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The recently filed securities class action against Beyond Meat (Beyond Meat SCA) illustrates how accounting judgments, industry-wide demand shifts, and corporate turnaround narratives can create D&O exposure. Filed in January 2026, the complaint alleges that Beyond Meat and senior executives misled investors during 2025 by failing to timely disclose a material asset impairment while publicly emphasizing operational discipline and a path toward EBITDA-positive performance. As discussed below, the allegations arise amid a broader deterioration in the plant-based meat sector, documented in a March 10, 2025, CNBC report, and alongside emerging academic research questioning the assumed health advantages of plant-based meat alternatives.

Taken together with the allegations of the Beyond Meat SCA, the marketplace shift and emerging academic findings may provide a useful lens for assessing certain D&O underwriting risk.Continue Reading D&O Lessons from the Beyond Meat SCA

For some time now, one of the hottest bets in the U.S. economy has been the electric vehicle industry. Until recently, manufacturers struggled to meet consumer demand. However, as 2023 progressed, something unexpected happened. Consumer demand for electric vehicles began to decline. A number of factors – including heightened interest rates – contributed to this development, but the perception of declining demand has set off alarm bells, particularly among EV manufacturers’ suppliers.

In an example both of how the declining demand can affect EV suppliers and the way that the decline can translate into securities litigation, on December 13, 2023, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities suit against electric vehicle semiconductor supplier ON Semiconductor after the company announced declining sales of its automotive business segment products because of declining consumer EV demand. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found here.Continue Reading Semiconductor Company Hit with Securities Suit as EV Demand Declines

Throughout the year, macroeconomic considerations have been an important factor in the number of securities class action lawsuit filings, including economic inflation, and supply chain and labor supply disruption. Another important factor has been rising interest rates, which, among other things contributed to several high-profile bank failures earlier this year, and which in turn led to the filing of follow-on securities suits.

In the latest example of macroeconomic factors affecting businesses and translating into a securities class action lawsuit filing, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities class action lawsuit against the standby power generator company, Generac Holdings, after the company announced that declining consumer spending due to rising interest rates caused the company second quarter 2023 revenues to fall below expectations. A copy of the November 21, 2023, complaint can be found here.Continue Reading High Interest Rates Undercut Consumer Demand, Leads to Securities Suit Filing