MillerCoors LLC won the dismissal of a proposed class action lawsuit by a self-described beer aficionado who said the brewing giant tricked consumers into paying premium prices for Blue Moon by falsely portraying it as “craft beer.” U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego said the plaintiff, Evan Parent, did not show MillerCoors affirmatively misrepresented the origins of Blue Moon, a …
The Battle of the Bibs continues. Mike Hicks and 167 other professional caddies have appealed U.S. District Judge Vince Girdhari Chhabria’s decision to dismiss their $50 million class-action lawsuit against the PGA Tour. The caddies raised contract, antitrust and intellectual property claims against the Tour when they filed suit in February 2015, alleging that the Tour had reduced them to …
The U.S. Justice Department has formally appealed a federal judge’s approval of class action status for a lawsuit blaming the Army Corps of Engineers for declining lost property values caused in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward by floodwaters during Hurricane Katrina and later storms. That status would make thousands of residents and businesses eligible for damage awards that …
A federal appeals court has ruled that a 2011 discrimination lawsuit against Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops can proceed. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Texas by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2011, accuses the outdoor retailer of discriminating against black and Hispanic job applicants, The Springfield News-Leader reported .
A Georgia federal court has considered whether a former homeowner’s lawsuit against the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) for conversion of property that she had left in her home after the property was foreclosed could proceed. Elizabeth Mwangi (“Owner”) owned a residential property with a mortgage. The Owner experienced financial hardship and stopped making mortgage payments …
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear appeals by Visa Inc, Mastercard Inc and several U.S. banks seeking to throw out lawsuits claiming they conspired to inflate the prices of ATM access fees in violation of antitrust …
Handing a victory to Facebook, a federal judge has ruled that the company won’t have to face a class-action lawsuit for allegedly violating its privacy policy by “leaking” people’s personal information to advertisers. U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte said this week that class-action treatment isn’t appropriate because “individualized questions will predominate” in the dispute. Most of …
The biggest money-damages antitrust settlement in U.S. history died Thursday at the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals. Not because of last year’s scandal surrounding leaks to a onetime MasterCard lawyer since charged with fraud, but because the agreement between credit card giants MasterCard, Visa and the merchants suing them for inflating certain fees was fundamentally unfair to some of the retailers. …
A $7.25 billion settlement between merchants and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. over credit card transaction fees was rejected Thursday by a federal appeals court, a ruling praised by a retail trade association as a victory for consumers. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the 12 million merchants covered by the antitrust class action were inadequately represented by law …
In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected a settlement agreement between retailers and credit card issuers. Millions of retailers had reached a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement [NYT report] with Visa USA and MasterCard International [corporate websites] in 2013. However, after determining that some of …