Big Mass Torts Cases

Mass Torts Cases are legal claims for an action or a lack of an action that leads to the harm or injury of a massive amount of people. As a type of class action, corporations who face mass tort actions could potentially face billions of dollars in debt from legal fees and paying damages. This article will explore two modern day examples of mass tort cases affecting behemoth companies TikTok and Johnson & Johnson.

TikTok: A Social Media Giant’s Privacy Concerns Leads to Billions of Dollars in Settlement

In August 2020, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the social media giant Tiktok, faced several lawsuits sending underage users’ personal information to servers in China using the app’s facial recognition and location technologies. A total of 21 class action suits were filed against Bytedance (Allyn, 2021). Ten of these cases were covered under one multidistrict case in Illinois.

The cases were ultimately divided into two settlement classes: A nationwide class of customers, which consisted of Tiktok (or its previous name Musical.ly) users prior to September 30, 2021, and the Illinois class, which consisted of users residing in the State of Illinois who used the same ByteDance apps prior to September 30, 2021. The plaintiffs were the parents or guardians of the involved underage app users.

The key argument of the plaintiffs’ claim was that Tiktok violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) of Illinois and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The plaintiff’s claimed that TikTok collected and shared biometric data (such as face, voice, and fingerprints), location, and contact information of underage app users (children under 13 years of age) without obtaining the parental consent of the underage users. Tiktok did not provide information on how this data would be used, how long they intended to keep it, or delete the data upon the request.

Tiktok ultimately has agreed to pay a total settlement amount of $92 million. In recognition of violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), members of the Illinois subclass will receive six pro rata shares of the settlement amount whereas members of the National class receive only one pro rata share. The amount to be paid in shares will ultimately depend upon the number of claimants. TikTok’s settlement will apply for over 89 million users. Tiktok has also agreed to halt biometric recording and GSP data-collection operations within its app without consent.

Johnson & Johnson: Harmful Cancer-Causing Product Leads to Huge Loss

In the consumer product space, the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson faced a class action lawsuit in July 2018 by 22 women for selling products whose talc powder contained asbestos (Bever, 2018). The product was linked to harming the plaintiffs by causing ovarian cancer. The company agreed to pay a settlement for punitive and compensatory damages. Notably, Johnson & Johnson has yet to pay the awarded amount.

The plaintiffs of the Johnson & Johnson talc case were the families and friends of 22 women in St. Louis, Missouri, who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Out of the 22 women, 6 have died due to the cancer.

The plaintiffs alleged Johnson & Johnson were well aware of asbestos being present in their products since the 1970s but did nothing to warn consumers of the fact. Plaintiffs pointed to faulty testing methods that led to the failed detection of asbestos in talc.

Johnson & Johnson was initially required to pay $4.69 billion in the ovarian-cancer case. After review by a Missouri court of appeals, the award was ultimately reduced to $2.1 billion. Despite the reduction, Johnson & Johnson tried to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider overturning the settlement amount but was rejected by the US supreme court.

A few months later, Johnson & Johnson filed for bankruptcy, presumably as a ploy to avoid payment and further filing of related claims. However, a website update on the case revealed that the plaintiff’s lawyers are requesting to appeal the company’s permission for bankruptcy. The case continues to press on with many questioning whether 2022 will be the year it will finally put to rest.