“Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the $380.5M settlement in the Equifax data breach class actions – a settlement which the district court called “the largest and most comprehensive recovery in a data breach case in U.S. history by several orders of magnitude.” The appeal was brought by 6 objectors out of the 147 million class members whose data was involved in the breach,” reports Balch & Bingham LLP in JDSupra

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“Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY) says former CEO Martin Winterkorn and other executives will pay it $351M to settle lawsuits for their alleged roles in the auto emissions fraud that rigged nearly 11M vehicles to cheat emissions tests and then cover it up,” reports Carl Surran in Seeking Alpha News

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“American casino giant Las Vegas Sands is facing a $12 billion lawsuit in a Macau court. Former partner Asian American Entertainment Corporation alleges that Sands breached their contract in order to obtain a casino license in Macau,” reports Reuters in Yahoo News.

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“Throughout its nearly 40-year history, Public Justice has specialized in taking on corporate behemoths on behalf of consumers, workers, and others who are determined to fight back against dangerous products, dangerous workplaces and dangerous attempts to block the courthouse doors. On May 14, we scored a major victory against one of the biggest behemoths of all: Monsanto, manufacturer of the weed killer Roundup,” reports Leslie A. Brueckner in LA Progressive.

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“The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it won’t review a lower court opinion that awarded a $2 billion verdict in a case brought by a group of women who sued Johnson & Johnson after developing ovarian cancer which they say stemmed from exposure to asbestos in the company’s talc powder.,” reports Ariane de Vogue in CNN.

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“Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak lost his lawsuit against YouTube over videos that used his image to promote a bogus bitcoin giveaway. YouTube and its parent, Google LLC, are protected by the federal law that shields internet platforms from responsibility for content posted by users, a California state judge said in a tentative ruling Wednesday,” reports Robert Burnson in Bloomberg.

“According to a Contingent Value Rights (CVR) agreement tied to BMS’s $74 billion purchase of Celgene in November 2019, the New York pharmaceutical giant would have owed former Celgene shareholders $6.4 billion if it had won FDA approval for three new drugs at the center of that deal, each with a particular deadline.”

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“It wasn’t so much a question of whether Bristol Myers Squibb would be taken to court by former Celgene shareholders. It was more a question of when. The answer came Thursday in U.S. District Court-Southern New York with the filing of Case 1:21-cv-04897. In it, Bristol is of “blatant misconduct”—allegedly delaying development of a cancer drug to avoid making a $6.4 billion milestone payment tied to its approval,” Report Kevin Dunleavy in Fierce Pharma.

“According to a Contingent Value Rights (CVR) agreement tied to BMS’s $74 billion purchase of Celgene in November 2019, the New York pharmaceutical giant would have owed former Celgene shareholders $6.4 billion if it had won FDA approval for three new drugs at the center of that deal, each with a particular deadline.”

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“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) brought an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against five alleged promoters of a digital asset called BitConnect, claiming they promoted the sale of unregistered securities that raised over $2 billion from retail investors last Friday,” Report Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in JD SUPRA.

“According to the SEC’s complaint, between January 2017 and January 2018, four of the defendants promoted BitConnect by advertising its “lending program” to retail investors, while receiving a percentage of the funds they obtained, without being registered as broker-dealers with the SEC.  Specifically, the SEC alleged these four defendants promoted and touted BitConnect’s “lending program” to prospective investors, including by posting testimonial-style videos to YouTube with a referral link to the “lending program.”

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“Major League Baseball has been hit with a lawsuit for moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta following controversy over Georgia’s recent restrictive voting law,” reports Marlene Lenthang in ABC News.

“Job Creators Network, a conservative-leaning business group, filed the lawsuit on Monday of the Southern District in New York, where MLB is headquartered, demanding the July 13 game return to Atlanta.”

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“… the site’s owner will have to pay $2.1 million in damages to Nintendo after the court ruled in the video game company’s favour. You can read a court order from the suit here. The lawsuit was filed back in September of 2019, with Nintendo seeking damages for copyright infringement and federal trademark infringement,” reports Jordan Oloman in IGN’s Nintendo Switch.

“This is because the RomUniverse website hosted pirated versions of Nintendo games that users could download. It also offered premium subscriptions that allowed RomUniverse subscribers to surpass a download limit.”

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“Johnson & Johnson is asking for Supreme Court review of a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using the company’s talc products,” reports Mark Sherman in The Seattle Times Business and Health.

“The case features an array of high-profile attorneys, some in unusual alliances, including former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who is representing the women who sued Johnson & Johnson. The nation’s largest business groups are backing the company, and a justice’s father also makes an appearance because of his long association with the trade group for cosmetics and personal care products.”

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“PG&E Corp. agreed Wednesday to pay $43.4 million to settle claims filed by local governments over a 2019 wildfire that ravaged California’s wine country and a deadly fire last year in Shasta County,” reports Dale Kasler in The Sacramento Bee.

“The settlement resolves claims by cities and counties from the damages wrought by the Kincade Fire, which forced the evacuation of nearly 190,000 residents of Sonoma County, and the Zogg Fire west of Redding, which killed four people.”

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“Steve Wozniak will soon face the courts for a copyright lawsuit due to a technology school venture initially called ‘Woz Institute of Technology’ but was scrapped and did not push through,” reports Isaiah Richard in Tech Times.

“Instead of being board members or chairpersons of what is supposed to be a technology school that would focus on engineering and pushing forth the development of modern gadgets, both parties are square one in court. According to Business Insider, Wozniak is facing the claims of allegedly “stealing” the idea to a tech school despite having the name ‘Woz’ to it.”

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“Takeda subsidiary Baxalta has spent more than two years pushing back against the $173 million in damages it was ordered to pay as a result of Bayer’s hemophilia patent infringement lawsuit. But after an appeals win for Bayer in March, the companies are putting the case to rest,” reports Noah Higgins-Dunn in Fierce Pharma’s Pharma.

“The two drugmakers, along with Nektar Therapeutics, have entered into a settlement agreement over the patent infringement case, a court filing shows. Bayer will not seek claims for the many millions in damages it was owed under a 2019 verdict and a subsequent appeals ruling.”

“Under the latest settlement, each drugmaker will cover their own legal expenses and Baxalta will give up its right to appeal the 2019 verdict any further. The filings didn’t provide other details on the terms of the settlement.”

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“AT&T overcharged the District of Columbia government for more than five years and has ‘agreed to pay $1.5 million for its failure to comply with its long-term contract with the District for cell phone and Internet services,’ … The settlement doesn’t recoup the full amount of overcharges alleged by Washington, DC, which says AT&T ‘overcharg[ed] District taxpayers by millions of dollars,'” reports Jon Brodkin in ARS Technica.

“AT&T did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.”

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“One lawyer negotiating a resolution to the multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy filed by the Boy Scouts of America billed $267,435 in a single month. Another charged $1,725 for each hour of work. New lawyers fresh out of law school have been billing at an hourly rate of more than $600,” reports Mike Baker in The New York Times U.S. Section.

“The high-stakes bankruptcy case has drawn in lawyers by the dozens, negotiating how to compensate tens of thousands of people who have filed claims of sexual abuse. Lawyers and other professionals — both those representing the Boy Scouts and some who are representing victims — have submitted fee applications with the court that have now surpassed $100 million. By August, they could reach $150 million.”

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“A federal judge approved a deal Wednesday for Maryland to settle a long-running lawsuit over the state’s treatment of its four historically Black universities with $555 million in extra funding over 10 years, clearing the last major hurdle to end a legal battle launched in 2006,” reports Bryn Stole in the Baltimore Sun’s Politics.

“The lawsuit, filed by alumni and supporters of the schools, argued the state systematically undermined the institutions even after the end of legal segregation and made it difficult for Bowie State University, Coppin State University and Morgan State University in Baltimore, and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, to compete with the state’s other public universities for students and resources.”

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“Area health care providers will finally see millions of dollars in reimbursements tied to a defunct health insurer – but some may be out more than half of the dollars they were owed,” reports Tracey Drury in Business Journal’s Health Care.

“The State Department of Financial Services this week announced a $220.8 million judgment resolving a lawsuit filed in late 2017 against the federal government tied to the collapse of Health Republic Insurance of New York.”

“According to DFS, area hospitals and physicians are expected to recoup the full value of unpaid claims. Here’s what wasn’t in the press release: Providers around the state who didn’t know the settlement was in the works signed offers from Riverdale Capital, a New York-based investment firm for pre-payments of 40 cents on the dollar and are now bound by that agreement.”

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“Maryland has finalized a $577 million settlement to end a 15-year federal lawsuit relating to underfunding at the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities, state officials announced Wednesday,” reports Brian Witte in ABC News’ U.S. News.

“The Maryland Attorney General’s Office signed the agreement with attorneys for the plaintiffs to settle the case. Lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to set aside the money, and Gov. Larry Hogan signed the bill last month.”

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“Boeing quietly agreed to repay the U.S. $10.7 million after a three-year investigation concluded it had double-billed the military for taxes paid to foreign governments on overseas employees, according to a document and officials,” reports Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg in the Seattle Times’ Business.

“The overcharges “affected hundreds of contracts across numerous Department of Defense entities,” according to the latest edition of an in-house training newsletter of the Defense Contract Management Agency highlighting contract irregularities. The agreement, reached in September, wasn’t previously disclosed.”

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