Source: https://cei.org/litigation/issues/11175/all/11185/all
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 19:20:44+00:00

Document:
In 2013, CEI's Center for Class Action Fairness objected to and then appealed the approval of a nationwide class settlement where 0.2% of the class received a cash benefit, a total of $225,000, and the remaining class members received low-value coupons. In the same settlement, $8.85 million went to the plaintiffs' lawyers and $3 million to local San Diego universities, including class counsel's alma maters. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit vacated the settlement approval and remanded for further consideration.
Plaintiffs claimed that the defendants' gift- and flower-delivery websites violated state and federal law by enrolling customers in rewards programs after luring them with the promise of worthless coupons. Oddly, class counsel negotiated a settlement consisting almost entirely of low-value coupons for class members. These coupons were nearly worthless as they expired after a year, were devalued because they precluded the use of standard freely-available 20% discounts, and could not be used on major holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Mother's Day, or Christmas. Nevertheless, the district court approved the settlement again on August 9, 2016, and CCAF again appealed the settlement approval.
At the Ninth Circuit, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary affirmance that was denied. CCAF filed its opening brief on May 1, 2017. That same month, 13 state attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting CCAF’s challenge. Oral argument will be heard on May 17, 2018.
On October 31, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case Frank v. Gaos. On appeal from the Ninth Circuit, this case originates from an unfair class action settlement in Gaos v Google, a privacy lawsuit where plaintiffs sued Google for trillions of dollars in statutory damages for alleged federal privacy violations over their search engine.
CEI's Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) objected to the class action settlement negotiated by the plaintiffs' lawyers and Google because it provided $0 to class members, but divided $8.5 million between the plaintiffs’ lawyers and cy pres recipients. Under the settlement, the class members who claim harm are entirely ignored, while the class attorneys collect more than $2 million and a handful of third-party organizations—called cy pres recipients—receive over $5 million.
What’s worse is in this case, the cy pres recipients include class counsel's alma maters and several organizations that Google already supports through donations. This means Google was able to get rid of a lawsuit brought by 100 million class members by making no material changes to its practices and simply donating to many of the same groups it supports anyway. This unfair settlement is a textbook example of cy pres abuse and should be struck down by the court.
Carlyle v. Akorn, Inc. et al.
On September 18, 2017, CCAF attorney Theodore H. Frank moved to intervene and vindicate Walgreens’ directive to end such strike suits. The underlying cases concern the acquisition of Akorn, Inc. by pharmaceutical giant Fresenius Kabi AG. Plaintiffs in these suits have convinced Akorn to pay $322,500 in attorneys’ fees, although no benefit has accrued to the class—only immaterial supplemental disclosures, just as in Walgreens. The award of attorneys’ fees constitutes an end-run around Walgreens precedent and also appears to violate the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PLSRA) and basic principles of federal class action law.
The Akorn cases illustrate plaintiffs’ shift in tactics since CCAF’s win in Walgreens. Instead of settling merger strike suits, plaintiffs dismiss with the understanding they will apply for “mootness fees,” of hundreds of thousands of dollars per merger. This tactic has spread like wildfire in Delaware and the Federal Courts, and has enabled a dramatic uptick in merger strike suit filings. Suits against 95 merging companies were filed in the first half of 2017 compared to only 28 in the first half of 2016.
By intervening in the Akorn cases, Frank and CCAF hope to disgorge attorneys’ fees unjustly appropriated by strike suit files, and enjoin or at least discourage the filing of frivolous strike suits nationwide.
In this antitrust price-fixing case, the settlement includes a nationwide class indirect purchasers of lithium ion batteries in a variety of electronic equipment. Only about 26 states provide a cause of action for such indirect purchasers, however, and under federal law such purchasers do not have a cause of action.
As a result, a nationwide class of indirect purchasers unfairly disadvantages--and dilutes the recovery of--those indirect purchasers who have a legal cause of action in violation of Rule 23. One of the disadvantaged class members, Frank Bednarz, objected to the class certification and settlement fairness.
The district court approved the settlement on October 27, 2017.
Bednarz has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Ninth Circuit.
In November 2016, a Boston Globe’s Spotlight team reporter contacted Theodore H. Frank, director of CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) concerning double-billing the Globe had spotted in a recent class action settlement by politically active Thornton Law Firm of Massachusetts. Thornton, along with two large plaintiffs firms, Labaton Sucharow LLP and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP had received nearly $75 million in fees for their work on the case, and on November 10, 2017 the lead firm Labaton wrote to the court to advise it had double-counted hours from 17 different “staff attorneys” hired on a temporary basis, with charges worth over $4 million. The class attorneys asserted in the letter and still assert that the attorneys’ fee award in this matter was reasonable and should not be reduced.
In this class action plaintiffs alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933 arising from allegedly material misstatements and omissions by Brazilian majority-state-owned oil company Petrobras about the value of its assets and other financial matters, internal controls over financial reporting, and the transparency of its management and operations.
The settlement reached in the case will distribute funds to class members who purchased Petrobras securities in both domestic and foreign transactions. Foreign-transaction purchasers have no claim under U.S. securities laws, however, and, as a result, the allocation of funds to them dilutes the recovery for U.S. shareholders with valid claims.
This result was reached by counsel representing both sets of purchasers, despite their sharp conflict of interests. On behalf of class member William Thomas Haynes, CEI is objecting to the inadequate representation provided by class counsel as evidenced by this settlement process and result, as well as to the excessive fees sought by class counsel. Class counsel is seeking fees of $285 million based on nearly $100 million in overbilling in their alleged lodestar where no multiplier of the value of their time is warranted due to the low risk of the litigation or the result where the size of the recovery is largely due to the size of the class, scope of misconduct, and prior government enforcement actions.
Settlement approval is currently pending before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The Center became involved in the case in 2014 when it objected to a class action settlement that would have provided attorneys $4.5 million but less than $900,000 to the class. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit agreed and reversed approval of the “selfish” settlement. Thanks to the Center’s objection, the parties negotiated a new settlement providing the class with more than $3 million additional recovery. The new settlement was approved August 25, 2016.
The new settlement was opposed by three professional objectors—that is, objectors who threaten to hold up a class action settlement unless they are paid to go away. Courts and commentators have criticized professional objectors, who essentially demand blackmail from settling parties. In this case, the settling parties are believed to have paid the three appellants to drop their appeals, which they did November 7.
On July 31, 2017, CEI filed its opening brief in its appeal of the district court’s handling of the new settlement in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
This class action relates to a data breach of Anthem's computer system containing personal information of 78.8 million people, with a claims-made settlement that proposes to pay $40.95 million to class counsel, $23 million to settlement administrators, and $52 million to the class in the form of credit monitoring and cash.
On behalf of class member Adam Schulman, CEI is challenging the excessiveness of the attorneys' fee request. In particular, CEI is arguing that because this is a megafund case, any fee award should be significantly less than the 25% benchmark; the unusually sizable settlement-administration costs require reduction in the valuation of the settlement; and plaintiffs' counsel drastically overstated their lodestar with millions of dollars of work by contract attorneys billed at excessive rates and with duplication of effort.
CEI asked the court to investigate overbilling that was not disclosed to the court or the class. Judge Koh agreed and appointed a special master to investigate overbilling in the Anthem case on February 8, 2018.
On April 24, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California released retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg's special master report and recommendations based on his review of the time and expenses spent litigating the Anthem case.
CEI's Center for Class Action Fairness objected to a cynical class action settlement in Campbell v. Facebook, Inc. This class action arose from Facebook's alleged practice of capturing and using URL content in its users' personal Facebook messages without their consent. The parties reached a lopsided settlement in which the plaintiffs' attorneys recover $3.9 million while the class gets injunctive relief consisting of 22 words regarding Facebook's practices added to a Facebook help page.
Class member Anna St. John objected to the unfairness of this disproportionate allocation and to the inadequacy of the class representatives who tried to foist such a settlement on the class with no notice other than postings on the law firms' websites.
The fairness hearing was held on August 9, 2017. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California approved the settlement on August 18, 2017.
"We had hoped the court would recognize that this settlement exemplifies the worst of lawyer-driven class actions and should not be approved under existing law,” said CCAF director Ted Frank about the decision. “The class relief is entirely illusory and yet the attorneys claim they are entitled to millions of dollars in fees."
CCAF has appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
In the original case, Gaos v. Google, plaintiffs sued Google seeking trillions of dollars in statutory damages for alleged federal privacy violations over their search engine. CEI's Center for Class Action Fairness objected to the class action settlement negotiated by the plaintiffs' lawyers in Gaos v. Google because it provided $0 to class members and $8.5 million to be divided between the plaintiffs’ lawyers – who received $1000/hour on this case – and cy pres recipients. Cy pres recipients included organizations that were not parties in the litigation, including class counsel's alma maters, and several organizations that Google already supports through donations.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California approved the settlement in Gaos v. Google over CCAF's objection. CCAF appealed the settlement approval to the Ninth Circuit, and oral argument was heard on March 13, 2017. On August 22, 2017, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order approving a cy pres only settlement. On September 5, 2017, CCAF requested a rehearing.
CCAF has been a pioneer of protecting consumers and shareholders from the abusive practice of cy pres, winning landmark appellate decisions on the question in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015. The Ninth Circuit court’s decision on this case could affect future class-action settlements, especially the use of cy pres awards.
On September 5, 2017, CCAF requested a rehearing, but the Ninth Circuit denied motions for rehearing and rehearing en banc October 5, 2017. CCAF petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case on January 3, 2018. The Court has previously expressed interest in addressing cy pres issues.
Watch the March 13 oral argument below or on YouTube.
In this class action plaintiffs alleged that the extended overdrawn balance charges that Bank of America, N.A. charged on consumer checking accounts violated the usury provision of the National Bank Act. Under the settlement, class members--those who were charged an EOBC that was not refunded during the class period--will receive a pro rata share of the $37.5 million cash fund or, if their account was closed with a negative balance, "debt reduction" up to $35 at a collective value of $29.1 million.
Class counsel sought attorneys' fees of more than $7700 per hour of work on the case. They requested fees of $16.6 million while their claimed lodestar is only $1.4 million. The alleged lodestar itself appears to be overinflated meaning that they are asking the court to award them between 11 and 18 times the value of the time they spent working on the case. At the same time, class members recover less than 10% of the potential value of their claims. On behalf of a class member, CCAF is objecting to the windfall fees requested by class counsel.
In March 2012, CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness objected to the proposed settlement in a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart and Netflix over the price of online DVD rentals.
Later that month, the district court approved the settlement, agreeing with the settling parties that a coupon isn't a coupon if they call it a "gift card" instead, and that the restrictions on coupon settlements in the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) didn't apply.
CCAF disagreed with the district court and believed the ruling was contrary to Seventh Circuit precedent. CCAF appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.
On March 13, 2015, Ted Frank petitioned for a rehearing en banc of the decision but that was denied on June 18, 2015. The Ninth Circuit issued its final mandate on June 29, 2015.
In June 2016, CCAF objected to the cy pres distribution of the settlement funds remaining due to uncashed and voided checks, undeliverable e-gift cards, and unused reserve funds. On August 31, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued its order. As a result of CCAF’s objection, more than $2.3 million was distributed to class members instead of unrelated organizations such as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The parties had originally requested that these dollars be awarded to organizations unrelated to the litigation, a practice known as cy pres.
In Leung et al. v. XPO Logistics, Inc., CEI is objecting to a class action settlement fee request in a case involving an IKEA contractor’s alleged violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA is a law that protects consumers from telephone solicitations, and the IKEA contractor allegedly violated the law by calling customer cell phones for them to take an automated survey about recent furniture delivery by the contractor.
CEI argues the plaintiffs’ attorneys are attempting to overpay themselves by taking over one-third of the net settlement fund, or $2.33 million, which is substantially more than the median fee award in similar cases. The settlement proposes to distribute checks from a $7 million fund—less attorneys’ fees and administration costs—to the fraction of 313,000 class members who file claims. In TCPA class actions settlements, the median fee recovery for lawyers is 25 percent of the net recovery. Applying a more appropriate 25 percent fee structure in this case would return over $600,000 to the class members.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys also failed to document the time they spent on the case. Based on past TCPA cases, it’s likely a $2.33 million fee award is five or ten times the base amount of hourly fees (called a “lodestar”) that the attorneys would normally receive. Therefore, even a 25% award likely overcompensates attorneys.
CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness objected to an unfair settlement deal resulting from the much-publicized 2013 data breach at retail giant Target Corporation. Forty-one million consumers had credit card information stolen and 60 million consumers had personal information stolen as a result of the data breach. But the subsequent settlement deal helped class attorneys far more than class members. The terms of the deal provided a $10 million fund to class members that, in reality, is unlikely to be exhausted, gave class counsel a disproportionate $6.75 million fee, and left a large subclass of class members with zero recovery.
Representing class member Leif Olson, CEI attorneys argued that the class action could not be certified because it froze out millions of class members, releasing their claims for no recovery, without separate representation. CEI further objected to the excessive fee request and the inclusion of a "kicker" clause, whereby any decrease in the fee request would revert to the defendant (Target).
Nonetheless, the United States District Court for the District Of Minnesota approved the settlement deal, and in 2016, CEI appealed the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The appeal challenged both the district court’s error that class certification could not be revisited once granted and the violation of a federal rule requiring attorneys who represent a class to fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.
In February, 2017, CEI received an important ruling on its appeal. The Eighth Circuit remanded the case back to the district court, finding that the lower court abandoned its ongoing duty to ensure class certification was proper when the court had failed to consider CEI’s objections. Additionally, the judge reversed the lower court’s ruling for an unlawful appeal bond, resulting in $46,872 being returned to CEI.
CEI's Center for Class Action Fairness is challenging the legality of a class action settlement with Google that provides millions of dollars to the attorneys, and zero dollars to the class. Class members, who waive all rights to damages under the settlement, receive the same benefit whether or not they opt out.
In the original class action case, plaintiffs sued Google for alleged federal privacy violations over Google's circumvention of Safari browser users' privacy settings, but class counsel negotiated a settlement that provided $0 to class members and $5.5 million to be divided between class counsel and third-party charities. One of those charities is a non-profit for which co-lead counsel serves as chairman of the board, and several others are charities to which Google routinely donates, bringing into question the benefit to the class.
The Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) objected to the settlement, but was overruled by U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on February 2, 2017. CCAF director and class member in this case, Ted Frank, filed a notice of appeal on March 1, 2017. CCAF is challenging the final approval of the class action settlement in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
In July 2017, 13 state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of CCAF's objection. The state attorneys general agree with CCAF that the feasibility of distributing funds depends on whether it's impossible to distribute funds to some class members, not whether it's possible to distribute to all class members. According to CCAF director and senior attorney Ted Frank, this is an important distinction that helps prevent nearly every class-action settlement from turning into an abusive cy-pres-only settlement, which harms class members.
In this class action, plaintiffs allege that Art.com violated consumer protection laws and committed unlawful business practices by offering items on "sale" but at prices it ordinarily offers to consumers in the regular course of its business.
Under the settlement, class members will receive $10 vouchers for use on Art.com's ecommerce sites. The settlement has hallmarks of the coupon-settlement abuse that Congress targeted with the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005: Class members were not able to choose cash in place of a voucher, the vouchers expire in 18 months, and they can be used only for the narrow range of products available on those websites, where the average purchase price is almost twice as much as the voucher. Art.com also agreed to comply with the law going forward and to undertake a compliance program -- illusory relief that will not benefit the class of past-purchasing class members. Meanwhile, class counsel is seeking $745,000 in fees and expenses, unopposed by Art.com, despite notoriously low coupon redemption rates and, thus, minimal class benefit, in low-value consumer settlements such as this.
On August 22, 2017, the court issued a ruling finding the vouchers are coupons, approving the settlement, and deferring the issue of attorneys' fees until the coupon redemption rate is known. We will now await the coupon redemption information and further word from the court.
Edwards v. National Milk Producers Federation, et al.
On behalf of class member Joshua Holyoak, CEI's Center for Class Action Fairness objected to class counsel's excessive fee request in Edwards v. Milk. Under Ninth Circuit law, the appropriate benchmark for fees in a common fund case is 25 percent. Here, class counsel sought nearly 40 percent. CCAF urged the court to reduce the percentage of fees to 25 percent of the fund, after excluding notice and administrative costs that do not benefit the class, which would allow the class to recover an additional $7.2 million.
On June 26, 2017, in a victory for CCAF, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California adopted some of our objections, reducing the plaintiffs' attorneys fee request by 25 percent, from more than $17 million to $13 million.
CCAF Attorney Anna St. John commented on the victory, "The Court rightly recognized that the results achieved by plaintiffs were hardly exceptional and reduced the bloated fee request accordingly. Another $4.3 million will now go where it belongs, to the class members, and not to further enrich the attorneys."

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