Bateman v. American Multi-Cinema, Inc.

Case Updates

NCLC urged the Ninth Circuit to rehear a panel ruling that presumed the superiority of class treatment for claims seeking to recover statutory damages without any consumer harm. The panel upheld class certification for alleged violations of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), holding that the district court abused its discretion when considering the disproportionality between the potential damages the defendant might have to pay in a class action and the absence of any consumer injury. NCLC argued that the decision conflicts with Ninth Circuit precedent, the decisions of virtually every other district court in the Ninth Circuit, and the decisions of four other federal courts of appeals. NCLC specifically challenged the Ninth Circuit's conclusion that congressional silence on class treatment in FACTA permits the court to presume the superiority of class treatment when there has been little or no consumer injury and the potential statutory damages are enormous and out of proportion. NCLC argued that, if the panel's decision remains uncorrected, it may deprive companies of the opportunity to fairly adjudicate claims alleged against them.