In re Suboxone Antitrust Litig., ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2020). In this antitrust class action case, direct purchasers of Suboxone, a prescription pharmaceutical used to treat addiction to opioids, sued its manufacturer (“Reckitt”) for what Judge Shwartz summarized as “anticompetitive conduct that impeded the entry of generic versions of the drug into the market,” in violation of section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 2. The District Court certified a class. Reckitt appealed, but the Third Circuit affirmed, applying the abuse of discretion standard of review. Reckitt...

Sun Chemical Corp. v. Fike Corp., ___ N.J. ___ (2020). This opinion by Justice Solomon today resolved another question (originally, multiple questions, but reformulated into a single question by the Supreme Court) certified by the Third Circuit. That question is whether “a Consumer Fraud Act [(“CFA”)]claim [can] be based, in part or exclusively, on a claim that also might be actionable under the Products Liability Act [(“PLA”)].” By a 5-0 vote (Justices Patterson and Timpone did not participate), the Court answered “yes.” Justice Solomon...

Seigelstein v. Shrewsbury Motors, Inc., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2020). When class action cases settle with a benefit to the class, class counsel, who normally handle those cases on a wholly contingent basis, are entitled to a fee. That fee is paid either as a percentage of the value of the class recovery or is paid by the defendant on top of the settlement for the class, based on either a percentage or on the “lodestar,” which comprises the number of hours reasonably billed multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. Often, the fee is agreed upon in settlement negotiations....