Class Action - The Class Action Blog by Carr Maloney PC

Avoiding “False Advertising” and “Genuineness of Product” Class Action Litigation

What makes champagne “champagne”? According to the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), only bubbly wine made through traditional methods and grapes from the Champagne region of France. The United States agreed to this definition in a 2006 trade agreement. Not just wine makers must think twice before affixing the word “champagne” to their product. The CIVC even threatened litigation against Apple for using “champagne” as a color name for the iPhone.

Businesses in the United States increasingly face copy-cat litigation emulating the arguments employed by the CIVC. For example, coffee growers in the Hawaii Kona […]

By Stuart Davis|2023-09-05T13:14:08-04:00September 5th, 2023|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: consumers, false advertising, FDA|

Read the Full Article

The Supreme Court Upholds the Automatic Stay During an Arbitration Appeal

On June 23, 2023, the Supreme Court held, in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) imposes an “automatic stay” on litigation while an appellate court decides whether the parties must resolve their dispute through arbitration. The decision ends a federal circuit split in which some courts have required class action defendants to bear the cost of seeking to enforce an arbitration clause while litigating the underlying claims in federal court. This ruling eliminates such unnecessary expense because it requires federal courts to pause litigation and allow the appellate court to determine whether […]

By Stuart Davis|2023-06-27T22:56:36-04:00June 27th, 2023|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Coinbase, Federal Arbitration Act (FAA)|

Read the Full Article

The Supreme Court Contemplates Ending the Automatic Stay During an Arbitration Appeal

In December, this blog noted that the Supreme Court, in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, would consider whether federal law requires courts to automatically stay litigation during an arbitration appeal. The Supreme Court heard oral argument on the issue yesterday and several justices expressed a willingness to potentially end the automatic stay during an arbitration appeal. Such a decision would likely increase the cost of defending class-action lawsuits in most jurisdictions.

Arbitration generally provides a less costly and more efficient procedure for resolving disputes than litigation. Arbitration clauses, a staple of business contracts, compel would-be litigants to resolve […]

By Stuart Davis|2023-03-24T16:36:53-04:00March 24th, 2023|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Arbitration, Coinbase, Electronic Funds Transfer Act|

Read the Full Article

Court Certifies Class Action Against NFL for Allegedly Violating Antitrust Laws With Its “Sunday Ticket” TV Package

On February 8, 2023, the United States District Court for the Central District of California certified a class action seeking $6 billion in damages against the National Football League (NFL). The complaint alleged that the league violated anti-trust law for limiting the availability of televised games through its “Sunday Ticket” package. Sunday Ticket allows subscribers to watch all NFL Sunday afternoon games, regardless of geographic location or local market. Non-subscribers may only watch a limited set of local “in market” games. According to the plaintiffs, without the alleged anticompetitive Sunday Ticket package, a greater number of […]

By Stuart Davis|2023-02-13T17:33:24-05:00February 13th, 2023|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Class Certification, NFL, predominance|

Read the Full Article

Supreme Court to Hear Landmark Case Regarding Section 11 Liability for Direct Listings

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a landmark case regarding Section 11 liability for companies going public on the New York Stock Exchange through direct listings. In 2018, the New York Stock Exchange introduced a new rule, later approved by the SEC, that allowed companies to go public using a “Selling Shareholder Direct Floor Listing,” or a direct listing. Direct listing permits a company to go public for the first time just by filing a registration statement to allow existing shareholders to sell their shares on the exchange. Under the previous method, an initial public […]

By Kelsey Williams|2022-12-27T11:30:31-05:00December 27th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Investor Rights, New York Stock Exchange, SCOTUS, Section 11 liability, Securities Act, Slack|

Read the Full Article

Supreme Court Considers Whether to Automatically Stay Litigation During an Arbitration Appeal

In 2021, two plaintiffs filed separate class-action lawsuits against Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. Coinbase moved to compel arbitration in each case because both plaintiffs signed Coinbase’s User Agreement directing any dispute to arbitration. The United States District Court for Northern California denied arbitration in both cases. Coinbase appealed the denial of arbitration and moved to stay the underlying class actions. The District Court again denied Coinbase’s motion and allowed both the arbitration appeal and the class action litigation to proceed concurrently.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court in both cases. […]

By Brian O’Shea and Stuart Davis|2023-01-14T08:35:50-05:00December 21st, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Arbitration, Coinbase, Electronic Funds Transfer Act|

Read the Full Article

Student Files Class Action Lawsuit to Recover In-Person Tuition and Fees During Covid-19 Pandemic

In May 2020, Plaintiff Keller J. Mellowitz, a student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, filed a class-action complaint against the University for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. The student contended that the university failed to reimburse students for on-campus college activities interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic during the Spring of 2020. The class action seeks to recover the cost of in-person tuition and other fees for a proposed class of approximately twenty-thousand affected students.

Initially, the suit was derailed because of a 2021 Indiana law retroactively prohibiting class-action lawsuits against state universities over COVID-19 […]

By Stuart Davis|2022-12-13T14:20:27-05:00December 13th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: Breach of Contract, COVID-19, Tuition, University|

Read the Full Article

Texas Pete’s Hot Sauce Accused of False Advertising in Class Action Lawsuit

On September 12, 2022, Plaintiff and California resident Phillip White, brought a class lawsuit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated plaintiffs against Defendant T.W. Garner Food Company in the United States District Court of Central District of California. The Complaint asserts that although T.W. Garner brands its hot sauce products under its Texas Pete brand name, there is “surprisingly nothing Texas about them.” Plaintiff alleges that unknown to consumers, Texas Pete’s hot sauces are standard Louisiana-style, made with ingredients sourced outside the state of Texas, at a factory in North Carolina. Even though the […]

By Brian O’Shea and Kelly Cousoulis|2022-10-25T12:04:35-04:00October 25th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action, Consumer Protection|Topics: Consumer Protection, False Representation, Misleading, Texas Pete Hot Sauce, TW Garner Food Company|

Read the Full Article

Recipients of Telemarketing Calls Made on Behalf of DirecTV Granted Class Certification in Class Action Lawsuit

On August 1, 2022, the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia granted class certification to a group of about 114,000 individuals who, despite being on the national Do-Not-Call Registry, received at least two robocalls placed on behalf of DirecTV. The court concluded that this was “a model case for the application of the class action mechanism.”

In 1991, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), which, among other things, created a Do-Not-Call Registry that prohibited the initiation of telephone solicitations to residential telephone numbers listed on the registry. The TCPA provides […]

By Brian O’Shea and Kelsey Williams|2022-10-07T11:37:47-04:00October 7th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action, Consumer Protection|Topics: Class Action, Class Certification, DirecTV, TCPA|

Read the Full Article

JUUL: Now in Certified Class Action Flavor

On June 28, 2022, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California certified four separate plaintiff classes in the nationwide JUUL electronic cigarette litigation. Certification of a plaintiff class is necessary for a class action lawsuit to proceed. The lawsuit alleges teen injury, fraud, and RICO violations against JUUL Labs and others, for the allegedly addictive and harmful effects of JUUL’s products.

In opposition to class certification, the JUUL Defendants argued that the proposed class lacked “commonality” because each potential plaintiff made an individual decision to purchase products containing nicotine or other addictive ingredients. […]

By Brian O’Shea and Stephen Rutigliano|2022-07-26T11:15:36-04:00July 26th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: Class Action, Class Certification, Juul|

Read the Full Article

Court Deems Reasonable Consumers Not Mislead by Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts’ Nutritional Value

On March 31, 2022, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Kellogg’s labeling for its Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts is not materially misleading and dismissed a putative class action against the breakfast giant.

To summarize, Plaintiff Kelvin Brown filed a class lawsuit against Kellogg Sales Co. on behalf of the putative class consisting of himself and “all purchasers of [Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts] who reside in New York during the applicable statute of limitations.” In the Class Action Complaint, Plaintiff alleged that Kellogg participated in deceptive business practices and false advertising by […]

By Stephen Rutigliano|2022-04-22T10:23:41-04:00April 22nd, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: advertising, Kellogg, Misleading claims, strawberry pop-tart|

Read the Full Article

State Farm Policy Holders Granted Class Certification for Second Time in COVID-19 Insurance Recovery Class Action

On February 11, 2022, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted class certification for a second time to a statewide class of Virginia businesses in a potentially precedent setting COVID-19 insurance recovery class action. The class includes at least 111 Virginia businesses who submitted insurance claims for pandemic-related losses to their insurer, State Farm—and whose claims State Farm denied under its policy’s virus exclusion. The court’s ruling comes months after a Fourth Circuit panel reversed the trial court’s ruling and remanded the case, ruling that the trial court improperly granted class […]

By Brian O’Shea|2022-02-25T14:08:23-05:00February 25th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Class Certification, COVID-19 insurance recovery, State Farm|

Read the Full Article