TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez concerns whether a class action lawsuit can be brought when a majority of the class has not been injured
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 9, 2021) – NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision and correct Article III standing requirements. If the Ninth Circuit’s decision is allowed to stand, plaintiff’s lawyers will be incentivized to turn every dispute into a statutory-damages class action lawsuit, all based on technical statutory violations and without having to show that the class represented has suffered concrete injuries.
“Small business owners are the biggest victims of frivolous lawsuits, since they often cannot afford to defend a case brought against them,” said Karen Harned, Executive Director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “If the Supreme Court affirms the decision, that will open the floodgates for small businesses to be the target of statutory-damages lawsuits, like the one in this case, something small businesses simply cannot afford.”
The case primarily concerns whether either Article III or Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 permits a damages class action when the majority of the class suffered no actual injury, let alone an injury anything like what the class representative suffered.
The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
