illinois vacated its grant of fees to class counsel for work performed following an initial fee award, finding that Rule 23(h) required notice to the class regarding counsel’s new fee request, even...more
A Second Circuit panel rejected the settlement reached between defendants Visa, MasterCard, and various banks, and plaintiffs, approximately 12 million merchants who alleged the principally identical network rules of Visa and...more
7/6/2016
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Class Action ,
Credit Cards ,
Due Process ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
FRCP 23(b)(2) ,
FRCP 23(b)(3) ,
MasterCard ,
Merchants ,
Settlement ,
Sherman Act ,
Visa Inc
A New Jersey district court denied certification of a putative class of furniture delivery drivers and helpers employed by various transportation companies (the “Driver/Helpers”) and individuals who owned those transportation...more
3/30/2016
/ Class Certification ,
Commonality ,
Corporate Counsel ,
FRCP 23(b)(3) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour ,
Williams-Sonoma
The Eastern District of Michigan recently certified a class of plaintiffs suing under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), rejecting the defendants’ arguments that: (1) there would be “significant issues” identifying...more
The Seventh Circuit affirmed a class action coupon settlement involving “clear sailing” and “kicker” clauses and a fee award based on the lodestar analysis rather than the value of the redeemed coupons, and notwithstanding a...more
The Central District of California held that a waiver of representative actions in an employment agreement’s arbitration provision did not preclude a former employee from pursuing in court a claim under California’s Private...more
The Supreme Court recently granted Tyson Foods’ petition for certiorari which presents to the Court two important class action issues:
(1) Whether differences among individual class members may be ignored and a class...more
6/15/2015
/ Algorithms ,
Article III ,
Campbell Ewald v Gomez ,
Certiorari ,
Class Action ,
Comcast v. Behrend ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
Due Process ,
Dukes v Wal-Mart ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Protective Gear ,
Rules Enabling Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Trial-by-Formula ,
Tyson Foods v Bouaphakeo ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
The Ninth Circuit held that a state court’s certification order, under which CAFA’s amount in controversy would be met, created a new basis for defendant to remove the case to federal court. The plaintiff had filed a putative...more
The Second Circuit vacated a class certification order issued by the Southern District of New York, finding that Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance and superiority requirements could not be met given the necessity of applying 27...more
Through a pair of opinions issued the same day, the Ninth Circuit attempted to clarify the evidence required for a defendant to meet its burden of showing that the amount in controversy exceeds CAFA’s $5 million threshold...more
The Supreme Court has held that a notice of removal requires only a “plausible allegation that the amount in controversy exceeds the jurisdictional threshold,” and confirmed that a notice of removal need not include evidence...more
The plaintiff filed a putative class action in Pennsylvania state court against two Pennsylvania defendants and one Virginia defendant, claiming that the defendants preyed on non-English speakers, illegally coercing them to...more
A California federal district court denied certification of two nationwide classes, each asserting a price-fixing conspiracy for optical disk drives (“ODD”), because the plaintiffs’ experts failed to provide a viable...more
Plaintiffs alleged in their putative nationwide class action complaint that Quest Diagnostics was liable for consumer fraud, unjust enrichment, and violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act for overbilling...more
In Dunford v. American Databank, LLC, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by including within her criminal background report charges that were more than seven years old. The...more
A federal district court in Hawaii held that a parens patriae action brought on behalf of the State of Hawaii by its Attorney General was not removable under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”) because it was not a class...more
The Central District of California denied certification of a putative nationwide class of mortgagors, holding that numerous individualized issues precludeda finding of predominance, superiority, or ascertainability. In...more
The Southern District of Texas recently denied certification of a subclass of BP shareholders who purchased shares prior to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and alleged that misstatements regarding safety improvements caused...more
After granting the plaintiffs’ Rule 23(f) petition, the Ninth Circuit reversed a denial of class certification, finding that the district court had improperly weighed the merits of the plaintiffs’ Rule 23(a)(2) commonality...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied plaintiffs’ motion for nationwide class certification because the proposed class did not meet Rule 23’s commonality or predominance requirements. The...more