UNITED STATES – Any company that makes sales through the Internet to New Jersey consumers should be aware of a recent trend in consumer class actions based on New Jersey’s Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (the “TCCWNA”), N.J.S.A. 56:12-14, et seq. The plaintiff’s bar is attracted to the TCCWNA as a basis for consumer class actions because, like many other statutes underlying consumer class actions [1], it provides for statutory damages and attorneys’ fees…

UNITED STATES – In Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo, regarding alleged uncompensated time spent by a class of employees donning and doffing hard hats, work boots, gloves, and earplugs, the plaintiff workers supported their claim by submitting averages and other statistical analysis to show similarities between disparate class members. The statistics were achieved through 744 observations of employees conducting such off-the-clock activities to average the length of time spent. The average time was then added to…

UNITED STATES – In Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, the Supreme Court refused to allow class-action defendants to escape liability through an unaccepted offer of full payment of the named plaintiff’s claims. This resolved a deep circuit split on the issue. The Court concluded that “basic principles of contract law” established that once the offer was rejected, the offer could not moot the claim. Interestingly, the Court expressly refused to decide whether a defendant could escape…

UNITED STATES – The Supreme Court has once again spoken decisively in favor of class action waivers in arbitration agreements. In DirecTV, Inc. v. Imburgia, the Court explained in no uncertain terms that “[t]he Federal Arbitration Act is a law of the United States, and Concepcion is an authoritative interpretation of that Act. Consequently, the judges of every State must follow it.” The Court thus reversed a decision of the California Court of Appeal that…

UNITED STATES – On November 2, 2015, the Supreme Court heard oral argument on an issue that is likely to have a significant impact on the future of consumer class action litigation. The issue before the Court was whether Congress may confer Article III standing upon a plaintiff who suffers no concrete harm, and who therefore could not otherwise invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court, by authorizing a private right of action based on…

UNITED STATES – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently announced that it intends to limit the scope of mandatory arbitration clauses contained in consumers’ agreements with credit card companies and other consumer financial institutions. To this point, credit card companies have been able to obstruct efforts by aggrieved consumers to bring class actions by invoking mandatory arbitration provisions in their contracts, known as “free pass” clauses. Under those provisions, aggrieved consumers must redress their…

UNITED STATES – Big business was dealt a blow this past July when the FCC issued a new Declaratory Ruling that significantly strengthens the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA is probably best known for spurring the FCC in 2003 to implement a National Do Not Call Registry (Registry) that generally prohibits telemarketers from placing solicitation calls to consumers who have added their names to the Registry. The FCC has since issued in 2012…

UNITED STATES – Consumer class actions are often brought in the federal courts sitting in California, and in other states, based on alleged false advertising in violation of one or more California consumer protection statutes, including the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1750, et seq.), the Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §17200) and the False Advertising Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17500, et seq.). The defendants in…

In the United States, deceptive pricing class actions are currently en vogue. Generally, plaintiffs in these cases claim that they were deceived into purchasing a product by a misleading comparison price that signals a misleading value. These prices are often labelled “compare at,” “manufacturer’s suggested retail price,” or something similar. The most common targets of these lawsuits have been outlet stores, but the trend could expand to any retailer (or manufacturer) who communicates a price…

In Ewing Indus. Corp. v. Bob Wines Nursery, Inc., a decision issued on August 3, 2015, an Eleventh Circuit panel held that a purported class action does not toll the statute of limitations for a later class action seeking to represent the same class when the original purported class action was dismissed due to the inadequacy of a class representative, regardless of whether the determination of inadequacy occurs before or as part of a decision…