Jones Day Talks Health Care & Life Sciences: False Claims and Private Equity, and Rideshare Apps Race into Patient Transportation
Highlights from this issue include: Affirmative Defenses. The Second Circuit held the district court erred in certifying a class alleging ERISA violations because it did not consider Defendant’s affirmative defenses in...more
In a positive development for employers faced with competing Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) actions, on September 30, 2021, the California Court of Appeals (Second District, Division Four) held in Turrieta v. Lyft.,...more
The first three cases reported below regarding legal developments in August 2021 have four common denominators: the defendants are all large gig economy companies; plaintiffs’ class action counsel is the same; the lawsuits...more
In addition to battling class certification, businesses swept into these class actions may be faced with consolidation motions in multidistrict forums. The Arent Fox Class Actions group has been tracking COVID-19 class...more
California has sued ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft over alleged violations of a new state law that requires companies to treat gig workers as employees “if they control how workers perform tasks or if the work is a...more
Monsanto’s (and, in turn, Bayer AG’s) terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in court over its Roundup products’ links to cancer continued yesterday, as a jury awarded $80 million to the California man who it had already...more
Fascinating weekend feature from the Journal exploring how Sears Roebuck went from the dominant force in American retailing to the bankrupt shell of a company that it is now—all within a period of just 40 years....more
After weeks of regular negotiations (and months of back-and-forth before that), the rough outlines of a broad US/China trade deal are starting to take shape. Early reports look like the end of US tariffs in exchange for...more
Companies are increasingly faced with class actions for alleged violations of one of the “big three” —the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), or the Fair Credit Reporting Act...more
Yesterday, a class action was filed against the ride-sharing company Lyft for text messages it sent through its “Concierge” program in an alleged attempt to gain more ridership. Lyft Concierge is a program which allows...more
2017 was notable for a shift in the law of independent contractors. Part 1, below, discusses five key legal developments from 2017 you should be aware of. Part 2, which will follow tomorrow, offers readers predictions of what...more
A former Lyft driver filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against Uber, alleging Uber violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), the California Invasion of Privacy Act...more
The past month included significant state and federal appellate court decisions, large settlements of IC misclassification class actions, class and collective action certifications, and two IC misclassification class actions...more
Late last week, a federal court judge in California approved a settlement agreement whereby ride-sharing company Lyft agreed to pay $27 million to approximately 95,000 California drivers who alleged they were misclassified as...more
Judges in California will likely soon issue rulings affecting two ride-sharing companies, Uber and Lyft. Those connected with the Lyft case will be pleased because it is expected that a federal district court judge in San...more
The gig economy is a domain where companies hire workers for specific projects or “gigs.” Generally these workers retain control over the manner and the means of performing their work and are classified as independent...more
Our news update for last month highlights the fact that IC misclassification lawsuits are happening across the country and in virtually every industry, both in the on-demand economy and in more traditional business sectors....more
D.C. Circuit Hears Argument on FCC Petitions - On October 19, Judges Srinivasan and Pillard and Senior Judge Edwards of the D.C. Circuit heard argument in ACA International v. FCC, which addressed several consolidated...more
The Northern District of California dismissed a Fair Credit Reporting Act case against Lyft upon finding that plaintiff lacked Article III standing based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct....more
Apparently, even a “no decision” decision by the U.S. Supreme Court can still establish precedent. Relying on a Spring 2016 SCOTUS decision, a federal magistrate judge in California dismissed a proposed class action...more
Earlier yesterday, Uber was dealt yet another setback in its efforts to settle the IC misclassification lawsuits brought against it by Uber drivers in California and Massachusetts. As readers of this legal blog will recall...more
Disruptors Continue to Create Challenges for the Independent Contractor Business Model - Our increasingly on-demand, technology-driven economy has been a petri dish for disruptive business models that are responsible...more
The poster children of IC misclassification cases dominated the news in June: Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, FedEx, an exotic dance club, and a trucking transport company. It was not a good month for any of them, yet as we have...more
Until recently, the word “gig” had two common meanings: - ..A live music performance; and - ..A long trident used to hunt swamp-dwelling amphibians - However, a noted linguist recently crowned “gig” as the...more
This past month involved the settlement of a number of high profile IC misclassification cases. In one case, a federal court gave conditional approval to a $226 million settlement between FedEx and its Ground Division...more