Status Report: Pandemic-Related Class Actions In Four Areas

In the banking sector, small businesses and some individuals have claimed lenders are imposing their own criteria for processing PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans – eg. that the borrower have a pre-existing and exclusive relationship with the bank – in addition to those mandated by the recently passed Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). The first of these targeted Bank of America. In the area of privacy, Zoom Video Communications, whose daily users have surged from 10 million in December to 200 million by the end of March, has been targeted not only over the breach known as “Zoombombing,” but also unauthorized disclosure of personal information. In higher education, allegations include variations on the theme of not getting what you paid for, including not just live in-person instruction, but housing, meals, and other things covered by fees. In the area of securities, putative class actions are alleging that companies were not forthcoming regarding the impact of Covid-19 on their business or, in one case, that the company mislead investors by claiming it had developed and could rapidly produce a vaccine when it had only “designed a vaccine construct.”