Last week, the Fourth Circuit decided In re Marriott International, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, in which it vacated a district court’s class certification order. The district court had granted certification before addressing the merits of Marriott’s argument that the plaintiffs were barred from proceeding as a class under a waiver. While acknowledging “it seems no court has had occasion to expressly hold as much,” the Court “agree[d] with Marriott that the time to address a contractual class waiver is before, not after, a class is certified.” The Fourth Circuit declined to address the validity of the waiver in the first instance, and remanded to the district court to do so.
Class Actions, Consumer Litigation
Fourth Circuit Holds Validity of Class Waivers Must Be Assessed Pre-Certification
