pandemic

Subscribe to pandemic

As I have previously noted on this site (for example, here), a long-standing and frequently recurring litigation pattern has been the filing of a corporate or securities lawsuit in the wake of an antitrust enforcement action. In the latest example of this pattern, a plaintiff shareholder has alleged that Atkore, a PVC pipe manufacturer, misled investors by failing to disclose that its product pricing was being propped up by an alleged scheme with its competitors to fix prices. The securities suit filing follows a prior civil antitrust action against the company and its competitors. The securities suit, which in addition to representing an example of antitrust follow-on securities litigation, is also an example of a lawsuit arising out of a company’s post-COVID business operations. A copy of the February 21, 2025, complaint can be found here.Continue Reading Antitrust Allegations Lead to Securities Suit Against PVC Pipe Company

As I have noted on this site (most recently here), plaintiffs’ lawyers have launched a plethora of lawsuits against companies whose prospects soared during the initial government shut-down phase of the pandemic, but whose fortunes waned as the pandemic moved into the return-to-work phase. While plaintiffs’ lawyers have been quick to file these kinds of pandemic-related suits, the cases have not always fared particularly well.

Last week, in the latest example of one of these kinds of suits stalling at the initial pleading stage, a federal district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss – albeit without prejudice – in a pandemic-related lawsuits that had been filed against the portable energy generation company, Generac Holdings. The court’s February 7, 2025, decision, which can be found here, makes for interesting reading and arguably has important implications for other lawsuits of this type.Continue Reading Court Dismisses COVID-19-Related Securities Suit Against Energy Generator Company

The directors’ and officers’ liability environment is always changing, but 2024 was a particularly eventful year, with important consequences for the D&O insurance marketplace. The past year’s many developments also have significant implications for what may lie ahead in 2025 – and possibly for years to come.  I have set out below the Top Ten D&O Stories of 2024, with a focus on future implications. Please note that on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 11:00 AM EST, my colleagues Marissa Streckfus, Chris Bertola, and I will be conducting a free, hour-long webinar in which we will discuss The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2024. Registration for the webinar can be found here. I hope you can join us for the webinar.Continue Reading The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2024

The onset of COVID-related securities class action litigation since the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in the U.S. in March 2020 is something that I have fully documented on this site (most recently, for example, here). Even though the coronavirus-outbreak peaked long ago and even though the relevant U.S. agencies officially declared an end to the pandemic health emergency on May 11, 2023, the pandemic’s impact on the U.S. economy continues to reverberate. And the economic disruption the pandemic caused among other things continues to result in securities class action lawsuit filings, even at this late date after the pandemic ended. The latest example of this phenomenon is the lawsuit filed this week against alcoholic beverage company MGP Ingredients, whose fortunes soared during the lockdown but tailed off more recently as the company acknowledged the impact on its sales from pandemic-induced overstocking. A copy of the December 16, 2024, complaint against the company can be found here.Continue Reading Beverage Company Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit

One of the more interesting developments in the securities litigation arena over the past several years has been the continuing influx of pandemic-related securities class action lawsuit filings. Here we are now approaching what will be the sixth year since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. and yet the pandemic-related suits are continuing to come in. In the latest example, last week a shareholder plaintiff filed a securities class action lawsuit against the toy company Hasbro, alleging that the company misled investors by claiming that the level of inventory it built up in response to pandemic lockdown-related consumer demand was appropriate, only to later announce it would have to incur substantial inventory reduction costs. A copy of the November 13, 2024, complaint against Hasbro can be found here.Continue Reading Toy Company Hit with Pandemic-Related Securities Suit

As readers know, since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. in March 2020, plaintiffs’ lawsuits have hit dozens of companies with pandemic-related securities suits; indeed, even though we are now well into the fifth year since the outbreak, plaintiffs’ lawyers continue to file COVID-related securities suits. But while these kinds of suits have proven to be popular with plaintiffs’ lawyers, how have they fared? Recent developments in two of these COVID-related securities suits underscore the fact that the results in these cases have been mixed.Continue Reading Yes, But How Have the COVID-19-Related Securities Suits Fared?

In my recent round-up of the top trends in the world of directors’ and officers’ insurance and liability, I noted that, even though we are now well into the fifth year since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S., COVID-related securities suits continue to be filed. In the latest example of this kind of lawsuit, last week a plaintiff investor filed a securities class action lawsuit against customer contact data firm ZoomInfo Technologies, alleging that after COVID-related demand inflated the company’s results during the pandemic, the company allegedly strained to conceal subsequent declining demand from investors. A copy of the September 4, 2024, complaint can be found here.Continue Reading Customer Contact Data Company Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit

Here we are, well into the fifth year since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S., and yet coronavirus-related securities lawsuits are still being filed. In the latest example, earlier this week plaintiffs’ lawyers filed a securities class action lawsuit against the electronics manufacturing firm Methode Electronics based in part on allegations concerning problems allegedly caused by the company’s loss of key personnel during the pandemic. A copy of the August 26, 2024, complaint can be found here.Continue Reading COVID-Related Securities Suit Filed Against Electronic Components Company

One of the more interesting recent litigation phenomena is that even though we are now well into the fifth year since the initial COVID outbreak in the U.S., COVID-related securities lawsuits continue to be filed. Indeed, in its recent survey of first half 2024 securities lawsuit filings, NERA noted COVID-related filings as one of the factors contributing to the volume of securities suit filing in the year’s first half, and indeed noted that COVID-related suit filings YTD were on pace to exceed the number COVID-related suit filings during the full year 2023. In the latest example of these securities suit filing trends, earlier this week, a plaintiff shareholder filed a COVID-related suit against cloud computing products company Extreme Networks, based on allegations that the company had misrepresented the long-term effects of COVID-related supply chain disruption on the company’s sales backlog. A copy of the August 13, 2024, complaint can be found here.Continue Reading Extreme Networks Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit

The pandemic officially ended well over a year ago, but the pandemic’s effects continue to ripple through the economy and affect company’s operations and financial results. Moreover, these effects continue to translate into securities class action litigation. The latest example is the lawsuit filed earlier this week against the Canadian defense software company CAE, Inc., which was sued after the disruptive effects of the pandemic caused certain of its fixed-price long-term contracts to be more costly and less profitable, notwithstanding the company’s assurances that it was managing the “ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic.” A copy of the July 16, 2024, complaint in the lawsuit can be found here.Continue Reading Defense Firm Hit with COVID and Supply Chain Disruption-Related Securities Suit