Plaintiffs Challenge Excessive Attorney Fees in Blue Cross Settlement - FTC's Challenge of Purse Manufacturers' Merger Could Leave It Holding the Bag

• Pages: 10-10
• Date: 01 July 2024
• Author: Hon. Oran F. Whiting (Ret.)
• Subject Matter: Derecho Civil

Plaintis Challenge Excessive Attorney Fees in Blue

Cross Settlement

FTC’s Challenge of Purse Manufacturers’ Merger Could

Leave It Holding the Bag

U.S. SUP REME COUR T

Fees

A class member in the $2.7 billion Blue

Cross Blue Shield class action settle-

ment has petitioned the U.S. Supreme

Court to strike the lawyers’ $667 mil-

lion legal fee. The petition argues the

fee should be based on the “lodestar”

amount, or the number of hours the

lawyers say they worked multiplied by

the prevailing hourly rate, as opposed

to the “percentage of the fund” calcu-

lation. The challenge to the fee award

is related to another pending Supreme

Court case concerning the terms of the

Blue Cross settlement. The appellate

court upheld the “percentage of the

fund” calculation. Behenna v. Blue Cross

Blue Shield Ass’n, No. 23-1163.

STATE CO UR T

Pennsylvania: Data Privacy

A corporate client sued its large law

f‌irm attorney to recover $1.1 million in

settlement funds for the f‌irm’s wrong-

ful wiring of the funds to online scam-

mers. The client sued its law f‌irm in

Pennsylvania state court for being

“duped by an obvious scam” and alleg-

edly transferring money to a nonclient-

owned bank account after the f‌irm

received fake wire transfer instruc-

tions from an unknown third party.

Sinacom N.A. Inc. v. Clark Hill Plc, No.

240402961.

FEDERAL COURTS

Circuit Court of Appeals for

the District of Columbia:

Real Estate

Berkshire Hathaway, the National

Association of Realtors, and several

brokerages settled a nationwide land-

mark antitrust suit, which is expected

to change how real estate agents are

paid, for $250 million. The settlement,

AND MORE . . . BY HO N. ORAN F. WHITI NG (RET.), LITIGATION NEWS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

in response to a Kansas City jury’s ver-

dict in favor of plaintis who accused

the industry of conspiring to keep real

estate commissions artif‌icially inf‌lated,

eliminated the risk of a much larger

payout, as the $1.78 billion damage

award could have been tripled. Nat’l

Ass’n of Realtors v. U.S., No. 23-5065.

U.S. District Court for the

Eastern District of New

York: Data Privacy

A New York judge granted the ABA’s

motion to dismiss plaintis Tiany

Troy and Eric J. Mata’s proposed class

action alleging the ABA failed to pro-

tect the personal information of 1.5 mil-

lion people disclosed in a March 2023

data breach. Judge Nicholas G. Garauf‌is

ruled the plaintis failed to identify

reasonable security measures that the

ABA failed to implement to protect

their data.

The plaintis were granted leave to

f‌ile an amended complaint and alleged,

among other violations, that the ABA’s

poor management of its IT department

and failure to comply with reasonable

security standards constituted a breach

of an implied contract. Troy v. Am. Bar

Ass’n, No. 1:23-cv-03053.

U.S. DEPAR TMENT OF JUS TICE

Antitrust/Advertising

Google asked a Virginia federal court

to dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit accusing

it of anticompetitive practices in the

online advertising marketplace. The

Justice Department’s January 2023

advertising suit accuses Google of

abuse of its position in the marketplace

and requests that Google be forced to

divest its advertising network.

Google argued that the case goes

“beyond the boundaries of antitrust

law,” claiming that it does not regulate

the internet company’s conduct at issue

and opining that the government is

attacking business acts that “are law-

ful choices about whom to do business

with and product improvements that

benef‌ited Google’s customers.” United

States v. Google LLC, No. 1:23-cv-108.

U.S. TRADEMARK TRIAL AND

APPEAL BOARD

Trademark

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

armed the U.S. Patent and Trademark

Oce’s denial of Post Foods’ applica-

tion for a federal trademark registration

for its Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal’s

seven colors. The board, focusing on

Post’s broad def‌inition of “breakfast

cereals,” felt Post Foods did not prove

that the colors had acquired distinc-

tiveness in connection with all break-

fast cereals. In re Post Foods, LLC, No.

88857834.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

The FTC is seeking a preliminary

injunction in Manhattan federal court

to block the $8.5 billion purchase

of Capri Holdings, the parent com-

pany of Michael Kors and Versace, by

Tapestry, Inc., the parent company of

Coach and Kate Spade. The FTC claims

that the deal would give Tapestry a

dominant position in the “accessible

luxury” handbag market, “signif‌i-

cantly increas[ing] concentration and

result[ing] in a highly concentrated

market.” The FTC also f‌iled an in-house

administrative complaint aiming to per-

manently destroy the deal. In the Matter

of Tapestry, Inc., and Capri Holdings

Ltd., No. 9429.

SUMMER 2 024 • VOL. 49 NO. 4

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