Arbitration Consumer Class Actions US District Court - Mass
December 11, 2019 / January 3, 2020 by Melanie Conroy
It is a legal maxim that arbitration is a creature of contract. A recent District of Massachusetts decision explores critical questions about when that creature can exist outside of the confines of a binding agreement to arbitrate among the parties. The November 27, 2019 decision by Senior U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole ordered that […]
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Antitrust Class Actions Class Certifications Consumer Class Actions First Circuit Decisions US District Court - Mass US District Court - Rhode Island
November 18, 2019 by Josh Dunlap
About a year ago, I observed that the First Circuit in In re Asacol Antitrust Litigation had constrained plaintiffs’ ability to rely on affidavits to prove injury-in-fact. In so doing, the First Circuit substantially curtailed its prior decision in In re Nexium Antitrust Litigation, which certified a class containing uninjured consumers because class members would […]
Arbitration Consumer Class Actions Privacy Class Actions US District Court - Mass
November 15, 2019 / November 18, 2019 by Melanie Conroy
On November 4, 2019, in Wainblat v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, et. al., No. 19-cv-10976, the District of Massachusetts ordered that a consumer privacy class action against Comcast must be arbitrated on an individual basis because the claims are subject to a valid and enforceable arbitration provision. Against a backdrop of rapidly expanding consumer class […]
Consumer Class Actions Privacy Class Actions US District Court - Mass
October 1, 2019 by Melanie Conroy
On September 24, 2019, the District of Massachusetts held in Katz v. Liberty Power Corp., LLC that the government debt collection exemption to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), 47 U.S.C. §§ 227 et seq., is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. No. 18-cv-10506-ADB, 2019 WL 4645524 (D. Mass. Sept. 24, 2019). Following the […]
Class Certifications Class Representative Consumer Class Actions US District Court - Mass
August 20, 2019 by Melanie Conroy
Earlier this month, in Plastic Surgery Associates, SC v. Cynosure, Inc., United States District Judge Denise Casper denied plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and allowed Cynosure’s motion for summary judgment on claims arising from the marketing of a medical device intended to reduce body fat. The decision provides a searching and instructive analysis of the […]
Class Certifications Consumer Class Actions Fair Credit Reporting Act Privacy Class Actions US District Court - Mass
August 6, 2019 / April 29, 2021 by Melanie Conroy
In McIntyre v. RentGrow, Inc., No. 18-cv-12141-ADB, the District of Massachusetts recently denied a defendant’s motion to dismiss or to strike class claims in a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) action. The plaintiff’s complaint asserted FCRA claims on behalf of a nationwide class of tenants allegedly harmed by the defendant’s tenant screening reports that […]
Consumer Class Actions Legislation Privacy Class Actions US District Court - Mass
May 29, 2019 / May 30, 2019 by Melanie Conroy
As we have recently reported, the Massachusetts legislature is currently considering a comprehensive data privacy law that would create a private right of action for consumers who allege a violation of any provision of the proposed law. Last week, a Massachusetts federal court dismissed a data privacy class action, concluding that the plaintiffs failed to […]
Class Representative Lead Plaintiff Securities Class Actions Standing US District Court - Mass
May 20, 2019 / May 22, 2019 by Melanie Conroy
On May 16, 2019, the District of Massachusetts denied a lead plaintiff’s motion to amend a complaint that sought to overcome standing deficiencies of the original class representative by adding a new named plaintiff. The Court dismissed the putative class action without prejudice, holding that if a class action has only one representative, and that […]
Antitrust Class Actions First Circuit Decisions US District Court - Mass
October 17, 2018 / February 26, 2019 by Josh Dunlap
When last I wrote about ascertainability, I noted that a debate over the propriety of “ascertainability-by-affidavit” continued to percolate within the First Circuit even as lower courts relied on In re Nexium Antitrust Litigation to certify classes containing uninjured class members. Specifically, I noted a couple of developments. First, in In re Asacol Antitrust Litigation, […]
Antitrust Class Actions First Circuit Decisions US District Court - Mass US District Court - New Hampshire
December 7, 2017 / February 26, 2019 by Josh Dunlap
As various contributors to this blog have noted (here, here, and here), a divided panel of the First Circuit adopted a “loose” approach to the ascertainability requirement in In re Nexium Antitrust Litigation. Specifically, while acknowledging that “the definition of [a] class must be ‘definite,’” the majority concluded that this requirement could be satisfied by […]
