Here are a few of the major cases of interest within the state Attorneys General community that are receiving significant press coverage .
Purdue Pharma Reaches Deal With Cities, 23 States Over Opioid Crisis
Purdue Pharma LP has reportedly reached tentative agreements with 23 states and three U.S. territories on a multibillion-dollar deal that will enable the drugmaker to resolve much of the opioid litigation it faces through a planned bankruptcy, according to The Wall Street Journal and other news sources. Purdue, the maker of OxyContin, is owned by the Sackler family. The settlement is reportedly valued at between $10 billion and $12 billion, but some states opposing the deal have raised reservations about its value. A number of states oppose the deal, led by New York and including California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, according to press reports.
Attorneys General File Brief Supporting California’s Ban on Large-Capacity Magazines
District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine led a coalition of 18 state Attorneys General to preserve California’s ban on large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. A group of gun owners and a California arm of the National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit opposing the ban. In April 2019, a U.S. District Court declared the law unconstitutional. On July 22, attorneys general filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and argued that the Second Amendment authorizes the states to address gun violence in this manner in furtherance of protecting public safety.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Announces the Largest Data Breach Settlement with Equifax
On July 22, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a coalition of 50 attorneys general to reach a $600 million data breach settlement with Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies. The settlement is the largest data breach settlement in history and requires Equifax to implement and maintain a rigorous and comprehensive data security program. In September 2017, Equifax revealed electronic files had been breached, resulting in the information of 147 million people being unlawfully accessed. The agreement also requires Equifax to pay between $300 million and $425 million into a consumer restitution settlement fund, $175 million to the 50 attorneys general and $10.9 million in penalties, fees and costs to Texas.
Coalition Led by Attorney General Kwame Raoul Reaches Settlement with LexisNexis
On July 2, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that Illinois, along with four other states, and the city of Baltimore reached a $5.8 million settlement with LexisNexis Risk Solutions Inc. (“LexisNexis”). Along with AG Raoul, attorneys general of Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Tennessee carried out an investigation that uncovered that LexisNexis wrongfully withheld fees from Illinois law enforcement agencies when reselling the agencies automobile crash reports. Contractually, LexisNexis was required to compensate the agencies on each report sold. However, the investigation discovered that LexisNexis paid the agencies for only the first time it sold a report.