Litigation
Nachshin v. AOL, LLC
This settlement over email advertising inappropriately channeled settlement funds to third parties unrelated to the class. The Ninth Circuit sustained the Center’s objection and reversed…
Litigation
Dewey v. Volkswagen AG
Litigation
Bluetooth Headset Products Liability Litigation
Plaintiffs sued three manufacturers of Bluetooth headsets alleging consumer fraud for failure to adequately warn of hearing loss risk. CCAF objected to the settlement that…
Litigation
American Express Anti-Steering Rules Antitrust Litigation
The Center for Class Action Fairness successfully objected to the settlement of an antitrust case where the class would only receive injunctive relief of uncertain…
Litigation
Jackson v. Wells Fargo Bank N.A.
Litigation
Colgate-Palmolive Softsoap Antibacterial Hand Soap Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation
In this action, Plaintiffs allege that defendant falsely marketed an ingredient in its antibacterial soap as eliminating 99% of germs. CCAF objected to the settlement…
Litigation
Target Corporation Customer Data Security Breach Litigation
CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness objected to an unfair settlement deal resulting from the much-publicized 2013 data breach at retail giant Target Corporation. Forty-one…
Litigation
Transpacific Passenger Air Transportation Antitrust Litigation
The Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) at CEI filed an appeal brief in the Transpacific Passenger Air Transportation Antitrust Litigation on November 4, 2015,…
Litigation
In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation
In the original case, Gaos v. Google, plaintiffs sued Google seeking trillions of dollars in statutory damages for alleged federal privacy violations over their search…
Litigation
Berry v. LexisNexis
CEI appealed the district court’s approval of a settlement over data marketing practices, from which class members cannot even opt out, and under which class…
Litigation
Frank v. Poertner
CCAF objected in Poertner v. Gillette Co., a settlement of consumer fraud claims over Duracell batteries where the attorneys received $5.7 million and the class…
Litigation
Southwest Airlines Voucher Litigation
The Center’s client objected to a settlement over Southwest drink coupons given to “Business Select” passengers as a perk. Thanks to the Center’s involvement in…
Litigation
Fraley v. Facebook
Fraley, et al. v. Facebook, Inc., et al. was a class action lawsuit against Facebook in 2011 alleging the company used Facebook users’ names, pictures, and identities without…
Litigation
Blackman v. Gascho
In Blackman v. Gascho, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) sought Supreme Court review for a challenge to a lopsided class action settlement agreement that left…
Litigation
Martin v. Blessing
The Center initially objected to this settlement because, among other problems, its value to class members did not justify the $13M attorneys’ fees request. Ultimately,…
Litigation
Marek v. Lane
The Center was retained to petition the Supreme Court for review of a settlement that gave $0 for the class, $3.2M to the attorneys, and…
Litigation
Bayer Corporation Combination Aspirin Products Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation
As a result of the Center’s objection, the parties modified the settlement to increase direct payments to the class by over $5.8M. Our second objection…
Litigation
Baby Products Antitrust Litigation
This case involved a settlement of consolidated antitrust class actions brought by consumers against retailers Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us and several baby product…
Litigation
HP Inkjet Printer Litigation
The Ninth Circuit held that the Class Action Fairness Act requires that when class members obtain coupons in a settlement, the lawyers’ fees attributable to those…
Litigation
Dry Max Pampers Litigation
CCAF objected to this $0 settlement between Proctor & Gamble Company and consumers who purchased certain kinds of Pampers diapers where class counsel requested $2.73…
Litigation
Johnson & Johnson Derivative Litigation
The Center objected to a settlement that paid the class $0, established meaningless corporate governance changes, and paid the attorneys over $10 million: the court…
Litigation
Citigroup Inc. Securities Litigation
In 2013, CCAF (now part of CEI) objected to the fees in a securities class action in which class counsel sought an outsized percentage of…
Litigation
City of Livonia Employees Ret. Sys. v. Wyeth
The Center represented a shareholder objecting to a securities class action wherein the $16.5M plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fee request was 4.2 times their normal billing rate.
Blog
Jeb Bush Unveils Regulatory Reform Agenda
Traditionally, presidents named Bush have not been friends of limited government. George H.W. Bush raised taxes after his famous “read my lips” speech, and oversaw…
Blog
Corporate Ads Need to Sell Ideas, Too
Tim Montgomerie, a columnist for The Times of London and founder of ConservativeHome, writes in CapX this week about the visit of Pope Francis to the U.S. Reviewing…
Blog
Pope Francis Cools It on Climate Change Rhetoric
Pope Francis in his speeches at the White House on Wednesday morning and to a joint session of Congress on Thursday morning toned down his…
Blog
New CEI Paper: The Case for Closing OPIC
OPIC is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. It is a federal agency that offers financing for international projects by U.S. companies. Intended mainly as an…
Litigation
Richardson v. L’Oreal USA
The district court sustained the Center’s objection to a settlement over shampoo labeling where the class would receive valueless injunctive relief and the attorneys sought…
Litigation
Magsafe Apple Power Adapter Litigation
In this settlement over Apple power adapters, the district court failed to appraise class relief compared to the $3M that the settlement awarded to plaintiffs’…
Litigation
Redman v. RadioShack Corp.
Plaintiffs sought statutory damages for RadioShack’s practice of printing expiration dates on credit card receipts. CCAF objected to a settlement that paid $1 million to…
Litigation
Pearson v. NBTY, Inc.
The Center became involved in the case in 2014 when it objected to a class action settlement that would have provided attorneys $4.5 million but…
Litigation
Careathers v. Red Bull North America, Inc.
In a false advertising case, the Center objected to the settlement that gave class counsel $4.75M because it was based on an exaggerated value ($18.5M)…
Litigation
Capital One Telephone Consumer Protection Act Litigation
CCAF’s client objected to a fee request where class counsel sought 30% of the $75.4 million settlement fund in a lightly-litigated Telephone Consumer Protection Act…
Litigation
BankAmerica Corporation Securities Litigation
After money from the settlement of a securities class action was distributed to the nationwide shareholder class, $2.7 million was left over. Instead of redistributing…
Litigation
EasySaver Rewards Litigation
In 2013, CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness objected to and then appealed the approval of a nationwide class settlement where 0.2% of the class received…
News Release
Report Urges Congress to Pull the Plug on Failed Government Lending Agency
MedPage Today
Do FDA’s Fast-Track Reviews Skimp on Important Data?
MedPage Today talks to CEI's Sam Kazman on FDA approval issues: But Sam Kazman, JD, general counsel at the pro-business Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
Transparency in Card Fees: Where Does the Argument Stop?
There are three ways banks that issue credit and debit cards can gain revenue from them: interest rates (in the case of credit cards) charged…
Study
The Case Against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Full Document Available in PDF The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is a U.S. federal government agency with three key policy objectives:…
Blog
You Won’t Believe All the Ways Federal Agencies Issue Rules
Recently, I’d pointed out that we don’t really know how many federal agencies there are. That implies we don’t know how many rules and regulations…
Blog
Has Plain Packaging Reduced Tobacco Consumption?
In 2012, the Australian government instituted a plan tobacco packing requirement—that is, a generic package that removes all stylistic aspects of packaging: colors, imagery, corporate…
News Release
As Pope Francis Arrives in the United States CEI Responds to his Agenda
Blog
Fantasy Sports Betting Isn’t a Federal Crime, as No Sports Betting Should Be
If you watched football during the open weekend of the NFL season, you probably saw an advertisement for DraftKings or FanDuel. Part of the rapidly…
Blog
A Message from CEI Chairman Todd Zywicki
Blog
NLRB Joint Employer Decision Creates Barrier to Job Creation
In a 2010 speech, President Obama said small business “is as American as apple pie. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.” He went on…
Law360
Colgate-Palmolive Defends $2M Bid To End Hand Soap MDL
Law 360 discusses CEI’s Center for Class Action Fairness’ case objecting to a $2 million Colgate settlement: Colgate-Palmolive Co. defended a proposed $2…
Daily Caller
Misplaced Concern: Pope Francis’s Energy Agenda
In the Daily Caller, Myron Ebell discusses the problem with Pope Francis' views on energy: “Everybody loves Pope Francis” for his “humble…
National Review
A Better Road Map than the U.N.’s to Empower the Poor
Investor's Business Daily
None Dare Call It Conspiracy: Obama’s Coordinated Climate Campaign
Chris Horner in Investor's Business Daily on the coordinated campaign to promote the White House's climate agenda: Hypocrisy, thy name is Barack…
Study
Real Goals to Empower the Developing World
The United Nations is soon due to replace its ambitious Millennium Development Goals with a new set of far more extensive and even more ambitious…