According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness’ filing last month, class counsel negotiated a settlement that provided zero dollars to class members and $5.5 million to be divided between class counsel and third-party charities.
The original dispute involved allegations of consumer fraud over gym membership contracts with fitness club company Global Fitness Holdings LLC. In particular, plaintiffs alleged that between 2006 and 2012, the company sold memberships and incorrectly charged fees pertaining to cancellation, facility maintenance and personal-training contracts.
Under the settlement, the German automaker is required to spend up to $10 billion on vehicle buybacks and owner compensation. It also must pay $2.7 billion into a trust to support environmental programs and reduce emissions, and spend an additional $2 billion on investments and promotion of zero emissions vehicles.
The rejected settlement purported to require Similasan to make label changes and maintain a website concerning homeopathic “dilution principles.” No unnamed class members would have received any compensation under the rejected agreement, and class attorneys would have been awarded more than $500,000.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness filed a petition with the nation’s highest court last week, asking for review of a settlement that awarded $5 million in fees to class counsel. CCAF argues the deal -- one of two reached over the sale of personal data reports to debt collectors -- is unfair to the class.
The Center for Class Action Fairness, now a subunit of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, filed its petition for a writ of certiorari with the court in December. It argues plaintiffs lawyers received the largest share of the settlement’s benefits and used cy pres awards to help exaggerate the class relief and thus inflate their fees.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently upheld a lower court’s ruling that approved a settlement in a case against LexisNexis, which was accused of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The public interest law firm last week asked a federal appeals court to review its previous decision, which upheld more than $5 million in fees for class counsel.
The public interest law firm last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the settlement, which awarded class counsel more than 90 percent of the total cash recovery provided in the deal.
The non-profit filed an amicus brief with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation this week. The panel is scheduled to hear about the hundreds of class actions facing the automaker over its emissions scandal in December.
