Reuters reports on L’Oreal’s class action settlement and the Center for Class Action’s objection to the large fees paid to the lawyers and monetary damages to the class members.
The Center for Class Action Fairness did object, however, both to the fees and to the classwide settlement. On Wednesday, Bates sided with the objectors. He denied approval of the settlement, finding that it unfairly released class claims for monetary damages. There’s some interesting discussion in the opinion about public policy and standing for name plaintiffs in injunction-only cases and about the consequences of no opt-out injunction settlements. Bates also pointed out an obvious intra-class conflict between consumers who bought the L’Oreal hair products in a salon and those who made purchases from mass-market retailers. (“Whether mass-market purchasers were harmed at all is questionable, considering the self-evident nature of the ‘salon-only’ misrepresentation when the products were purchased outside of salons,” Bates wrote.)
Read the full article at Reuters.