In this third installment on the enforcement of U.S. consumer data privacy laws, we focus on the role of private litigants. Following our discussions of state and federal government enforcement, this post focuses on the third...more
7/12/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Breach of Contract ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Privacy ,
DPPA ,
Enforcement ,
Privacy Laws ,
Securities Fraud ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Video Privacy Protection Act ,
Wiretapping
On June 23, 2023, in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, the Supreme Court resolved a deeply divided circuit court split and ruled that a district court must stay its proceedings while an interlocutory appeal on the question of...more
Part 2: The Legal Backdrop -
In Part 1 of this series, we provided a brief overview and introduction of the Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action cases, noting generally that most similar suits haven’t made it...more
Updated July 24, 2025 to include Q2 2025.
Pierce Atwood's Class Action Defense group is pleased to present this New England and First Circuit Class Action Tracker, which focuses on the filings and decisions in state and...more
5/4/2023
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Biotechnology ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Settlement ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Healthcare ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Securities Violations ,
TCPA
Part 1: Introduction and Overview -
Earlier this month, Boston University prevailed in one of the few surviving Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits. The U.S. District Court in Boston granted BU’s...more
In early 2023, the District of Maine was the first district court to apply and interpret a recent and notable First Circuit ruling that should be top-of-mind for class action attorneys and litigants seeking approval of...more
On October 18, 2022, in Webb v. Injured Workers Pharmacy, LLC, the District of Massachusetts dismissed a class action complaint brought by former pharmacy patients alleging that their sensitive personal information had been...more
On October 5, 2022, in Laufer v. Acheson Hotels LLC, the U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a suit against Acheson Hotels, LLC, which operates an inn on Maine’s southern coast....more
On June 25, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated 5-4 ruling in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez. In a 27-page decision by Justice Kavanaugh, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding the certification...more
6/29/2021
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
TransUnion ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
Currently, one of the most prominent areas for class action litigation related to the COVID-19 pandemic is disputes about whether commercial insurance policies cover business interruption losses. Hundreds of businesses have...more
In four separate decisions issued on August 5, 2020, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation declined to consolidate for pretrial purposes dozens of actions against national banks arising from their roles as...more
8/11/2020
/ Banks ,
Borrowers ,
Case Consolidation ,
Class Action ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Financial Institutions ,
Judicial Panels ,
Lenders ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Small Business ,
Small Business Loans
As more class actions are filed every day related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of plaintiffs are asserting claims against banks that acted as participating lenders in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The...more
8/7/2020
/ Agents ,
Borrowers ,
Breach of Duty ,
CARES Act ,
Class Action ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Lenders ,
Loan Applications ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
SBA ,
Small Business Loans
In just two months, more than 110 class action lawsuits have been filed against colleges and universities. These complaints arise out of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced higher education institutions to close their campuses...more
5/31/2020
/ Breach of Contract ,
Class Action ,
Colleges ,
Conversion ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Educational Institutions ,
Refunds ,
School Closures ,
Tuition ,
Universities ,
Unjust Enrichment
April was a cruel month for higher education. After most colleges and universities closed their campuses in mid-March to protect students, faculty, and staff from the coronavirus, some students began requesting partial...more
Last updated November 9, 2020
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding, class actions related to the coronavirus have already arrived and are on the rise. Despite unprecedented court closures and changing procedural...more
5/6/2020
/ Airlines ,
Breach of Contract ,
CARES Act ,
Class Action ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Debt Relief ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Event Cancellation ,
Executive Orders ,
Health Care Providers ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Prisoners ,
School Closures ,
Ticket Pricing ,
WARN Act
On March 25, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Squeri v. Mount Ida College upheld the lower court’s dismissal of prospective and former Mount Ida College students’ claims against the college and its Board of...more
It is a legal maxim that arbitration is a creature of contract. A recent District of Massachusetts decision explores critical questions about when that creature can exist outside of the confines of a binding agreement to...more
12/11/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Contract Terms ,
DraftKings ,
FanDuel ,
Fantasy Sports ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Gambling ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Motion to Compel ,
Payment Processors ,
Terms of Use ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms
On November 4, 2019, in Wainblat v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, et. al., No. 19-cv-10976, the District of Massachusetts ordered that a consumer privacy class action against Comcast must be arbitrated on an individual...more
11/15/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Cable Television Providers ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Comcast ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Management ,
Motion to Compel ,
Personal Data ,
Popular ,
Statutory Violations ,
Subscribers ,
Subscription Services
On September 24, 2019, the District of Massachusetts held in Katz v. Liberty Power Corp., LLC that the government debt collection exemption to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), 47 U.S.C. §§ 227 et seq., is an...more
10/2/2019
/ Class Action ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Debt Collection ,
Do Not Call List ,
Exemptions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Robocalling ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
TCPA
Earlier this month, in Plastic Surgery Associates, SC v. Cynosure, Inc., United States District Judge Denise Casper denied plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and allowed Cynosure’s motion for summary judgment on...more
8/21/2019
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Causation ,
Chapter 93A ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Commonality ,
Damages ,
Fraudulent Marketing ,
FRCP 23(c)(4) ,
Healthcare ,
Medical Devices ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
In McIntyre v. RentGrow, Inc., No. 18-cv-12141-ADB, the District of Massachusetts recently denied a defendant’s motion to dismiss or to strike class claims in a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) action. The...more
8/7/2019
/ Ascertainable Class ,
Class Action ,
Credit Reports ,
Eviction ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
FRCP 12(f) ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Motion To Strike ,
Pleading Standards ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Rental Property ,
Rule 8 ,
Screening Procedures ,
Tenants
The 2018-2019 term of the U.S. Supreme Court opened with a newly configured court in which Justice Kavanaugh joined as an Associate Justice following the retirement of Justice Kennedy. Since October of last year, the Court...more
6/21/2019
/ Apple Inc v Pepper ,
Carlton & Harris Chiropractic Inc v PDR Network LLC ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Frank v Gaos ,
Home Depot USA Inc v Jackson ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht ,
Nutraceutical Corp v Lambert ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS
As we have recently reported, the Massachusetts legislature is currently considering a comprehensive data privacy law that would create a private right of action for consumers who allege a violation of any provision of the...more
Earlier this year, Massachusetts state senators introduced a consumer data privacy bill with a private right of action that could become the broadest in the country. ...more
On May 16, 2019, the District of Massachusetts denied a lead plaintiff’s motion to amend a complaint that sought to overcome standing deficiencies of the original class representative by adding a new named plaintiff....more