Class actions

Gerber Products Company

Won dismissal of all claims against the company in 29 putative class actions consolidated in the Eastern District of Virginia. Plaintiffs filed more than 130 consumer class actions against all major baby food manufacturers in courts nationwide, alleging that the manufacturers failed to make adequate disclosures to consumers regarding their baby food products. We successfully consolidated all of the cases against Gerber, then won dismissal of the plaintiffs' representative complaint on multiple grounds.

Vale

White & Case represents Vale S.A., the largest producer of iron ore and nickel in the world, in the group action taking place in the English Courts relating to the collapse of the Fundao Dam in Brazil in 2015.

Global Biotechnology Company

Representing the client in 1,000+ state court proceedings in Germany in relation to product liability claims and claims for information. The legal proceedings were initiated by individual plaintiffs in more than 100 different courts across Germany. As several of the plaintiff law firms are handling hundreds of cases, the defense in these proceedings across three court instances requires a coordinated approach and strategy.

Southwest Energy

Secured dismissal of four class actions against our client, Southwest Energy, a Tulsa-based independent natural gas marketer, in federal court in Kansas. All four class actions were dismissed with prejudice. All classes comprised consumers of natural gas that accused Southwest Energy, along with other defendants, including BP Energy, Macquarie, Energy Transfer and Tenaska, of price gouging and violation of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act (KCPA) by allegedly raising the price of natural gas sold to plaintiffs through distributors during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

BlueTriton Brands

Secured dismissal in three putative class actions across the country alleging the presence of microplastics in the company's bottled water products caused its product labels to be deceptive. The cases against BlueTriton were three of several putative class actions filed against the leading domestic bottled water companies alleging violations of consumer protection laws based on the alleged presence of microplastics in their products. White & Case, on behalf of BlueTriton, was the first law firm to win dismissal of these microplastics putative class actions filed against the bottled water industry. We continue to represent BlueTriton and other bottled water companies in similar cases across the country.

Sunland Trading, Inc.

Won dismissal of a putative class action on behalf of Sunland Trading, Inc., a honey importer, in a case filed by domestic honey producers and sellers to protect themselves from price competition from less expensive honey imported into the US from overseas. Plaintiffs alleged violations of federal and state antitrust laws, RICO and unfair competition. The court granted our motion to dismiss.

Toshiba Corporation

Won complete summary judgment in a major securities litigation on behalf of Toshiba Corporation in Stoyas v. Toshiba Corp. in the US District Court for the Central District of California. This order ends the action, which sought hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, pressing claims under both the US Securities Exchange Act and Japanese securities law. This case was watched across the country and abroad on the important question concerning the extent of securities liability exposure in the United States under the US Supreme Court's decision in Morrison v. Nat'l Austl. Bank Ltd., 561 U.S 247 (2010), for corporations whose stock trades only on overseas exchanges.

Asacol

Won reversal of class certification from the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in an antitrust monopolization case where plaintiffs challenged the development of a new phthalate-free version of its ulcerative colitis drug, Asacol®, as illegal "product hopping." The case turned on uninjured class members, and specifically the inability of class action plaintiffs to prove which members of the proposed nationwide class were injured versus uninjured. The landmark ruling, premised on the Seventh Amendment and Rules Enabling Act, represented a turning of the tide against the previously widespread reliance on "claims administration" as a substitute for fact-finding by juries. The Asacol ruling has been cited extensively (in over 150 decisions) as the gold standard in cases involving uninjured class members and has broad implications far beyond antitrust litigation.

Apex Clearing Corporation

Defeated 50+ proposed class action lawsuits for Apex Clearing Corporation arising from the 2021 Meme Stock trading frenzy, where it was alleged that Apex, a clearing broker, had wrongfully stopped accepting trades on January 28, 2021 at the height of the Meme Stock bubble. The event triggered several well-publicized government agency and Congressional probes and inspired the movie Dumb Money—with the Eleventh Circuit affirming a blockbuster win that reaffirmed brokers' rights to reject trades and manage risk in the face of market uncertainty. The victory ended all consumer antitrust and follow-on tort litigation against Apex.

AbbVie Inc.

Secured the dismissal of a "pay for delay" pharmaceutical antitrust class action alleging generic delay of hypertension drug Bystolic. Bystolic is the first time the Second Circuit has applied the Supreme Court's Actavis standard announced in 2013, and the first appellate decision since Actavis to uphold dismissal of antitrust claims against multiple pharmaceutical patent settlements containing so-called "side deals." This groundbreaking matter helped White & Case achieve Law360's Class Action Group of the Year award (the fourth time earning this award), LMG's Life Sciences Antitrust Firm of the Year award, and the matter was recognized by multiple industry publications for its importance, including The Legal 500 and The American Lawyer.

Fitness International, LLC

Victory for Fitness International, d/b/a as LA Fitness, which operates the largest chain of fitness centers in the US, in a putative class action filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which sought millions in fees after COVID-19 and related government orders forced the centers to close.

Comcast Corporation

Numerous class actions alleging that the company improperly forced subscribers to rent a set-top box in order to access premium cable television services in violation of antitrust laws. In total, 24 class actions were filed against the company, which were later consolidated into a multidistrict litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and potential class members numbered in excess of 3.5 million. From the outset of the class actions, Comcast sought individual arbitration of certain claims. During the pendency of the class actions, the US Supreme Court issued two seminal decisions enforcing contractual waivers of class arbitration. We negotiated a favorable class settlement after demonstrating to class counsel that the plaintiffs faced several significant hurdles to succeeding on both class certification and the merits of their claims.