Here is the summary report of "Hot Legal Topics" for the past four days with a focus on mass litigation, litigation funding, and legal tech:

Hot Legal Topics — Tuesday

Period: last 4 days (Fri-Mon)

New Laws / EU Directives

• Transparency Requirements for Litigation Funders in the USA: The regulation of litigation funding continues to advance. In the state of New Jersey, a new bill has been promoted that mandates the disclosure of contracts with third-party litigation funders [1]. Such regulations can significantly influence the dynamics and structuring of future class actions.

Federal Court of Justice / Landmark Judgments

• Platform Liability (Frankfurt Regional Court): The Frankfurt Regional Court has imposed a penalty payment of 100,000 euros against Facebook parent company Meta [2, 3]. This was justified by the fact that false accusations online were removed too slowly [3]. The judgment has signaling effect for platform operator liability and provides grounds for mass proceedings against tech giants for inadequate moderation processes.
• Mass Damages Claims Against Banks (Essen Regional Court): Following a break-in at a Gelsenkirchen savings bank with millions in loot, the first civil proceedings have begun [4]. Numerous damaged customers are suing for damages, which shows high bundling potential for similar cases of inadequate security precautions at financial institutions [4].
• Billion-Dollar Settlement in Catastrophe Liability: A US federal judge has approved a $100 million settlement in the case of shareholder lawsuits against Hawaiian Electric [5]. The allegation was that the utility's executives took inadequate fire protection measures in advance of the devastating wildfires on Maui (2023) [5].
• Consolidations in Medical Device Area (MDL): In the USA, strong waves of mass litigation continue to form in the pharmaceutical sector. Lawsuits against Boston Scientific regarding defective spinal cord stimulators have now been centralized in a federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) [6]. Simultaneously, a $50 million settlement is pending in the case of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, which is intended to resolve almost all lawsuits regarding neurological side effects [7].

Trends in Litigation Funding & Legal-Tech

• European Antitrust Class Actions Through Litigation Funders: A consortium of more than 20 European publishers supported by the litigation funder LitFin is suing Google for approximately 640 million euros in damages [8]. The background involves alleged abuses in the ad-tech business [8]. This demonstrates the increasing importance of litigation funding in enforcing gigantic antitrust damages claims in Europe.
• Market Consolidation: The litigation financing market is increasingly professionalizing. Rocade Capital has acquired Law Finance Group, creating a massive platform with more than $2.3 billion in deployed capital [9]. According to the CEO, this transaction is a clear sign that in the maturing market, it is increasingly about "picking the winners" [9].
• Risks for Funders and Investors: An Australian court has ruled that litigation funders must be liable for the opposing party's legal costs after a billion-dollar lawsuit they financed was dismissed [10]. Discrepancies in payout ratios are also causing conflicts: The inventor of the Vodacom service "Please Call Me" is taking legal action against his former litigation funders because they claim 40% of the settlement amount achieved [10].
• Legal-Tech / AI Liability: The US state of Florida has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman [11]. It alleges that ChatGPT was falsely marketed as safe despite the AI's potential to promote violence and endanger children [11]. This could mark the beginning of a new wave of consumer and mass litigation against providers of generative AI.