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

Mealey's Class Actions

June 12, 2025
GM’s $150M Defective Engine Class Settlement Preliminarily Approved

SAN FRANCISCO — A $150 million settlement between General Motors LLC and consumers who sued over allegedly defective engines was granted preliminary approval by a federal judge in California who certified three classes of consumers in California, Idaho and North Carolina for settlement purposes.
June 12, 2025
Data Breach Class Action Against Biotech Firm Settles For $7.5 Million

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Four months after preliminarily approving a $7.5 million settlement of a consolidated class action over a 2023 data breach experienced by a biotech firm, a New York federal magistrate judge granted final approval to the settlement, which provides for up to $10,000 in out-of-pocket reimbursements for class members.
June 12, 2025
U.S. High Court Delivers Unanimous Opinion For Veterans In Pay Class Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests are controlled by the statute that directs secretaries of the various military branches to pay CRSC to eligible veterans and not the Barring Act, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 12, reversing an opinion by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
June 12, 2025
Class Action Alleges Insurer Intentionally Disclosed Driver’s License Numbers

NEW YORK — A class action complaint for violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) was brought against Lemonade Inc. in a New York federal court on June 9, alleging that the insurer knowingly and intentionally obtained, used and disclosed class members’ driver’s license numbers and other personal information on its online quoting platform that was ultimately accessed by cybercriminals.
June 11, 2025
Revised, Reduced Attorney Fees Award In CPK Data Breach Suit Approved

SANTA ANA, Calif. — After an initial attorney fees award of $800,000 was rejected and remanded by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a consolidated class action over a data breach experienced by California Pizza Kitchen Inc. (CPK), a California federal judge on June 10 approved a revised fees and costs request, which reduces the original award by more than $500,000.
June 11, 2025
9th Circuit Won’t Rehear Pension Fund’s Securities Case Against Gaming Company

PASADENA, Calif. — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a pension fund’s petition for rehearing en banc of the panel’s affirmation of dismissal of the fund’s class action alleging that a gaming company it invested in falsely inflated its share prices after finding that the fund needed to plead loss causation as part of its stock scheme claims.
June 11, 2025
Some Privacy Claims Over Google’s Collection Of Health Data May Proceed

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of anonymous plaintiffs suing Google LLC over the alleged collection and sharing of users’ health-related data saw most of their privacy and related claims survive the tech company’s second dismissal motion, with a California federal judge finding that in the second amended consolidated complaint (SAC) the plaintiffs corrected defects that led to their previous complaint being completely dismissed.
June 10, 2025
Magistrate Approves $7.25M Settlement Of Patreon Privacy Violation Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge granted a motion for final approval of a $7.25 million settlement to resolve claims that Patreon Inc. illegally shared its users’ video-viewing data with social media company Meta Platforms Inc., including more than $2.1 million in attorney fees, and rejected as invalid more than 900 opt-outs filed on behalf of class members by a third-party “recovery company.”
June 10, 2025
1 Plaintiff, 1 Claim Remain In Marsh & McLennan Data Breach Class Action

NEW YORK — After two dismissal rulings, discovery, an appeal, a class representative substitution and choice-of-law disputes, a 4-year-old putative class action over a 2021 data breach experienced by Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. has just a single remaining claim for breach of implied contract in a second amended complaint (SAC) that was filed at the direction of a New York federal judge after the most recent ruling.
June 10, 2025
Class Definitions Are Focus Of Reconsideration Bid After Judgment In Benefits Row

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge who after a bench trial entered final judgment in favor of plaintiffs and awarded class counsel $9,149,204.25 in attorney fees has been asked to reconsider what the defendants argue was improper expansion of class definitions; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute centers on corporate restructuring that affected retirement benefits.
June 09, 2025
Lenders Waive Response To Mortgagors’ High Court Petition In Appraisal Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rocket Mortgage LLC (formerly known as Quicken and Quicken Loans Inc.) and Amrock LLC (formerly known as Amrock Inc. and Title Source) (collectively, Rocket) on June 6 waived their right to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari in a case over home appraisals in which mortgagors ask the justices to decide whether a class may be certified “when some members of the proposed class lack any Article III [of the U.S. Constitution] injury.”
June 09, 2025
Student-Athletes’ More Than $2.5B NIL Settlement Granted Final Approval

OAKLAND, Calif. — A names, images and likenesses (NIL) class settlement between student-athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and four conferences that provides $2,576,000,000 in damages and changes to NCAA rules that enable schools to share athletic revenues with Division I student-athletes and eliminate scholarship limits was granted final approval by a federal judge in California on June 6.
June 09, 2025
9th Circuit Institutes Test For ERISA Releases, Reverses As To Named Plaintiffs

SAN FRANCISCO — Saying it is taking the same approach as two sister circuits, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals quoted Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corp. in holding “that releases and waivers under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “must ‘withstand special scrutiny designed to prevent potential employer or fiduciary abuse’”; it accordingly reversed and remanded summary judgment against the two named plaintiffs in a long-running class action concerning severance benefits.
June 06, 2025
4th Circuit Again Decertifies Marriott Data Breach Classes Without Another Remand

RICHMOND, Va. — Almost two years after it decertified several classes for claims against Marriott International Inc. and its information technology provider related to a massive data breach, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel again decertified the same classes, finding them to be barred under a class action waiver that was part of the hotel chain’s contract with customers.
June 05, 2025
$7.9M Deal Gets Initial OK In ERISA Lawsuit Over Proprietary Funds In 401(k)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A proposed $7.9 million class settlement in which the named plaintiff estimated that the average gross recovery would be “about $40,000” has won preliminary approval; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case in Connecticut federal court focuses on alleged underperformance that the plaintiff claims was caused by a hedge fund management company directing all the assets of its 401(k) plan into proprietary hedge and mutual funds using “alternative” strategies.
June 05, 2025
Supreme Court Dismisses As Improvidently Granted Petition Over Uninjured Class

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 5 dismissed as improvidently granted a petition for a writ of certiorari by Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp) challenging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that a class containing uninjured members may be certified; oral arguments in the case were heard April 29.
June 05, 2025
$4.95M Deal Gets Final OK In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Suit That Preceded Wave

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge has granted final approval to the $4.95 million class settlement of a suit that was filed months before a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plans’ tobacco surcharges; the named plaintiff said the total represents “approximately 35% of the tobacco surcharges at issue in the full, six-year look-back window.”
June 05, 2025
Noncitizens Class Challenging Removals To A ‘3rd’ Country Oppose Injunction Stay

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A class of noncitizens who sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. attorney general and the superintendent of a correctional facility challenging a policy or practice of removing members of the class to a country other than the initial or alternative countries identified in immigration proceedings without first providing an opportunity for those individuals to apply for protection from removal filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on June 4 an opposition to the government parties’ application to stay a trial court’s preliminary injunction.
June 05, 2025
$525,000 Settlement Of Data Breach Suit Against Property Manager Gets Initial OK

NEW ORLEANS — A proposed agreement that would settle putative class claims brought by a former tenant against a property manager over a 2021 data breach that he says exposed his personally identifiable information (PII) received preliminary approval from a Louisiana federal judge, who deemed the $525,000 settlement fund to be “within the range of what is reasonable.”
June 04, 2025
Judgment Amended To Add Over $10M In Prejudgment Interest In Insurers’ ACA Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge issued an order granting objecting members of nondispute subclasses’ motion to amend a judgment to include prejudgment interest in a risk-corridor payment class action dispute under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), finding that the equitable award should be based upon the common fund escrow account rate.
June 04, 2025
Judge Refuses To Exclude Experts Retained To Argue For Class Certification

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge denied without prejudice two motions to exclude experts in a putative class action over whether an arts and crafts store falsely advertised discounted sales prices, finding “that at this point in the proceedings,” the testimony is not inadmissible.
June 04, 2025
Investors Urge 9th Circuit Not To Hear Class Certification Issue In Stock Loss Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of investors urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals not to grant Wells Fargo & Co.’s petition for permission to appeal a California federal judge’s order granting class certification to the investors in their suit against Wells Fargo and certain executives alleging that news of the company’s practice of using fake interviews to give the impression of complying with internal diversity hiring practices led to a drop in stock value, arguing that the judge properly found that their out-of-pocket event study damages methodology satisfies the necessary requirements.
June 04, 2025
Wiretapping, Data-Sharing Claims Against Eyewear Website Dismissed For 2nd Time

DALLAS — Almost eight months after a Texas federal judge dismissed a putative class action alleging that an eyewear retailer’s website was sharing customers’ private health information (PHI) with Meta Platforms Inc., the judge dismissed an amended complaint, finding that the plaintiffs still failed to allege that any PHI, in the form of eyewear prescriptions, was among the data that was shared.
June 03, 2025
7th Circuit Won’t Revisit Mandamus Denial In ERISA Mortality Table Transfer Row

CHICAGO — In a one-paragraph June 2 order, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined to rehear an unsuccessful mandamus petition over refusal to transfer a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case that challenges the use of a 1984 mortality table in pension calculations; among other things, the petitioner argued that the order at issue “deviates from all eleven of its sister circuits and presents a question of exceptional importance that multiple circuits have decided en banc.”
June 03, 2025
Dismissal Of BIPA Suit Denied; Amendment Limiting Damages Is Not Retroactive

CHICAGO — An August 2024 amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that limits the amount of damages an individual may recover was a change rather than a clarification and was not retroactive, a federal judge in that state ruled, denying a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction filed by the operators of medical facilities accused by employees of collecting and storing their information.