Companies

What’s Behind the Rise in Shareholder Class Actions?

There’s been several high profile class actions launched by unhappy shareholders against the companies they invest in (otherwise known as securities class actions) lately in Australia. The common theme is a claim these companies have not been straight with investors, issuing falsely optimistic information or concealing negative information. If it’s proved to be true, this sort of conduct does …


Chicken Farmers Demand More Scratch in Class-Action Lawsuit

Five different chicken companies face a class action suit from five farmers in as many states claiming that the companies’ systems treated them like indentured servants. Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue Farms, Koch Foods and Sanderson Farms are all accused of fixing compensation for farmers, some of whom are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, according to the Associated Press. While the …


Did Donald Trump’s Nordstrom Tweet Open Him Up to a Lawsuit?

Ethics watchdogs who have long warned of the potential conflicts posed by the Trump family’s business interests were quick to cry foul on Wednesday. Importantly, they also saw it as a potential new opening to take Trump to court. Currently, the most high-profile legal challenge to Donald Trump’s business empire concerns what is known as the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution, which bars …


Elon Musk’s Companies Join Immigration Ban Lawsuit

Tesla and SpaceX — two companies owned by Elon Musk — have signed on to a legal brief in support of a lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees. Musk has been on the defensive for the past week for remaining a member of the president’s advisory councils in the wake …


Top U.S. Chicken Processors Face Lawsuit Over Farmer Pay

A group of U.S. chicken farmers sued the country’s biggest poultry processors, including Tyson Foods Inc, for allegedly conspiring to depress their pay, the latest accusation of improper collusion in the sector. Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride Co, Sanderson Farms Inc and other companies illegally agreed to share detailed data on grower pay with one another to keep …


[Opinion] Disney Settles Anti-Poaching Lawsuit

Poaching in the entertainment industry hit the news late last year when 21st Century Fox accused Netflix, Inc. of poaching employees in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. v. Netflix Inc., SC12643. Poaching, or lack thereof (anti-poaching), hit the news this week as Disney settled …


Can Companies Bar Workers From Class-Action Claims?

This article is a follow-up to Wednesday’s story on the growing threat of class-action lawsuits against companies over wage-and-hour practices. The Supreme Court’s mid-January decision to take on a trio of cases related to class actions may serve to decide a hotly contested issue that’s of great economic consequence to many companies. The issue is around arbitration agreements, in which a …


Obama’s Parting Gift to the Company Formerly Known as Sallie Mae: A Big Fat Lawsuit

On the last day of the Obama administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wanted to give millions of Americans with student loan debt a little gift: filing a lawsuit against Navient (formerly known as Sallie Mae) for grimy, misleading practices. BuzzFeed reports : Among the most serious allegations is the claim that Navient systematically pushed struggling borrowers away from …


Volkswagen ‘Has Shown Utter Contempt’: U.K. Motorists Turn to Class Action

It seems Britain is increasingly getting a taste for turning to the courts in search of resolution. The first group litigation order has just been filed in claims arising out of the Volkswagen emissions scandal against VW, Audi, SEAT and Skoda. Harcus Sinclair U.K. Limited, a leading U.K. law firm specializing in large group litigation is the lead solicitor, collaborating with other law firms …


A New Health Lawsuit Compares Big Soda to the Tobacco Industry

The term “Big Soda” gets thrown around a lot to describe how soda companies have a tendency to act like the big, bad oil and tobacco companies who wield immense lobbying power and advertising budgets to match. It might sound like an exaggeration to compare the big three soda companies (The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group) to corporations like Philip Morris, but a …