Happy New Year to my lovely readers! I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend.
The Fall 2016 issue of Competition (the journal of the Antitrust, UCL and Privacy Section of the State Bar of California) has a very interesting article by my friend John Landry, entitled "Never Say Never: The Ninth Circuit's Misguided Categorical Approach to Individual Damages Questions When Assessing Rule 23(b)(3) Predominance."
The article provides an interesting defense perspective on recent Ninth Circuit class certification decisions, which, according to John's analysis, adopt a "categorical" rule that "individual damages questions alone never, ever defeat class certification." You won't hear an argument from me on that, although I must respectfully disagree with John's conclusion that such a "categorical" rule is inconsistent with Comcast. (See this blog post for my take on Comcast.)
If you are a member of the Section, you should have received your copy of Competition in the mail. If you are not a member, I encourage you to join when you renew your bar membership this year.
