The District of New Jersey recently endorsed the view that calls regarding the availability of free services may plausibly qualify, at the pleadings stage, as “telephone solicitations,”.
5 and
even The World Health Organization,
6 it seems that no one is beyond of
the reach of the class action, especially in the wake of the
coronavirus pandemic. But have the plaintiffs in these cases
suffered a bona fide injury caused by the defendants
conduct?
Many contemporary class actions exhibit features of what one
legal scholar of past mass tort waves dubbed the entrepreneurial model
7 of lawyer-driven litigation. This
article examines those features and the problems they present, and
discusses how they can be leveraged in the defense of class
actions-from standing to certification to merits.
Background: The Entrepreneurial Model of Mass
“
-William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1.
The meteoric rise in class actions over the past decade has been well-documented. Nowadays even mac & cheese is under attack, with two proposed nationwide class actions filed this month alone claiming labels such as “The Taste You Love”[1] and “Made with Goodness!”[2] are false and misleading.
Hair care products are also in the crosshairs. This month a plaintiff and her lawyers filed their second class action in a year alleging beauty companies falsely advertised their shampoo as “natural.”[3]
From consumer product companies to banks,[4] universities[5] and even The World Health Organization,[6] it seems that no one is beyond of the reach of the class action, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But have the plaintiffs in these cases suffered a bona fide injury caused by the defendants’ conduct?