CFPB Rule Today Bars Financial Firms from Using Consumer Class Action Waivers
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued what is being labeled a “brazen” rule[1] on Monday, July 10, 2017, prohibiting financial firms from using class action waivers to manage...
View ArticleAre All Animals Equal?
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. This is probably the most famous sentence from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Sixty-two years after its first publication (on 17 August...
View ArticleEnglish Tribunal Rejects £14 Billion Class Action at the First Hurdle
The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT“) has refused to certify the £14 billion consumer class claim brought against Mastercard under the English class action regime introduced in October 2015....
View ArticleThe D.C. Circuit Finds Standing for Data Breach Plaintiffs: A Deepening...
The D.C. Circuit recently ruled that alleged victims of a data breach have standing to pursue claims, notwithstanding that they have not yet suffered any actual harm as a result of the breach. This...
View ArticleOn the Cusp of US-Style Class Action? European Commission Gathers Evidence...
EU The possibility of an EU-wide framework for collective redress is approaching with the closing of the European Commission’s call for evidence on the implementation of the Commission’s Recommendation...
View ArticleA Game Of Inches: Seventh Circuit Says No To “Foot Long Subs” Class Action...
UNITED STATES – On August 25, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals offered a stern reminder of its distaste for “hollow class-action settlements” that benefit the plaintiffs’ lawyers but not the...
View ArticleAuditor Liable For Financial Losses To Its Client’s Clients
CANADA – In Lavender v. Miller Bernstein, 2017 ONSC 3958, a recent class action decision of the Ontario Superior Court, the auditor of a now-insolvent securities dealer was found liable for financial...
View ArticleCongress Rejects CFPB Regulation Restricting Arbitration Clauses in Consumer...
UNITED STATES – On October 24, 2017, the Senate voted 51-50 to nullify a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulation that restricted banks and credit card companies from requiring customers...
View ArticleDrip Pricing Concerns Continue to Give Rise to Proceedings in Canada
CANADA – Allegations of “Add-on pricing”, or “drip pricing”, have become a hot topic in recent years as consumers have moved towards making more purchases online. Drip pricing can be thought of as the...
View ArticleIllinois Privacy Statute Designed To Protect Biometric Information Spawns A...
UNITED STATES – Companies that operate in Illinois should take notice of the flurry of litigation that has arisen under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), 740 ILCS 14/1, et seq....
View ArticleInjunctions and Collective Redress: A New Deal For Consumers?
EUROPE – The European Commission is exploring ways that it might expand consumer access to justice, and in particular increase the availability of “class” or collective civil litigation across the EEA...
View ArticleAn overview of proposed amendments to Federal Rule 23
Procedural history In August 2016, the US Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (“Committee”) published proposed amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 governing...
View ArticleEmployment Arbitration Agreements With Class Action Waivers Are Enforceable
The US Supreme Court issued a highly anticipated decision on May 21, 2018 in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, holding that class action waivers in arbitration agreements are fully enforceable,...
View ArticleRepresentative Actions: A New Deal For EU Consumers?
Almost exactly 6 months ago, we reported in this blog that the European Commission was exploring ways it might expand consumer access to justice, and in particular increase the availability of “class”...
View Article“Concrete,” “Particularized,” and “Certainly Impending”: Article III Standing...
Background Data privacy law is rapidly developing; significant updates to data privacy and protection laws (now enacted in over 100 jurisdictions worldwide) are of increasing importance to class action...
View ArticleInquiry into Class Action Litigation Funding
Introduction An Inquiry currently underway in Australia offers good insights into whether, and if so in what circumstances, third party litigation funding, particularly of class actions, should be...
View ArticleNFL Forced to Play More Defense: Ninth Circuit Holds that Collective...
Introduction On September 6, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California breathed fresh life into a case brought by a putative class of retired professional football players (“players”)...
View ArticleNo Trading Places: Securities Class Actions Should be Heard Where the...
CANADA – The Ontario Superior Court has dismissed a proposed class action involving the securities of a foreign company purchased on foreign exchanges. In a recent decision, Justice Belobaba found that...
View ArticleUS Supreme Court Rejects A “Wholly Groundless” Exception To Clauses...
To paraphrase Pharaoh Ramses II, so it is written, so it shall be done. In Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc., 586 U.S. __ (January 8, 2019), the first opinion by Justice Kavanaugh, a...
View ArticleGroundbreaking Illinois Supreme Court Decision Allows Individuals to Recover...
UNITED STATES – In a groundbreaking decision handed down on January 25, 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously held that private entities cannot collect biometric data from consumers without...
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