After nearly a year and a half without response from the agency, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (and now the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute) is representing individuals taking the Federal Communications Commission to court over the 2016 Charter/Brighthouse/Time Warner cable merger.
On Monday evening, CCAF filed its opening appeal brief in a class action where the plaintiffs claim Filippo Berio olive oil was falsely marketed as “Imported from Italy,” when the olives used actually came from other countries.
CCAF opposed a settlement in Ma v. Harmless Harvest, a class action dispute over claims of organic products in coconut water in which class attorneys sought $575,000 and the class members get nothing.
The proposed settlement provided class members with worthless injunctive relief, simply codifying labeling changes that Harmless Harvest voluntarily made in 2015, but would have provided $575,000 to attorneys and named plaintiffs. The court agreed with CCAF that the settlement was not fair, reasonable, and adequate.
CCAF attorney Theodore H. Frank won an appellate victory granting him intervention against the filers of strike suits that harm shareholder. Here, plaintiffs convinced Akorn to pay $322,500 in attorneys’ fees, although no benefit has accrued to the class—only immaterial supplemental disclosures.
"It was wonderful to see the principle vindicated," that cases without benefits to absent class members should not be certified.
The Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) today filed a reply brief in In re Google Inc. Cookie Placement Consumer Privacy Litigation arguing that the cy pres distribution in the proposed settlement is unfair to the class when direct compensation through a claims process is feasible.
Theodore Frank, an activist who founded the Class Action Fairness Center, objected to the deal on several grounds, including that some of them had prior relationships with Google as well as the lawyers representing the consumers.
"We had hoped the court would recognize that this settlement exemplifies the worst of lawyer-driven class actions and should not be approved under existing law,” said CCAF director Ted Frank about the decision. “The class relief is entirely illusory and yet the attorneys claim they are entitled to millions of dollars in fees."
The settlement in this antitrust price-fixing case unlawfully reduces the recovery of those class members who have stronger claims than others. In this type of settlement, relief distributed pro rata to a nationwide class is a false justice because those with legitimate claims receive less relief than they deserve while class members with no legal claim stand to receive an undeserved windfall.
