A recent class action lawsuit that claimed a manufacturer misrepresented its laundry detergent products as “all natural” when they, in fact, contained synthetic ingredients, has resulted in a $1.5 million settlement. A New York federal court gave preliminary approval to the settlement, which also requires the company to add qualifying language that states “contains naturally
Last year, we noted that the Supreme Court had granted certiorari in a case that could limit the ability of plaintiffs to sue defendants over bare statutory violations without the showing of actual injury. The case implicates a wide variety of statutes that grant monetary awards to successful plaintiffs on
We recently wrote about the potential dark side of store loyalty cards, citing a putative class action filed in New York City. In the wake of a decision denying classification in that case we discussed earlier, our concern has been somewhat alleviated. In his August 6, 2015 decision, a federal judge said that data of
Loyalty programs operated by retailers allow the retailer to track the purchases made by customers and offer customers tailored information about products and sales. However, there is a dark side to such programs. The tracking may also provide plaintiffs’ lawyers a method of identifying potential class members thereby providing a basis for such litigation to
A federal appellate court will consider early next month whether the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) makes an “Android ID” – a device identifier used in Google’s smartphones –personally identifiable information (PII). The Eleventh Circuit has scheduled oral argument in the case, Ellis v. Cartoon Network, Inc., for June 3, 2015.
The plaintiff in
Every class action lawsuit always involves the question of how to identify, or “ascertain”, who is a member of the class. Consumers keep expensive products or at least keep records related to their purchase. Inexpensive or transitory products are generally gone by the time litigation commences and no records of the purchase exist. In such
A California federal court this month ruled against defendants’ attempt to rely on a federal law requiring U.S.-origin claims on textile fabric products to displace a California statute with more stringent requirements about “Made in the USA” labels. The ruling allows a class action suit to proceed, lowering the hopes of retailers and manufacturers that
As we discussed in the Privacy Class Action Claims on the Rise post from December 17, 2014, the number of privacy class action claims is trending upwards, along with all things privacy-related. Some of the breaches and other big media stories could have been avoided, while others were unavoidable for the businesses at issue. Either
From the allegations of Edward Snowden about official snooping on U.S. citizens (and non-Americans worldwide) to any of the seemingly innumerable data breaches hitting retailers like Home Depot and Target or movie/television studio Sony or pick-your-favorite-example, it’s rare that a day passes without some breaking news about privacy (or its sibling, cybersecurity).
Think of the
