By: Alexander M. Smith, Jenna L. Conwisar, and Peter Welch

New York’s two principal consumer fraud statutes, N.Y. G.B.L. §§ 349 and 350, authorize statutory damages of $50 or $500 per violation respectively. In false advertising cases involving low-cost consumer products, these statutes pose the risk that defendants may face hundreds of millions—if not billions—of dollars in exposure if found liable at trial. And while N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 901(b) seeks to avert this result by prohibiting courts from awarding statutory damages in class actions, the Supreme Court has held that this is a “procedural” rule that does not preclude federal courts sitting in diversity from awarding statutory damages in class actions. See generally Shady Grove Orthopedic Assocs., P.A. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 559 U.S. 393 (2009). Since Shady Grove, plaintiffs have routinely used the threat of statutory damages under Sections 349 and 350 to bludgeon defendants into settling false advertising class actions before trial.

That threat materialized in July 2022, however, when a jury in the Northern District of California returned a verdict for the plaintiffs in a certified class action, Montera v. Premier Nutrition Corporation. Although the jury determined that the class had suffered less than $1.5 million in actual damages, the plaintiff nonetheless asserted that the class was entitled to over $91 million in statutory damages. In a result that will inevitably disappoint both plaintiffs and defendants, the Montera court awarded the class only $8.312 million in statutory damages—less than 10% of what the plaintiffs sought, but over five times the amount of actual damages.

In a critical victory for defendants, the court reduced the aggregate amount of statutory damages based on its finding that “the calculated amount of statutory damages . . . is ‘so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable.’” ECF No. 293 (Damages Order) at 2 (quoting St. Louis I.M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Williams, 251 U.S. 63, 66–67 (1919)). In so holding, the court rejected the plaintiff’s assertions that aggregate statutory damages do not present due process concerns and that courts have no discretion to reduce an aggregate award of statutory damages. But other aspects of the court’s ruling—including its decision to calculate statutory damages on a per-product basis and its decision to award statutory damages well in excess of actual damages—illustrate that defendants continue to face a very real threat from aggregate statutory damages.

Background

Montera is one of many cases in the Northern District of California challenging the advertising of a glucosamine supplement called “Joint Juice.” Although Premier claimed that Joint Juice was effective at reducing joint pain, the plaintiff alleged that Joint Juice does not relieve joint pain and is worthless. After certifying a class of California consumers in one of the related actions in 2016, the court certified a class of New York consumers in 2019—raising the possibility that these consumers would obtain aggregate statutory damages under Sections 349 and 350 if they prevailed at trial.

Prior to trial, the parties vigorously disputed how the court should address the plaintiff’s claims for statutory damages. The plaintiff argued that statutory damages should be awarded on a per-transaction basis (rather than a per-customer basis), that the class should receive separate awards of statutory damages under Sections 349 and 350, and that Premier should not be allowed to reference the possibility of statutory or enhanced damages to the jury. Premier, in turn, argued that statutory damages should be awarded on a per-customer basis (if at all) and that the class should receive only—at most—an award of $50 per customer under Section 349. Premier argued that these limitations were necessary to vindicate the intent of the New York legislature to forbid statutory damages in class actions and to avoid an unconstitutionally excessive award of statutory damages. Premier also argued that the court should allow it to inform the jury of the possibility of statutory damages, as it had a Seventh Amendment right to have the jury decide whether to award enhanced damages.

The court resolved both disputes in the plaintiff’s favor. It prohibited Premier from referencing statutory damages to the jury, and it rejected Premier’s argument that “the Seventh Amendment requires a jury determination as to statutory damages.” ECF No. 215, at 6. Because Sections 349 and 350 prescribe “specific statutory damages amounts, with no room for variation,” the court concluded that the amount of statutory damages presented a purely “legal question once the jury has determined the number of units sold and the amount of actual damages.” Id. And while the court left open the possibility that a due process inquiry “may be needed in cases in which the amount of statutory damages is immense in comparison to the actual damages,” the court nonetheless found that “the proper time to consider due process implications of the award of statutory damages is at the time of the . . . award.” Id. at 5 n.1. The court also agreed with the plaintiff that Sections 349 and 350 authorize statutory damages on a per-purchase basis, as opposed to a per-person basis. See ECF No. 180, at 10–14. The court acknowledged that there were cases supporting both sides’ reading of the statutes and admitted that this question “does not have a clear answer.” Id. at 14. But the court nonetheless found that the plaintiff’s position was “more compelling” and agreed that a “reading of [S]ections 349 and 350 that recognizes that a plaintiff experiences a violation each time the product is purchased is consistent with the text and intent of the statute.” Id.

After a lengthy jury trial, the jury found in the plaintiff’s favor and concluded that the labeling of Joint Juice was false and misleading. The jury then determined that the class had suffered $1,488,078.49 based on a total of 166,249 units of Joint Juice sold during the putative class period.

The Court’s Statutory Damages Award

Following the jury’s verdict, the plaintiff requested that the court award the class over $91 million in statutory damages—including $8,312,450 in statutory damages under Section 349 and $83,124,500 in statutory damages under Section 350. See ECF No. 273. In requesting this award, the plaintiff argued that Sections 349 and 350 make an award of statutory damages mandatory if they exceed the plaintiff’s actual damages (which they indisputably did here) and that an award of statutory damages did not offend the Due Process Clause.

Relying heavily on Bateman v. American Multi-Cinema, Inc., 623 F.3d 708 (9th Cir. 2013), the plaintiff argued that, in light of the New York Legislature’s judgment that an award of $50 or $500 was an appropriate amount of compensation, any “consideration of proportionality to actual harm [is] improper.” ECF No. 273, at 3. And even if the Due Process Clause requires a court to scrutinize the amount of a statutory damages award, the plaintiff argued that this inquiry is limited to “whether the penalty prescribed is so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportionate to the offense and obviously unreasonable.” Id. at 4 (quoting Williams, 251 U.S. at 66–67) (internal quotation marks omitted). In contrast, the plaintiff asserted, “whether statutory damages are proportional to actual damages does not matter to this analysis.” Id. In other words, “even where statutory damages are more than actual damages and sufficient enough to deter misconduct, due process is not violated where the aggregate statutory award simply reflects the number of violations multiplied by the statutory amount intended by Congress or the legislature.” Id. at *5. The plaintiff asserted that this result was consistent not only with Williams and Bateman, but with two recent Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) cases in which district courts awarded nine-figure aggregate statutory damages to a certified class and refused to reduce the awards on due process grounds. See id. at 5–6.

Premier responded that it was improper to award over $90 million in statutory damages when the jury found that the class had suffered less than $1.5 million in actual damages. Leaving aside the fact that awarding damages under both Section 349 and Section 350 would amount to an impermissible double recovery, Premier argued—relying heavily on Williams—that the aggregate statutory damages award violated the due process clause because it was wholly disproportional to the actual harm suffered by the class. It also argued that statutory damages of over $90 million were “so disproportionately large that they amount to de facto punitive damages, but awarded as a matter of strict liability, rather than for the egregious conduct typically necessary to support a punitive damages award.” ECF No. 280, at 1 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). And Premier argued, as it had before, that these statutory damages were not consistent with the intent of the New York legislature—which rendered this case distinct from the TCPA cases in which courts had declined to reduce aggregate statutory damages because Congress knew that TCPA cases would be brought as class actions. Premier suggested that the statutory damages should be limited to $50 per class member, which it maintained was both the amount authorized by Section 349 and consistent with due process principles.

On August 12, the court largely sided with Premier and awarded statutory damages of only $8,312,450—exactly $50 per unit of Joint Juice sold. The court acknowledged that there was “little guidance” about how to apply Williams in cases seeking an award of statutory damages. Damages Order at 6. But the court found that there was “no question” that “a district court may evaluate whether the statutory damages in a case are ‘wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable,’” and it described this inquiry as “the crux for whether a reduction of statutory damages is appropriate.” Id. And while the court acknowledged that Shady Grove had held that New York’s prohibition on awarding statutory damages in class actions does not apply to federal courts sitting in diversity, it nonetheless found that the New York legislature’s “explicit concern about the punitive nature of aggregate statutory damages differentiates this case from others involving high awards of statutory damages”—such as a recent TCPA case, Wakefield v. ViSalus, Inc., in which the court had awarded over $900 million in statutory damages. Id. at 8.

The court also found that the New York legislature’s view that aggregate statutory damages create “immense punitive consequences” weighed in favor of evaluating an aggregate statutory damages award using the same framework that the Supreme Court had set out to evaluate the constitutionality of a punitive damages award. See Damages Order at 9–10. Under that framework, the court concluded that an aggregate statutory damages award of over $91 million was “grossly excessive.” Id.at 10. In so holding, the court noted that there was no evidence that “Joint Juice caused physical harm to any consumer,” emphasized that “the ratio of the statutory damages is immense as compared to the actual damages,” and found that awarding over $91 million in statutory damages “merely depending on the selection of a federal forum rings of arbitrariness.” Id. at 10–11. In light of these factors, the court reduced the statutory damages award to $8,312,450, which was equivalent to the $50 per unit permitted Section 349 and “approximately 5.59 times greater than the amount of actual damages.” Id. at 11–12.

Implications of the Court’s Decision

Both the plaintiff and Premier have indicated that they intend to appeal, and it is not clear whether the Ninth Circuit will agree with the court’s decision to reduce the statutory damages award. Nonetheless, the decision has significant implications for both plaintiffs and defendants in consumer class actions—if for no other reason than the scarcity of decisions awarding aggregate statutory damages under Sections 349 and 350.

On the one hand, the court’s reduction of statutory damages weakens the threat of astronomical statutory damages and reduces the leverage that Sections 349 and 350 give to plaintiffs seeking to exact hefty settlements. Even if damages of $50 per unit sold may face defendants with significant liability in consumer class actions involving low-cost goods like Joint Juice, they do not pose the same existential threat as damages of $500 per unit sold—or $550 per unit sold, as the plaintiff requested here—with which defendants are frequently confronted. And by reducing the damages award on due process grounds, the court made clear—despite the plaintiff’s insistence to the contrary—that the award of aggregate statutory damages under Sections 349 and 350 is not automatic, as many plaintiffs have claimed.

But while an award of $50 per violation may be significantly more palatable for defendants than $500 or $550 per violation, few defendants will relish the possibility that a class member could receive $50 per violation in cases involving low-cost household staples. That is particularly true in cases where the plaintiffs seek “price premium” damages amounting to a fraction of the product’s cost, as opposed to seeking the product’s entire purchase price (as the plaintiff did here). Perhaps most importantly, by declining to evaluate the propriety of an aggregate statutory damages award until after the jury has rendered its verdict, the court’s approach still faces defendants with the potential of catastrophic liability, as there remains a possibility that a court may not reduce the statutory damages at all or that it may apply only a modest reduction. Although the decision is hardly an unmitigated victory for class action plaintiffs, it is equally unlikely to embolden defendants to try Section 349 and 350 claims in lieu of settling them.

By: Alexander M. Smith

In recent years, conjoint analysis has proliferated as a methodology for calculating class-wide damages in consumer class actions. While conjoint analysis first emerged as a marketing tool for measuring consumers’ relative preferences for various product attributes, many plaintiffs (and their experts) have attempted to employ conjoint analysis as a tool for measuring the “price premium” attributable to a labeling statement or the effect that the disclosure of a product defect would have had on the product’s price. Defendants, in turn, have taken the position that conjoint analysis is only capable of measuring consumer preferences, cannot account for the array of competitive and supply-side factors that affect the price of a product, and that it is therefore incapable of measuring the price effect attributable to a labeling statement or a disclosure. Consistent with that position, defendants in consumer class actions frequently argue not only that conjoint analysis is unsuited to measuring class-wide damages consistent with Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 569 U.S. 27 (2013), but also that it is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). But a recent Ninth Circuit decision, MacDougall v. American Honda Motor Co., --- F. App’x ---- (9th Cir. 2021) may threaten defendants’ ability to challenge conjoint analysis on Daubert grounds.

In MacDougall, the plaintiffs brought a consumer class action against Honda premised on Honda’s alleged failure to disclose the presence of a transmission defect in its vehicles. The plaintiffs attempted to quantify the damages attributable to this omission through a conjoint analysis, which purported to “measure the difference in economic value—and thus the damages owed—between Defendants’ vehicles with and without the alleged transmission defect giving rise to this action.” MacDougall v. Am. Honda Motor Co., No. 17-1079, 2020 WL 5583534, at *4 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 11, 2020). Honda argued that this conjoint analysis was flawed and inadmissible, both “because it only accounts for demand-side and not supply-side considerations” and “because it utilizes an invalid design that obtains mostly irrational results.” Id. at *5. The district court agreed with Honda, excluded the expert’s conjoint analysis, and entered summary judgment in Honda’s favor based on the plaintiffs’ failure to offer admissible evidence of class-wide damages. In so holding, the court concluded that the expert’s conjoint analysis “calculates an inflated measure of damages because it does not adequately account for supply-side considerations” and only measures a consumer’s willingness to pay for certain product features—not the market price that the product would command in the absence of the purported defect. Id. “[W]ithout the integration of accurate supply-side considerations,” the district court explained, “a choice-based conjoint analysis transforms into a formula missing half of the equation.” Id. And separate and apart from this central economic defect, the district court found that other errors in the expert’s methodology—including his failure to conduct a pretest survey and the limited number of product attributes tested in the conjoint survey—rendered his conjoint analysis unreliable and inadmissible. See id. at *7-9.

The Ninth Circuit reversed. Beginning from the premise that expert testimony is admissible so long as it is “relevant” and “conducted according to accepted principles,” the Ninth Circuit found that the admissibility of expert testimony was a “case-specific inquiry” and therefore rejected Honda’s argument that “conjoint analysis categorically fails as a matter of economic damages.” Slip Op. at 2-3. The Ninth Circuit then concluded that Honda’s methodological challenges based on “the absence of market considerations, specific attribute selection, and the use of averages to evaluate the survey data go to the weight given the survey, not its admissibility.” Id. at 3 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). And while the Ninth Circuit acknowledged that the district court relied on numerous decisions that had rejected the use of conjoint analysis in consumer class actions, it held that these decisions did not concern the “admissibility of conjoint analysis under Rule 702 or Daubert” but instead its “substantive probity in the context of either class-wide damages under Comcast . . . or substantive state law.” Id. at 2.

In distinguishing between the question of whether conjoint analysis is admissible under Daubert and whether it is capable of measuring damages on a class-wide basis consistent with Comcast, the Ninth Circuit preserved an opening for defendants to challenge the use of conjoint analysis to measure class-wide damages at the class certification stage. Nonetheless, MacDougall undoubtedly weakens defendants’ ability to challenge the admissibility of conjoint analysis on methodological grounds, and it is possible that some district courts may read the Ninth Circuit’s opinion to stand for the broad proposition that juries, rather than judges, should decide whether conjoint analysis can properly measure economic damages.

By: Lindsey A. Lusk

New York federal courts have recently shown a willingness to dismiss implausible mislabeling claims on the pleadings. The recent dismissal of three consumer class actions—all filed by the same plaintiff’s counsel—suggests that these federal courts are increasingly skeptical of lawyer-driven claims regarding alleged confusion over the labeling of popular food products.

On November 4, 2021, in Boswell v Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc., Judge Furman of the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative class action alleging that Entenmann’s “All Butter Loaf Cake” was misleadingly labeled because it contained not only butter, but also soybean oil and artificial flavors.^[1] In reaching this conclusion, the court specifically called out the plaintiff’s attorney for bringing “a long string of putative class actions . . . alleging that the packaging on a popular food item is false and misleading.”^[2] Notably, the court took judicial notice not only of the labeling of the challenged Entenmann’s product, but also the labeling of other butter cake products—which the court deemed probative of the context in which consumers purchase these products.^[3]

On November 9, 2021, in Kamara v. Pepperidge Farm Inc., Judge Castel of the Southern District of New York dismissed with prejudice a putative class action alleging that the term “Golden Butter Crackers” was misleading because the crackers also contained vegetable oil.^[4] In so holding, the court noted that “a reasonable consumer could believe the phrase ‘Golden Butter’ refers to the product’s flavor and wasn’t a representation about the ingredients’ proportions.”^[5] But even if a consumer did believe as much, “[t]he packaging accurately indicated that the product contained butter,” which was prominently featured on the ingredient list—second only to flour.^[6] The court found that “[t]he complaint [did] not plausibly allege why a reasonable consumer would understand the phrase ‘Golden Butter’ to mean that ‘wherever butter could be used in the product, it would be used instead of using its synthetic substitute, vegetable oil.’”^[7]

Even more recently, on December 3, 2021, in Warren v. Whole Foods Market Group Inc., Judge Kovner of the Eastern District of New York dismissed a putative class action alleging that the label of Whole Foods Market’s instant oatmeal misled consumers into thinking the product was sugar-free or low in sugar.^[8] The court reasoned that “even if a reasonable consumer was unaware of sugar’s many names, or of the nutrition label’s purpose, the fact remains that the words ‘Sugar 11g’ are prominently displayed immediately next to the ingredient list.” As the court noted, “[t]hose words are hard to miss.”^[9]

These rulings may signal that federal courts—at least in New York—are increasingly inclined to take a harder look at the pleadings in food mislabeling cases, as well as the broader context in which the products are sold, and grant motions to dismiss where the allegations come up short of plausible. While it is unlikely that these rulings will completely deter other plaintiffs’ lawyers from filing these lawsuits, they undoubtedly provide ammunition for defendants faced with similar food labeling lawsuits in New York federal courts.

[1] Boswell v. Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc., No. 20-CV-8923 (JMF), 2021 WL 5144552, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 4, 2021).

[2] Id.

[3] Id. at *4.

[4] Kamara v. Pepperidge Farm, Inc., No. 20-CV-9012 (PKC), 2021 WL 5234882, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 9, 2021).

[5] Id.

[6] Id. at 5.

[7] Id.

[8] Warren et al. v. Whole Foods Market Group, Inc., No. 19CV6448RPKLB, 2021 WL 5759702, at *1 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 3, 2021).

[9] Id.

By: Gabriel K. Gillett, Kelsey L. Stimple, and Howard S. Suskin

In Railey v. Sunset Food Mart, Inc., -- F.4th --, No. 21-2533, 2021 WL 4808222 (7th Cir. Oct. 15, 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s order remanding a class action asserting claims under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act because the removal was untimely. Beyond the specific holding, the Court’s opinion serves as a useful reminder about some of the contours around removal of class actions, including under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). We discuss some of those key principles below, through the lens of the Court’s decision.

Appellate courts can review remand orders in some situations. Though appellate courts typically lack jurisdiction to review remand orders, they have the discretion to do so for orders remanding a case removed under CAFA, 28 U.S.C. § 1453(c)(1), and are “free to consider any potential error in the district court’s decision.” Slip op. 4-5, 9 (quoting Brill v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 427 F.3d 446, 451 (7th Cir. 2005)).

Removal may be permitted based on “complete preemption.” The defendant in Railey first argued that removal to federal court was appropriate because the named plaintiff—an employee at one of the defendant’s grocery stores—was represented by a union, and her claims were therefore preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act. See Slip op. 2. The court acknowledged that removal is appropriate if the plaintiff’s claims are “completely preempted” by federal law and that one of its recent decisions indicated that the plaintiff’s claims “may, in fact, be preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act.” Slip op. 9 (citing Fernandez v. Kerry, Inc., No. 21-1067, 2021 WL 4260667, at *1–2 (7th Cir. 2021)).

A defendant’s time to remove may be triggered by its own subjective knowledge or ability to learn key facts related to removal. The court held, however, that the defendant’s November 2020 notice of removal was untimely because it was not filed within 30 days of the plaintiff serving her complaint in February 2019. Slip op. 11. Defendants can remove a class action within 30 days after the case is filed, or 30 days after “the defendant receives a pleading or other paper that affirmatively and unambiguously reveals that the predicates for removal are present.” Walker v. Trailer Transit, Inc., 727 F.3d 819, 824 (7th Cir. 2013) Though the defendant claimed that the 30-day clock was triggered by the plaintiff confirming her union membership in an October 2020 interrogatory, it had acknowledged in oral argument that the complaint supplied enough information—the plaintiff’s name, dates of employment, job title, and job location—to ascertain that she was represented by a union. Slip op. 10. “Based on this information, diligent counsel had everything necessary to recognize that the Labor Management Relations Act may preempt [the plaintiff’s] or the class’s claims.” Slip op. 11.

The court was careful to caution that its opinion should not be read “to impose any meaningful burden on defendants” and it stood “fully by [its] prior determination that district courts are not required to engage in a ‘fact-intensive inquiry about what the defendant subjectively knew or should have discovered’ about the plaintiff’s case to assess the timeliness of a defendant’s removal.” Slip op. 11 (quoting Walker, 727 F.3d at 825. The court pointed out that the plaintiff was a union member working at the defendant’s store and “a defendant can be held to information about its own operations that it knows or can discern with ease.” Id. “That reality mean[t] that the 30-day removal clock in § 1446(b)(1) began to tick when [the plaintiff] served her complaint in February 2019” and the November 2020 notice of removal was therefore untimely. Id.

Still, the Seventh Circuit’s statement seems to be in at least some tension with the First Circuit’s categorical statement that “[t]he defendant has no duty, however, to investigate or to supply facts outside of those provided by the plaintiff.” Romulus v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc., 770 F.3d 67, 75 (1st Cir. 2014). The First Circuit explained its view as follows: “The district court reasoned that information on damages is not ‘new’ if the defendant could have discovered it earlier through its own investigation. This is not how the statute reads and would produce a difficult-to-manage test. … Determining what the defendant should have investigated, or what the defendant should have discovered through that investigation, rather than analyzing what was apparent on (or easily ascertainable from) the face of the plaintiff's pleadings, will not be efficient, but will result in fact-intensive mini-trials.” Id. at 73-76 (surveying somewhat different approaches the circuits have adopted). According to the First Circuit, “[e]very circuit to have addressed this issue has ... adopted some form of a bright-line rule that limits the court's inquiry to the clock-triggering pleading or other paper” provided by the plaintiff to the defendant. Id. at 74 (internal quotations omitted).

The 30-day deadline to remove is triggered (or not) based on the particular removal theory and related facts; “separate removal attempts are governed by separate removal clocks.” In January 2021, the defendant raised CAFA’s minimal diversity requirements as a second basis for removal to federal court. The court emphasized that the timeliness of this basis was unaffected by the timeliness of the earlier preemption argument because “[a] defendant may remove even a previously remanded case if subsequent pleadings or litigation events reveal a new basis for removal.” Slip op. 6. If they attempt to do so, “separate removal attempts are governed by separate removal clocks.” Id.

The court held that this minimal diversity basis for removal was not untimely. Slip op. 8. Though the plaintiff had moved out of Illinois and changed her domicile to Georgia in February 2020, the defendant only discovered this fact through its own investigation in January 2021. Slip op. 7; see 28 U.S.C. § 1453(b) (eliminating § 1446’s one-year limitation on diversity-based removal for class actions); cf. id. § 1332(d)(7) (evaluating diversity when case is filed or when diversity becomes apparent later based on “an amended pleading, motion, or other paper”). The court noted that “[a] plaintiff may trigger a removal clock—and protect itself against a defendant’s strategic maneuvering—by affirmatively and unambiguously disclosing facts establishing federal jurisdiction in an initial pleading or subsequent litigation document.” Slip op. 7 (internal quotations omitted). But because the plaintiff had not done so here and the defendant discovered the federal jurisdiction basis independently, the defendant could “remove the case at whatever point it deems appropriate, regardless of whether the window for removal on another basis already opened and closed.” Slip op. 7.

CAFA’s exception for “home-state controversies” may bar even timely removals. The case still had to be remanded to state court, however, because the minimal diversity exception faced a different barrier. CAFA removal is subject to an exception for “home-state controversies,” where “two-thirds or more of the members of all proposed plaintiff classes in the aggregate, and the primary defendants, are citizens of the State in which the action was originally filed.” 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(4)(B); see Slip op. 8. “By limiting the class to Illinois citizens, [the plaintiff] eliminated any concern that any [defendant] employees domiciled outside the state comprise greater than one-third of the class and all but ‘guaranteed that the suit would remain in state court.’” Slip op. 8 (quoting In re Sprint Nextel Corp., 593 F.3d 669, 676 (7th Cir. 2010)).

By: Alexander M. Smith

In 2017, the Supreme Court held in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017), that a defendant in a mass tort action is not subject to specific personal jurisdiction as to the claims of non-resident plaintiffs whose injuries lack a sufficient connection to the forum state. The Court did not decide, however, whether its holding applied to nationwide class actions. And in the four years following Bristol-Myers, district courts in the Ninth Circuit have reached highly divergent results:

• Some district courts have “agree[d] . . . that Bristol-Myers Squibb applies in the nationwide class action context” and have dismissed claims brought on behalf of putative nationwide classes, reasoning that “a state cannot assert specific personal jurisdiction for the claims of unnamed class members that would not be subject to specific personal jurisdiction if asserted as individual claims.” Carpenter v. PetSmart, Inc., 441 F. Supp. 3d 1028, 1035 (S.D. Cal. 2020); see also, e.g., Wenokur v. AXA Equitable Life Ins. Co., No. 17-165, 2017 WL 4357916, at *4 (D. Ariz. Oct. 2, 2017) (“The Court notes that it lacks personal jurisdiction over the claims of putative class members with no connection to Arizona and therefore would not be able to certify a nationwide class.”).

By: Clifford W. Berlow, Alexander E. Cottingham, and Lindsay C. Harrison

Introduction

On June 25, 2021, the US Supreme Court in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez[1] narrowed the scope of Article III standing for plaintiffs who allege the violation of a statute but cannot show they otherwise suffered harm. Though decided in the context of a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) class action, the decision has major implications for parties litigating state and federal statutory claims of all varieties in federal courts. In particular, TransUnion seems poised to limit the viability of class actions arising from data breaches. The decision likely means, for example, that plaintiffs lack Article III standing when their information may have been accessed but was not misused in a manner causing concrete harm—a subject on which the courts of appeals previously had split. The decision also will limit plaintiffs’ ability to assert Article III standing merely based on the violation of privacy statutes alone without any resulting harm. 

Defendants litigating data breach class actions can take advantage of this new precedent in federal court to seek dismissal of data breach class actions for lack of Article III standing. But doing so is not without consequence. If federal courts are not available to adjudicate these claims, plaintiffs likely will pursue them in state courts, where standing precedent may be more lenient for plaintiffs. Defendants thus will need to be strategic about how aggressively they pursue TransUnion-based dismissals.

By: Ali M. Arain, Stephen L. Ascher, Howard S. Suskin, and Reanne Zheng

Introduction

On June 21, 2021, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System,[1] providing guidance to lower courts regarding class certification in securities fraud class actions. On balance, the opinion favors defendants, and potentially signals a backlash against the tide of securities fraud class actions based on vague and generic misstatements. Importantly, the Court instructed that all relevant evidence should be considered when making the class certification decision, sending a message that lower courts must grapple with and cannot ignore relevant evidence at the class certification stage simply because it overlaps with the merits-related evidence. The Court also stressed that the generic nature of a misrepresentation is often important evidence of lack of price impact, which lower courts should consider when deciding whether to grant or deny a class certification motion. 

Although the Supreme Court’s decision was not as sweeping as the defendants wanted, it does signal the Supreme Court’s concern that companies are too frequently held liable for securities fraud as a result of adverse legal or business developments, even where the company had never made any specific statements about the matters in question.

By: Alexander M. Smith

On February 9, 2021, the Ninth Circuit—in a split decision with a spirited dissent—reversed the dismissal of a consumer class action challenging P.F. Chang’s’s use of the phrase “krab mix” to describe sushi rolls that contain no real crab. Although Kang is an unpublished case and breaks little new legal ground, the two opinions offer a useful glimpse into how both defendants and plaintiffs frame their positions in false advertising lawsuits, and they highlight how easily judges can come to radically different conclusions in consumer class actions, even when faced with the same facts and law.

In Kang, the plaintiff alleged that P.F. Chang’s’s sushi rolls were deceptively labeled because they purported to contain “krab mix,” but did not include any crab at all. Judge Anderson of the Central District of California dismissed the plaintiff’s lawsuit, holding that no reasonable consumer would be deceived into believing that “krab mix” contained crab. The Ninth Circuit reversed. Judge Friedland and Judge Watford—writing for the panel majority—emphasized that “determining whether reasonable consumers are likely to be deceived will usually be a question of fact not appropriate on a motion to dismiss.” Applying this standard, the panel majority concluded that the plaintiff had plausibly alleged that the “inclusion of the term ‘krab mix’ in the ingredient list for certain of its sushi rolls is likely to deceive reasonable consumers into thinking that the sushi rolls contain at least some real crab meat when in fact they contain none.” Although P.F. Chang’s offered several reasons that this interpretation was implausible, the panel majority rejected them all:

• The panel majority rejected P.F. Chang’s’s argument that the “fanciful” term “krab mix” suggested the absence of real crab. Although the panel majority agreed that “reasonable consumers confronted with the fanciful spelling of ‘krab’ on the menu would not assume they were purchasing a sushi roll with 100% real crab meat,” it nonetheless concluded that the plaintiff had plausibly alleged that the term “krab mix” suggests that the product contains “a mixture of imitation and real crab.” In contrast to cases where the challenged term has a specific, widely-understood meaning (such as “diet” soft drinks), the panel majority held that “there is no prevailing understanding that listing ‘krab mix’ as an ingredient in a sushi roll signifies that the item contains no real crab meat.” And in contrast to a case where the “fanciful” term appears in the name of the product (such as “Froot Loops”), the panel majority concluded that the term was at least plausibly misleading because it appeared in the ingredient list.

We continue our efforts to do everything we can to support our clients as they navigate these times.  Our lawyers have provided practical insight into the legal and strategic challenges companies are facing.  To stay abreast of the quickly changing landscape, Jenner & Block has assembled a multi-disciplinary team, drawn from a variety of our practice areas and sector gro ups, to support clients as they navigate these uncharted waters.  We also continue to update our COVID-19 / Coronavirus Resource Center.  It provides helpful and timely information on the legal and strategic challenges companies are facing. Following is a list of some of those pieces.

First COVID-19 Securities Class Action Lawsuits Hit Cruise Line and Pharmaceutical Company

The rapid developments in the spread and economic impact of COVID-19 present particular challenges for officers and directors of public companies trying to manage their businesses while providing timely and truthful information to shareholders.  Over the last few days, shareholders have filed the first suits alleging that public companies materially misrepresented the impact of COVID-19 on their operations.  If history is any guide, derivative litigation alleging director and officer mismanagement is likely to follow.  Directors and officers of public companies should exercise great care in any public statements regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses, and carefully consider and document the steps they are taking to oversee and respond to COVID-19 developments.

To read more, please click here.

COVID-19: "Employer Guidance for Addressing Possible Layoffs and Closures"

As employers grapple with staffing while dealing with the current COVID-19 crisis, they need to be mindful of their obligations under federal and state legislation addressing certain closures and layoffs.

Under the federal Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, 29 U.S.C. §2101, covered employers must provide at 60 calendar days written notice of a covered “plant closing” or “mass layoff.”  WARN contains various definitions that establish:

• Which employers must give notice;
• When such notice must be given;
• Who must receive notice;
• What must the notice contain; and
• When notice may be excused.

To read more, please click here.

COVID-19: Issues Facing the Airline Industry

As the novel coronavirus / COVID-19 continues to cause economic and social turmoil across the globe, the airline industry is suffering particularly acute hardships.  US carriers, including Delta, American, United and Southwest, have announced plans to cut their international routes by as much as 80% to 90% over the next several months, and domestic capacity is now being reduced by 20%-40%.  Foreign carriers have been impacted even more harshly.  Ryanair has announced it may have to ground its entire fleet, Air France has announced cuts into its flight schedule of up to 90% and British Airways has made similar cuts of up to 75%.  Furthermore, the aircraft that continue to fly are far from full.  Along with these flight reductions, airlines have grounded fleets of their larger aircraft, instituted hiring freezes and in some cases commenced layoffs, and US airlines are actively seeking ways to preserve cash on hand and obtain relief from the federal government.

To read more, please click here.

To stay abreast of developments through this unprecedented situation, continue to monitor the Consumer Law Round-Up blog and visit the resource library for helpful reference materials.

By:  Alexander M. Smith 

While the Ninth Circuit’s decision reflects a welcome concern about the use of pre-certification discovery to identify potential clients, it further exacerbates the stark contrasts between class action practice in California state courts and California federal courts.

In class actions, named plaintiffs frequently seek discovery from the defendant regarding the identities and contact information of other putative class members. While some view this practice as a normal method of obtaining information about other similarly situated consumers, others view it as a way for plaintiffs’ lawyers to fish for potential plaintiffs—either in new lawsuits, or as a “backup” in the event the court finds the original named plaintiff atypical or inadequate.

In spite of these concerns about fishing expeditions, California state courts have consistently permitted named plaintiffs in class actions to obtain pre-certification discovery regarding the names and contact information of other putative class members. Indeed, the California Supreme Court has repeatedly blessed this practice, holding that the interests of named plaintiffs in seeking relief on behalf of similarly situated consumers—and the broad scope of discovery under California law—weighed in favor of requiring defendants to identify other potential members of the class. See Pioneer Elecs. (USA) v. Superior Court, 40 Cal. 4th 360, 373-74 (2007); Williams v. Superior Court, 3 Cal. 5th 531, 547 (2017).