Steve Larson has been representing investors, consumers and employees in class actions in Oregon for over 20 years. He is a shareholder at the law firm of Stoll Berne in Portland, Oregon.
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This blog is intended to provide information to the general public and to practitioners about developments that may impact Oregon class actions.
Ortho-Clinical Diagnostic has agreed to pay $19.5 million to resolve a class action alleging that it conspired with another company to fix prices on the reagents used in blood tests. Ortho-Clinical’s $19.5 million will be combined with a $22 million settlement that Immucor Inc. agreed to pay to resolve allegations against it, bringing the total settlement fund to $41.5 million.
Lenovo Inc. has tentatively settled a class action that alleged its preinstalled software on laptops caused performance, privacy, and security issues. The proposed settlement is for $7.3 million.
Several large U.S. pork companies, including Hormel Foods Corp., Smithfield Foods, Inc., and Tyson Foods Inc., were hit with an antitrust lawsuit this week alleging that they conspire to inflate pork prices in an effort to boost profit at consumers’ expense. The complaint alleges the collusion has been going on since 2009.
Keurig Green Mountain Inc. has agreed to settle a securities fraud suit that accused the company and two executives of misleading shareholders about sales and revenue expectations in 2011. The settlement is for $36.5 million.
A former Jones Day partner has filed a lawsuit against the firm in California alleging that the firm treats women as second-class citizens and provides preferential treatment to men. She alleges she was fired for speaking out against an alleged fraternity culture.
American Airlines has agreed to pay $45 million to settle class actions alleging that violated the Sherman Act by colluding to limit the number of seats available on domestic flights and raising ticket prices. The settlement is intended to include the millions of people who bought domestic tickets from the airline defendants between July 2011 and June 2018.
Steve Larson was recently quoted as well as both he and Jen Wagner mentioned in an article in The National Law Journal on June 19, 2018.
Notice of a proposed settlement was sent out to around 93,000 class members who were class members in a class action lawsuit against restaurant delivery service, Caviar. Plaintiffs allege that the company misled patrons into paying an 18% service charge that was labeled as a “gratuity fee” on orders.
A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of older workers who seek to sue a defendant class of all employers and employment agencies who use Facebooks’ ad placement tools to direct ads to younger workers to the exclusion of older workers. The Communication Workers Union and other plaintiffs allege that employers that do this are engaging in disparate treatment.
A New York federal judge confirmed that 16,000 Foot Locker pension plan members were entitled to $290 million in benefits following a successful challenge to a cut in their plan. The judge entered an amended final judgment in the long-running case after the U.S. Supreme Court in February denied Foot Locker’s petition, confirming that the retailer must pay $290 million to its pension plan members in the long running Employee Retirement Income Security Act case.
On May 29, 2018, a federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $27 million class settlement between British Airways and a class of British Airways Executive Club members. The suit was filed in November 2012 with class certification granted in March 2017.
On May 25, a federal court in Missouri approved a $21.5 million settlement between Monsanto and a class of consumers who alleged the agrochemical giant used misleading labeling on its Roundup weed killer. The complaint stated that Monsanto misled consumers about how much Roundup could be made from bottles of concentrate. The concentrate labels say the formula “makes up to” a certain amount of herbicide when mixed with water, but the instructions’ fine print says the formula
After losing on a motion for summary judgment, a class of optical disk drive (“ODD”) end users has agreed to settle with Samsung and Toshiba. The case is currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, but attorneys for the plaintiffs filed a request with the Ninth Circuit to extend the appeals briefing by 60 days while they seek a limited remand to the district court for approval of the settlements.
Uber won praise on May 12, 2018, when it announced it would no longer steer sexual misconduct claims into arbitration. However, the announcement failed to note that the company refrained from any promises that it would free victims from arbitration agreements if their claims are part of class action litigation.
The most recent cost to Wells Fargo & Co. arising out of its fake-account scandal is a $480 settlement with its shareholders. The settlement resolves the main class-action suit brought by shareholders targeting the bank’s allegedly deficient disclosures related to its sales practices.
After two years of litigation, a California federal judge approved a $33 million class action settlement resolving allegations that Fitbit Inc. hid problems with its fitness trackers and artificially inflated its stock price.
Japanese auto parts maker Tokai Rika has agreed to settle claims against it for $34.2 million. The four proposed settlement classes include those who say they were overcharged for heating control panels, occupant safety restraint systems, switches and steering angle sensors. According to the motion for preliminary approval, the classes includes millions of buyers.
A new report authored by Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law Professor Imre S. Szalai, finds that 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies use arbitration in their employment documents, nearly half of which contain class and collective action bans.
Facebook has been sued in a California federal court by a Facebook user. The plaintiff seeks to get the case certified as a class action.
Shareholders of Facebook stock sued the social media giant alleging that Facebook made misleading claims about its use of user data, which blew up this month when its alleged relationship to a Trump-linked data firm was made public.
