Bloomberg Law profiles our objection to the Wines Till Sold Out settlement:
The department’s arguments against the settlement—which offered high attorneys fees for class counsel but only coupon relief for class members—largely tracked those of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness, which represented an objector, Noll said.
“And like CEI, it ultimately was willing to go along with a weak settlement,” he said.
The Justice Department supported the final version of the settlement but “without any helpful explanation” of its change of heart, the judge said.
CEI also elected not to file a post-fairness hearing submission on the final settlement, Noll pointed out.
CEI attorney Adam Schulman told Bloomberg Law the objectors believed the third version of the settlement was substantively fair, and they reserved the right to object to future fee requests.
He also commended the judge for her thorough vetting of the settlement.
“I do believe that the Department of Justice’s involvement and the interest from state attorneys general was helpful in getting the judge’s attention and making sure that this settlement received the scrutiny it deserved,” he said.