Latest Posts
Search for:
Category

Class Actions

Category
In Canada

No Jurisdictional Restraint Required: Ontario Court of Appeal Certifies Global Class Action

by 4 Mins Read

The Ontario Court of Appeal in Excalibur Special Opportunities LP v. Schwartz Levitsky Feldman LLP 2016 ONCA 916, has overturned two lower decisions, certifying a securities fraud class action against a Canadian auditor in which 98% of the class members were not Canadian. The judgment offers helpful guidance to parties seeking to bring or defend global class actions in Ontario.

The class action is based on allegations of negligence and negligent misrepresentation over an audit report prepared by Schwartz Levitsky Feldman LLP (“SLF”). Excalibur is a Toronto-based fund and was one of 57 “accredited investors” that invested a total of $7.5 million in Southern China Livestock International Inc. (“Southern China”), a Nevada company that owned and operated hog farms in China. One other investor was a Canadian resident, 50 were American and the remaining investors resided in the Cayman Islands, Samoa, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. In 2010, SLF prepared a one-page audit report of Southern China’s financial statements that was appended to a private placement memorandum. The essence of the claim is that in light of the true state of Southern China’s all-cash business, SLF could not have provided a clean audit report in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, as it had professed to.

In Class Actions

California State Court Consumer Privacy Class Actions Likely To Increase In 2017

by 3 Mins Read

Consumer-facing corporations had been hopeful over the past two years that a ruling from the United States Supreme Court, in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), would deter and diminish the prevalence of consumer class actions in the U.S. But, when the Supreme Court issued its decision in May 2016, attorneys representing both plaintiffs and defendants claimed victory, foreshadowing the competing interpretations that lower courts would subsequently have for the decision.

The Supreme Court opined in Spokeo that a consumer did not have the right (or “standing”) to bring a class action by alleging only a bare procedural violation of a statute divorced from any concrete harm. The defendants’ class action bar believed the Spokeo decision would curtail all class actions premised on bare claims of technical violations of consumer protection statutes causing no harm. However, instead of curbing such cases, the decision resulted in a split among the federal courts as to the meaning of “concrete harm.” Thus, the decision spawned an increase in litigation by affording both sides the ability to frame the decision in their favor, with the outcome dependent upon a court’s unpredictable interpretation.

In Class Actions

The Dutch Act On Collective Settlements: Caveat ‘Opt-Outer’, Broad Application Of Collective Settlements And Objective Construction Of Settlement Agreement

by 4 Mins Read

The Dutch Act on Collective Settlements (Wet collectieve afwikkeling massaschade or “Wcam”) was introduced in 2005 and revised in 2013. It offers the possibility to get a declaration that a settlement is binding on the entire class (as defined in the settlement agreement), much like a U.S. class settlement. Despite its existence for over a decade, there are hardly any precedents on it from the Supreme Court. The reason for that is probably that only…

In Class Actions

Northern District Of Illinois Poised To Decide Whether Product Recall Efforts Can Trump TCPA Policy Against Automated Calls Even Where The Company Has Repeatedly Contacted The Wrong Number

by 6 Mins Read

In order to avoid civil and criminal penalties, any commercial company producing consumer goods or related products, like automotive vehicles, knows it will need to fashion its business around meeting certain product safety standards. For example, for consumer products, companies must ensure that their products comply with several related statutes and regulations, including the Consumer Product Safety Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2051 et seq., the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, Pub. L. No. 110-314, 122 Stat. 3016, and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1261 et seq., as implemented by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Likewise, for automotive vehicles, companies must comply with the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (“MVSA”), 49 U.S.C. § 30101 et seq. and the regulations set forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Importantly, both sets of laws include a mechanism by which products can and should be recalled if found to be defective and unsafe subsequent to being sold to consumers. Moreover, such recall efforts typically take the form of a multimedia campaign, including but not limited to mass publications, individual mailings, and targeted telephone calls, in part because such efforts allow companies to provide notice of safety issues to the greatest subset of customers in the most efficient, quick, and cost-effective way possible.

In Class Actions

The Netherlands Will Introduce Collective Action For Monetary Damages

by 5 Mins Read

The Netherlands will get a collective action for monetary damages, not dissimilar to a US-style class action. The government placed a bill to that effect before Parliament on 15 November 2016. However, the Netherlands are keen to avoid what is widely seen, at least in this country, as the downside of class action litigation: blackmail settlements, because of the reputational risk and prohibitive cost of defense that a class action involves, and plaintiff’s lawyers receiving the bulk of the proceeds, whereas little money goes to the aggrieved parties.

In Canada

Courts Give the Green Light for Fraud-Based Class Actions in Canadian Insolvency Proceedings

by 4 Mins Read

Both of Canada’s primary insolvency statutes, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) provide for an automatic stay of all legal proceedings when an insolvent debtor files for or seeks insolvency protection. The purpose of the stay is to provide breathing space to a debtor attempting to restructure its business so as to avoid “death by a thousand cuts” and also to ensure similarly situated creditors are treated equally. While it is an integral part of Canada’s insolvency regime, the stay of proceedings is not inviolable and there have been a number of noteworthy cases where Canadian courts have considered whether to lift the statutory stay and permit proposed class actions to proceed where the plaintiff has alleged fraud.

In Class Actions

Court Dismisses Antitrust Claim Against Chinese Vitamin C Company

by 5 Mins Read

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (the “Second Circuit”) in New York has vacated and reversed a $147 million antitrust verdict against a Chinese vitamin C manufacturer and its holding company, ruling that the district court should have granted Defendants’ original motion to dismiss. The case represents the first time an agency of the Chinese government, MOFCOM, appeared as amicus in a U.S. court to inform the U.S. court of applicable Chinese law, an occasion which the Court of Appeals called historic.

Plaintiffs, U.S. vitamin C purchasers, brought a class action on behalf of all such purchasers alleging that Defendant Chinese manufacturers violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act with the “purpose and effect of fixing prices, controlling the support of vitamin C to be exported to the United States and worldwide ….” They asserted that Defendants and the China Chamber of Commerce of Medicines & Health Products Importers & Exporters (the “Chamber”) colluded in order to create a vitamin C shortage in the international market, and that Defendants and the Chamber entered into agreements to restrict exports of vitamin C by limiting production and increasing pricing. According to plaintiffs, this had the effect of creating the shortage and maintaining China’s status as a leading exporter.

In Class Actions

Public Comment Period Open for Proposed Amendments to Civil Rule of Civil Procedure 23

by 7 Mins Read

In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 (“Rule 23”). In April of this year, the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (“Advisory Committee”) unanimously voted to forward proposed amendments to Rule 23 to the Standing Committee on Rule of Practice and Procedure (“Standing Committee”) with a recommendation that the proposed amendments be published for public comment. After making some modifications, the Standing Committee approved…

In Antitrust

Global Guide to Competition Litigation

by , , , and 1 Min Read

Twenty six countries now authorize private civil damage actions for antitrust/competition law allegations. In several of these countries, claims may proceed as class or collective claims. Litigation strategy requires accounting for all claims, and coordinating them with regulatory investigations by government antitrust authorities. Consistency in approach, while dealing with the requirements of local laws, can be key to resolving antitrust matters for global companies. Our Global Guide to Competition Litigation (2016) helps to orient you…

In Canada

Ontario Court of Appeal Lifts Stay of Claim on Cross-Border Securities Class Action

by and 2 Mins Read

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently reconsidered its decision (the “Original Stay Appeal”) to stay a securities class action claim in Canada, on the basis that Ontario was not the most appropriate forum, where the securities at issue were purchased on foreign stock exchanges. Leave to appeal the Original Stay Appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada. In its most recent decision the Court of Appeal considered an argument that the Original Stay Appeal…

Load More