Below are some of the significant cases in which our firm is involved.
Air Passenger Antitrust
Nationwide class action on behalf of commercial airline passengers against four major domestic airlines. The complaint alleges that four airlines conspired to limit seat capacity and raise or maintain ticket prices for air travel. Finkelstein Thompson has played a major role as a member of the legal team handling discovery matters with respect to one of the remaining airline defendants.
Apple iPhone Performance Litigation
Consumer class action alleging Apple used operating system updates to slow down (throttle) the speed of older model iPhones, to encourage owners to buy a newer model iPhone. Finkelstein Thompson filed a complaint in January 2018. FT has been appointed to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee.
ATM Fees
This antitrust litigation challenges rules in VISA and MasterCard’s network agreements with ATM operators that prohibit ATMs (bank – owned or otherwise) from charging lower access prices for transactions routed through non – VISA or MasterCard networks constitute horizontal agreements in restraint of trade preventing ATM operators from competing for customers on the basis of the level of access fees. FT’s complaint seeks monetary and injunctive relief for a class of patrons of independent ATMs, i.e. ATMs not owned by banks. Other complaints in the litigation seek recoveries for patrons of bank – owned ATMs and for operators of independent ATMs. FT has been appointed interim co – lead counsel for a class of customers who paid access fees at independent ATMs. FT role in the litigation is substantial.
Equifax
FT filed a suit in the Northern District of California in a consumer class action involving a data breach where criminal hackers gained access to files including sensitive personal data on 143 millions Americans – Social Security numbers, birth dates, and home addresses – by penetrating a Web – based application for Equifax. The case was transferred to the Northern District of Georgia and consolidated with other cases for multi-district litigation.
Facebook Data Breach
In April 2018, FT filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against Facebook, Inc. and Cambridge Analytica. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook allowed a massive data breach in which the sensitive personal information of the plaintiff and 87 million Facebook users ( including 71 million Americans ) was misappropriated by Cambridge Analytica and other entities and used for unauthorized purposes, including attempts to influence the 2016 United States presidential election. The complaint seeks damages for the class and injunctive reliefs. FT is seeking a leadership position i the litigation.
Intel Chip Security Flaw
Consumer class action alleging that the Intel x86 CPUs in personal computers contain bugs, named “meltdown” and “spectre,” that make the computers susceptible to hackers. FT filed a complaint in February 2018. FT has filed an application for appointment to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee, which is pending.