“Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM.O agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated users’ privacy rights by sharing personal data with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, and letting hackers disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called Zoombombing,” reports Jonathan Stempel in Reuters.

“A preliminary settlement filed on Saturday afternoon requires approval by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. Subscribers in the proposed class action would be eligible for 15% refunds on their core subscriptions or $25, whichever is larger, while others could receive up to $15. Zoom agreed to security measures.”

Read the article.

“After a years-long legal battle with the maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, some of the victims’ families are deliberating over a $33 million settlement offer from Remington Arms. The offer, presented by the now-bankrupt gun-makers in court documents on Tuesday,” reports Vanessa Romo in NPR.

“Comes just a day after a judge denied the company’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. However, the sum falls far short of what families have previously said they expected. In court documents earlier this year, they argued that wrongful death settlements could reach $225 million and expected total punitive claims could exceed $1 billion.”

Read the article.

“Some Tesla owners could get $625 each to settle claims that an over-the-air update, pushed to their Model S electric sedans in May 2019, reduced their battery’s charging speed, maximum capacity and range temporarily. According to documents filed with a U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and obtained by CNBC, the proposed settlement would have Tesla paying $1.5 million into a fund that would pay owners,” reports Lora Kolodny in CNBC.

“In May 2019, Tesla was facing negative publicity after one of its Model S vehicles caught fire in Hong Kong. Tesla issued a statement at the time, saying Out of an abundance of caution, we are revising charge and thermal management settings on Model S and Model X vehicles via an over-the-air software update that will begin rolling out today, to help further protect the battery and improve battery longevity.”

Read the article.

“Three companies blamed for the pollution of water supplies in and around the Rensselaer County village of Hoosick Falls have agreed to pay $65 million to settle a federal lawsuit. The deal, first reported by the Times Union, still needs court approval. It would provide money and medical monitoring for thousands of property owners and residents, according to the newspaper,” reports Jim Levulis in WAMC.

“The suit against Saint-Gobain, Honeywell International, 3M and DuPont came after PFAS contamination of the village’s water supply was first discovered in 2014. The chemicals have been linked to ill health effects, including cancer. DuPont is not part of the announced settlement.”

Read the article.

“Connecticut is expected to receive about $300 million of a just-announced $26 billion settlement between a coalition of states and four companies that either manufactured or distributed opioid painkillers. At a press conference at the state Capitol on Wednesday, State Attorney General William Tong announced the terms of the agreement between AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health,” reports Zachary Vasile in Hartford Business.

“Johnson & Johnson and the dozens of state attorneys general who have accused those companies of contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic, which according to the Centers for Disease Control has killed around 500,000 people since 1999. Connecticut has accepted the settlement, Tong said, and most other states participating in the lawsuit are expected to do the same.”

Read the article.

“When we published our February newsletter, COVID-related closures were still commonplace, vaccines were only first making their way to the general public, and life felt as uncertain as ever. We had no idea how quickly things would change, following the CDC’s,” reports David I. Brody And Gavriela M. Bogin-Farber in Sherin And Lodgen.

“Now businesses are reopening at a rapid pace, and the courts are following suit. Several of the cases we were watching have now been decided, so we have included updates below in the latest edition of our Top Five to Ten, alongside other recent cases of importance to executives and professionals.”

Read the article.

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that Amazon must pay warehouse workers for their time spent in mandatory security checks after each shift. Amazon will pay a total of $13.5 million in the settlement, ending a legal battle that has lasted over 10 years,” reports Hannah Towey in Business Insider.

“The highest payout claimed by an Amazon employee thus far is $5,760. Amazon and its lawyers argued that employees are only paid for their labor to pack boxes, but not to stand at a security checkpoint, which does not involve labor or toil.”

Read the article.

“State attorneys general say they have a $26 billion dollar plan to resolve the bulk of the liability for the three biggest drug distributors and one major drugmaker that are entangled in the nationwide opioid litigation,” reports Valerie Bauman in Bloomberg Law.

“The opioid crisis killed nearly 841,000 people since 1999, including 69,710 last year alone. Plaintiffs in thousands of suits say drugmakers and distributors produced and promoted strong painkillers for a massive profit, not heeding their addictive qualities.”

Read the article.

“In the first big challenge to the proposed $26 billion national opioid settlement, the Philadelphia district attorney on Thursday sued Pennsylvania’s attorney general over the deal, saying the city stands to get only a pittance to cope with an epidemic that is killing more than 1,000 people a year,” reports Michael Rubinkam in Morning Call.

“With Philadelphia pursuing its own, potentially more lucrative litigation against the opioid industry, District Attorney Larry Krasner denounced the national agreement and asked a state court to declare that Attorney General Josh Shapiro has no authority to bind the city to it.”

Read the article.

“With a $26 billion nationwide settlement in sight over claims that the three largest U.S. drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) helped fuel a nationwide opioid epidemic, state and local governments will soon turn their attention to pharmacies and a handful of drugmakers,” reports Brendan Pierson in Reuters.

“U.S. state attorneys general are expected to unveil a settlement proposal this week with distributors McKesson Corp (MCK.N), Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N) and AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) contributing a combined $21 billion, while Johnson & Johnson would pay $5 billion.”

Read the article.

“UBS will pay more than $8 million to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which argued the firm failed to ensure compliance among its financial advisors who recommended an exchange traded product (ETP) linked to short-term market volatility,” reports Patrick Donachie in Wealth Management.

“The settlement with UBS marks the second stemming from the commission’s ETP initiative, meant to crack down on financial services firms selling inappropriate funds to retail clients. Last November, the SEC settled charges with five firms facing their own alleged compliance lapses, including Summit Financial Group and Securities America Advisors.”

Read the article.

“The Kardashians are becoming wealthier still. Sisters Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian won their suit for royalties from the makeup line Kardashian Beauty. After a five-year legal battle, a California State Appeals Court judge agreed that the Kardashians were owed $11.5 million in royalties from Haven Beauty and subsidiary Hillair Capital, who had licensed the beauty line that included various beauty items,” reports Robert W. Wood in Forbes.

“The award adds $2 million in post-judgment interest and costs. The Kardashians were owed a $1 million advance plus ongoing fees, but when they were shorted millions they sued. The trial court ruled for the Kardashians in 2018, and the Appeals court upheld it. The IRS will collect a share, and that share will be sizable. This was a royalty dispute, and royalties are taxed as ordinary income.”

Read the article.

“The Berkeley City Council approved a $82.6 million settlement with the University of California that drops lawsuits challenging long term development projects the campus is pursuing. In a closed session on Tuesday, the council voted 8-1 to accept the settlement, in exchange for agreeing to drop two recent lawsuits it filed against the university. One suit seeks compensation for the environmental and community impacts,” reports Olivia Wynkoop in SF Gate.

“The other alleges the university violated an environment impact review requirement during development for a volleyball facility. The settlement also has the city dropping its challenge of the UC Berkeley 2021 Long Range Development Plan, and the two housing projects that will house almost 2,000 more students and overtake People’s Park and apartments located at 1921 Walnut Street.”

Read the article.

“The nation’s largest public pension fund has agreed to pay up to $2.7 billion to refund policyholders hit with huge hikes in their premiums, it was announced Tuesday. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over the fee hikes that were imposed on nearly 80,000 people who paid for policies to cover the long-term costs of nursing care,” reports CBS Sacramento in their blog.

“A judge must approve the deal, which could happen sometime next year, according to the release. Several policyholders sued in 2013 after CalPERS notified them that their premiums would jump by 85% over two years beginning in 2015. CalPERS said it needed to raise the premiums to keep the expensive long-term care policies solvent. The fund has suspended new enrollment and plans.”

Read the article.

“A unit of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America will pay $97 million in restitution to tens of thousands of customers who were misled into moving their retirement money into higher-fee accounts, regulators said on Tuesday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the settlement with TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional,” reports Jonathan Stempel in Reuters.

“Based in New York, TIAA ended March with $1.3 trillion of assets under management, and serves about 5 million customers including college professors, doctors and nurses, researchers and government employees. Regulators said that from January 2012 to March 2018, TIAA advisers pressured clients to move their retirement money.”

Read the article.

“Conformis is a relatively small player in the orthopaedic market. Last year, with the pandemic dragging sales down, Conformis reported revenues of $68.8 million whereas net sales at Stryker clocked in at $14.4 billion. Stryker’s orthopaedic unit alone generated close to $5 billion in sales. Yet, Conformis has successfully pursued Zimmer and now Stryker over products it alleges infringe on its patents,” reports Nick Paul Taylor in Med Tech Dive.

“In 2015, Conformis granted Wright a license to use patient-specific instrument technology covered by its patents and patent applications with off-the-shelf foot and ankle implants. Five years later, in April 2020, Conformis filed a suit against Wright alleging products including Tornier Blueprint 3D Planning PSI shoulder replacement systems infringed on four of its patents.”

Read the article.

“A Texas natural gas marketer has sued a unit of Chevron USA Inc in Houston federal court, asking for nearly $85 million from the oil giant for failing to make natural gas deliveries during a deep freeze across the state in February. In a complaint filed on Friday, Cailip Gas Marketing LLC located in Houston accuses Chevron Natural Gas of breaching a sales contract by delivering lower than agreed volumes,” reports Sebastien Malo in Reuters.

“Chevron did not immediately provide a comment. The complaint says that the San Ramon, California-based company has said force majeure excused the missed and incomplete deliveries. Cailip, which is represented by Anthony Arguijo of Scott Douglass & McConnico, claims that Chevron agreed to deliver 90,000 million British thermal unit (MMBtu) of gas daily but did not make full deliveries.”

Read the article.

“A coalition of three-dozen bipartisan state attorneys general has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google accusing the tech giant of running a monopoly for its app store. The 36 states include Utah, New York, California, Virginia, North Carolina and the District of Columbia,” reports Terry Collins in USA Today.

“The suit, filed in a U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleges that Google uses “anti-competitive barriers and mandates to protect its monopoly power,” through its Android operating system and its Play Store app over other app stores available on Android devices, including a majority of smartphones sold globally. .”

Read the article.

“Hired to be Liberty University’s executive vice president of management efficiencies and diversity and claiming he was fired four months later, Kelvin Edwards is suing the university for more than $8 million and accusing it of racial discrimination. Edwards, previously a wide receiver with LU and the NFL, was hired last July into a position that was created for him, he claimed in a lawsuit filed,” reports Rachel Mahoney in The News & Advance.

“The hire came amid a number of resignations by Black LU employees and three Black student-athletes transferring out, prompted in large part by tweets from then-president Jerry Falwell Jr. that were decried as racist and for which he later apologized. The university offered Edwards a $250,000 annual salary plus a $1,500 monthly vehicle allowance, scholarships for him and his family and construction of a new home for Mr. Edwards and his family on Liberty Mountain, according to the lawsuit.”

Read the article.

“Select Medical Corporation and Encore GC Acquisition LLC will pay $8.4 million to settle federal allegations in violation of the False Claims Act, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Pennsylvania based Select Medical Rehabilitation Services Inc. contracted with 12 SNFs in New York and New Jersey between January 2010 and March 2016 to provide rehabilitation therapy services,” reports Jordyn Reiland in Skilled Nursing News.

“The government alleged SMRS violated the act when it knowingly caused the facilities to submit false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that were not reasonable, necessary or skilled. Selection Medical Corporation was SMRS’ prior parent company. The alleged conduct occurred before Encore GC Acquisition LLC became its successor-in-interest, according to the release.”

Read the article.