The Litigation Counsellor®

On March 25, 2021, class claims were filed in California federal court in the Northern District of California San Jose Division, against insurance giant GEICO General Insurance Company (“GEICO”) alleging that GEICO unfairly profited from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 10, 2021, plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against cereal giant, Kellogg Sales Co. (“Kellogg”), reached a revised $13 million settlement and presented it to California Northern Court Judge Lucy Koh for preliminary approval.

On March 8, 2021, Northern District of California Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied cryopreservation tank manufacturer Chart Industries’ (“Chart”) motion for summary judgment, thus keeping alive proposed class claims over the March 2018 malfunction of a Chart cryopreservation tank at the Pacific Fertility Center (“PFC”).

The suit was originally filed on March 13, 2018, by named plaintiff S.M. In the complaint, the plaintiff describes how she, and many others, relied on PFC and its Chart cryopreservation tanks to maintain and preserve her frozen eggs indefinitely. However, on March 11, 2018, the plaintiff received an email informing her that earlier that week, the cryopreservation tank containing her frozen eggs had lost liquid nitrogen for a brief period of time which “may have resulted” in the loss of her eggs.

On March 7, 2021, class claims were filed in federal court in the District of Colorado against United Airlines over U.A. Flight 328, which made headlines on February 20, 2021, when it experienced what has been described as spectacular engine failure in one of the plane’s two engines.

In the complaint, named plaintiff Chad Schnell describes how approximately four minutes after takeoff, as the Boeing 777-200 aircraft reached an altitude of 12,000 feet, passengers heard loud noises and began to experience violent shaking of the plane. Shortly after the extreme turbulence began, passengers - including the plaintiff - witnessed from the plane’s windows missing pieces from the right engine and a fire that ignited within the engine.

On February 25, 2021, plaintiffs in the TikTok multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) submitted a motion to Judge John Z. Lee of the Northern District of Illinois, requesting preliminary approval of a $92 million settlement in the TikTok litigations. The settlement, if approved, will bring an end to an MDL comprised of 21 putative class actions that similarly allege that defendants TikTok Inc. (“TikTok”) and its parent company Byte Dance Technology Inc., mishandled issues of plaintiffs’ privacy.

On February 22, 2021, class claims were filed in Texas Federal Court in the District Court of Harris County against Griddy Energy LLC (“Griddy”) by a group of Griddy customers who allege that they were charged excessive electricity prices due to Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

The controversy surrounding the meteoric rise and fall of the GameStop stock continues, as yet another class action complaint involving the incident was filed on February 16, 2021, in Massachusetts federal court. In the suit, plaintiff Christian Iovin alleges that defendant Keith Patrick Gill, a professional securities broker, purposefully incited a market frenzy by advocating for amateur market traders to enact revenge on big hedge fund companies by artificially inflating the price of shares of GameStop.

On February 3, 2021, restaurant and arcade chain Dave & Buster’s filed suit against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (“the Governor”) in federal court in the Northern District of New York alleging that Cuomo’s decision to close down all arcades statewide, while allowing comparable businesses to remain open, is arbitrary and unconstitutional.

On January 22, 2021, class claims were filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, against textbook giant McGraw Hill LLC, by a group of McGraw Hill authors who allege that the company breached its contract with contributing authors by reducing royalties when it sells their textbooks in an electronic format.

On January 28, 2021, class claims were filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York against popular brokerage firm app, Robinhood, over the company’s abrupt removal of GameStop and other contentious stocks. This was in response to a trading war of attrition raging between the independent retail investors that convene on the sub-Reddit r/WallStreetBets and short-selling hedge funds.

On January 21, 2021, class claims were filed in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois against Easy Healthcare Corporation, the developer of popular fertility app Premom, alleging that the defendant company had been sharing users’ personal information and location data with Chinese companies.

On January 8, 2021, class claims were filed in the Southern District of New York against the company behind the popular Keebler cookies alleging that the company engaged in false, deceptive and misleading product labels.

In the complaint, plaintiff Sharon Pizarro alleges that the defendant promotes its popular Keebler Fudge Stripe shortbread cookies as “made with real Keebler fudge.” 

On January 7, 2021, consumer goods company Unilever United States was served with class claims in New Jersey federal court alleging its popular TRESemmé Keratin Smooth Shampoo and TRESemmé Keratin Smooth Color Shampoo (“the products”) contain an ingredient that causes significant hair loss and scalp irritation upon proper application.

On January 4, 2021, class claims were filed in federal court in Massachusetts against popular tourist attraction, Boston Duck Tours, by a group of current and former employees of the company who allege that Boston Duck Tours violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by failing to pay employees their rightful wages for overtime hours.