Articles Posted in Class-Actions

Robinhood, the online brokerage firm known for its stock trading app, now faces over 30 lawsuits in 10 states related to the brokerage firm's GameStop stock freeze last week. Members of the /r/WallStreetBets subreddit helped propel the stock values of multiple "meme stocks," including AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond, BlackBerry, GameStop, and Nokia, garnering massive media attention. Amidst the unprecedented surge, Robinhood abruptly froze trading on several of these stocks in a "risk-management decision." A number of the lawsuits filed against Robinhood allege market manipulation.

An Airbnb host filed a class-action lawsuit against the short-term rental vacation company on Thursday, November 5, 2020, alleging that Airbnb did not properly compensate hosts for guests who canceled bookings related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, and brings claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of unfair competition law. The complaint requests damages and appropriate injunctive and equitable relief.

The judge found that Apple met the relevant standards according to FCC tests, and considering alternative tests would undermine efficiency and uniformity.

On Friday, October 23, 2020, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple, Inc., on behalf of Ohio residents, alleging that Apple "promotes, enables, and profits from games downloaded from its App Store. . . that constitute illegal gambling." Plaintiff Sean McCloskey filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, seeking recovery of all money paid through in-app purchases in gambling games made through Apple's App Store, pursuant to Section 3763.02 of the Ohio Revised Code.

On Thursday, July 2, 2020, Grammy award-winning composer and musician Maria Schneider filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, against YouTube, LLC, Google, LLC, and Alphabet, Inc. The lawsuit concerns copyright piracy on YouTube and alleges that YouTube's copyright management tool, Content ID, "actually insulates the vast majority of known and repeated copyright infringers from YouTube's repeat infringer policy" and leaves plaintiffs in the class with "no meaningful ability to police the extensive infringement of their copyrighted work." The complaint requests, among other things, equitable relief in the form of providing Content ID to all copyright owners and monetary relief in the form of defendants' profits derived from copyright infringement on YouTube.

On Tuesday, May 19, 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against the College Entrance Examination Board ("College Board") in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of high school students who took Advanced Placement ("AP") testing online as a result of the shift to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deloitte Consulting LLP has been sued by a group of Ohio residents in two proposed class actions after their personal information was compromised on state websites the company built to administer coronavirus-related unemployment benefits. Officials in Ohio, Colorado, and Illinois announced that applicant information including home addresses and social security numbers had been exposed to the public on these sites. The lawsuits have been filed in federal court in New York, as well as state court in Ohio.

Thousands of female Oracle employees have alleged that the tech company paid them less than male employees with substantially similar jobs.

A Zoom shareholder has filed a class action lawsuit against the online videoconferencing company in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit claims that Zoom failed to disclose its lack of end-to-end encryption, and overstated its privacy protections.

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated a district court's grant of summary judgment in Razak v. Uber Technologies, Inc. The lawsuit involves plaintiff drivers who used Uber's ride-sharing app to provide limousine services in Philadelphia via UberBLACK. Plaintiffs brought claims under the federal minimum wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act, and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law.