Seventh Circuit

Despite a lead plaintiff with unique injuries, the Northern District of Indiana recently certified a class seeking economic damages under Indiana’s consumer protection statute in a case challenging contaminated hand sanitizer manufactured by 4e Brands North America, LLC.  Callantine v. 4e Brands North America, LLC, 2024 WL 4903361 (N.D. Ind. Nov. 27, 2024). 

In June 2020, Defendant 4e voluntarily recalled all of its hand sanitizer lots due to the presence of methanol.  The plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit two months later, alleging that she had suffered both economic and personal injuries, and that she was entitled to statutory damages.  The individual class members’ damages, however, would be “largely limited to statutory damages.” Continue Reading Unique Injuries No Bar to Class Certification Pursuing Economic Damages

A court in the Northern District of Illinois recently denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the alleged inclusion of artificial citric acid in a product rendered the “No Artificial Flavors, Preservatives, or Dyes” representation on the front label false and/or misleading.  Hayes v. Kraft Heinz Co., 2024 WL 4766319 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 13, 2024). Continue Reading Illinois Federal Court Permits Citric Acid Case To Proceed

The Seventh Circuit has added its voice to a growing circuit split on Rule 23(c)(4) issue classes.  In Jacks v. DirecSat USA, LLC—a long-running class action alleging wage and hour violations by DirectSat satellite service technicians—that court weighed in on the scope of Rule 23(c)(4) and its interplay with Rule 23(b).  Jacks v. DirectSat USA, LLC, __ F.4th __, 2024 WL 4380256 (7th Cir. Oct. 3, 2024).             

Jacks had a lengthy procedural history.  After initially certifying a Rule 23(b)(3) class, the District Court decertified it following a 2013 Seventh Circuit decision.  Id. at *2.  Thereafter, the District Court certified “fifteen liability-related issues to proceed on a classwide basis under Rule 23(c)(4).”  Id.  Nearly four years later, the case was assigned to a new judge.  Id. at *3.  Three years after that, defendants moved to decertify the issue classes.  Id.  The new judge agreed, decertifying the issue classes because “defendants’ liability [could not] be determined on a classwide basis” and so the classes did not satisfy Rule 23(b)(3).  Id. Continue Reading What’s the Issue? Seventh Circuit Clarifies Scope of Rule 23(c)(4) Issue Classes

A recent Seventh Circuit decision, Wallrich v. Samsung Elecs. Am., Inc., — F.4th —-, 2024 WL 3249646 (7th Cir. July 1, 2024), will be of interest to companies facing mass arbitration demands.Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Reverses Order Compelling Payment of Mass Arbitration Fees

An Illinois federal court has dismissed a proposed class action alleging X Corp. violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) through its use of PhotoDNA software to create “hashes” of images to scan for nudity and related content. The court held that Plaintiff failed to allege that the hashes identified photo subjects and therefore failed to allege that the hashes constituted biometric identifiers. Martell v. X Corp., 2024 WL 3011353, at *4 (N.D. Ill. June 13, 2024).Continue Reading Illinois Federal Court Dismisses BIPA Suit Against X, Holding “Biometric Identifiers” Must Identify Individuals

In two recent decisions, federal courts of appeals confirmed they are prepared to give close scrutiny to a class settlement that offers a hefty payday to plaintiffs’ counsel with very little genuine benefit to any class.Continue Reading A Closer Look:  Appellate Courts Closely Scrutinize Settlements

In Scott v. Dart, 99 F.4th 1076 (7th Cir. 2024), the Seventh Circuit held that incentive awards are sufficient to confer standing on named plaintiffs in appeals of class certification orders.  In doing so, it declined to follow a recent Eleventh Circuit decision holding that incentive awards are unlawful.Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Declines to Deepen Circuit Split on Incentive Awards

An Illinois federal district court recently dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction a publicity privacy suit against Geneanet, which the complaint alleges is a French subsidiary of Ancestry.com that owns and operates an interactive genealogy website. See Shebesh v. Geneanet, S.A., No. 23-cv-4195 (N.D. Ill. May 3, 2024). Plaintiff Ethan Shebesh sued on behalf of himself and a putative class under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act, which prevents the use of an individual’s identity for a commercial purpose without the individual’s consent. 765 ILCS 1075/30(a). Shebesh asserted that Geneanet unlawfully used his and the putative class members’ names and other identifying information to advertise and sell premium memberships. Concluding that the plaintiff failed to show that Geneanet intentionally directed its conduct at Illinois, the court granted Geneanet’s motion to dismiss.Continue Reading Illinois Federal Court Dismisses Publicity Privacy Suit Against French Genealogy Site for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

The Northern District of Illinois recently denied certification to several proposed classes of purchasers of a seizure drug called Acthar in City of Rockford v. Mallinckrodt ARD, Inc., No. 3:17-cv-50107, 2024 WL 1363544 (Mar. 29, 2024).  Class plaintiffs had alleged that defendant Express Scripts, a drug distributor, conspired with Mallinckrodt, a drug manufacturer, to raise the price of Acthar through an exclusive distribution arrangement.  In denying certification to the damages classes, the court determined that plaintiffs had not met Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance standard because they lacked a reliable economic model showing that damages were “capable of measurement on a classwide basis,” as required by Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 569 U.S. 27, 34 (2013).Continue Reading Court Denies Class Certification in Antitrust Case Based on Expert’s Reliance on Unsupported Assumptions in Damages Model

Numerous student athletes have filed putative class actions against the NCAA and its member institutions for injuries resulting from concussions sustained while playing college sports, some of which have been consolidated into an MDL.  The MDL court recently denied certification of several Rule 23(c)(4) issues classes based on the plaintiffs’ earlier waiver of the ability to seek certification of a 23(c)(4) class.  See In re NCAA Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation—Single Sport/Single School (Football), 2024 WL 1242987 (N.D. Ill. March 22, 2024).Continue Reading Illinois Federal Court Denies Certification of Student-Athlete Issues Classes on Waiver Grounds