2024 was an active year in the class action arena. In this post, our Litigation group in Toronto discusses noteworthy developments over the past twelve months. While our focus is on cases and other developments affecting...more
1/23/2025
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Canada ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Competition ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Evidence ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Ontario ,
Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Securities Litigation
The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) in two recent companion decisions, Auer v. Auer (“Auer”) and TransAlta Generation Partnership v. Alberta (“TransAlta”), has clarified that the reasonableness standard as set out in Canada...more
The Ontario Court of Appeal (the “Court”) in Lochan v. Binance Holdings Limited, 2024 ONCA 784, recently upheld a lower court decision dismissing a large cryptocurrency trading platform’s motion to stay a class proceeding in...more
In Pelton v Maytag, 2024 ONSC 3016 (“Pelton”) the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the “Court”) ruled that the defendant manufacturers were not liable for failing to warn consumers that the product could fail because of a...more
On May 31, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada released its highly anticipated decision in Earthco Soil Mixtures Inc. v. Pine Valley Enterprises Inc., 2024 SCC 20 (“Pine Valley”), clarifying how contracting parties can exclude...more
In Palmer v. Teva Canada Limited, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s decision to deny certification of a proposed product liability class action seeking damages for the alleged increased risk of being...more
4/9/2024
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Canada ,
Cancer ,
Cause of Action Accrual ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Damages ,
Healthcare ,
Life Sciences ,
Negligence ,
Ontario ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Product Recalls ,
Statutory Violations ,
Teva Pharmaceuticals ,
Unjust Enrichment
The arrival of 2024 marked the end of a year filled with class action activity. Our Litigation group in Toronto has prepared a list of some of the more notable cases (and other developments) of 2023, with a focus on Ontario....more
In Banman v. Ontario (“Banman”), the Ontario Superior Court (the “Court”) considered the new preferable procedure criterion of the certification test under the amended Class Proceedings Act, 1992 (“CPA”) in certifying a...more
In Jensen v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 2023 FCA 89, the Federal Court of Appeal (the “Court”) upheld the lower court’s refusal to certify a proposed class action involving allegations that the defendants had breached...more
In South West Terminal Ltd. v. Achter Land & Cattle Ltd., 2023 SKKB 116, the King’s Bench for Saskatchewan (the “Court”) ruled that a “thumbs-up” emoji can convey acceptance of a contract. The ruling, which has garnered...more
In Baffinland Iron Mines LP v. Tower-EBC G.P., S.E.N.C., the Ontario Court of Appeal (the “ONCA”) has confirmed that “finally settled” by arbitration means the same thing as “final and binding”, and that both phrases may...more
In Salina v. Investors Group Financial Services Inc., 2023 BCS41 C 86 (the “Decision”), the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the “Court”) considered the question of whether an employer owes its employee a duty of care in...more
In a trilogy of rulings released on November 25, 2022, the Ontario Court of Appeal (“Court”) has ruled that the tort of intrusion upon seclusion cannot extend to companies that collect and store personal information and fall...more
12/7/2022
/ Appeals ,
Canada ,
Class Action ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Data Breach ,
Intrusion Upon Seclusion ,
Liability ,
Negligence ,
Ontario ,
Personal Information ,
Privacy Torts ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Third-Party Liability
In Johnson v. Ontario, the Ontario Court of Appeal (the “Court”) allowed for the extension of time within which the appellant could opt out of a class action. In doing so, the Court provided welcome appellate guidance on the...more
11/9/2022
/ Appeals ,
Canada ,
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ,
Class Action ,
Damages ,
Deadlines ,
Negligence ,
Ontario ,
Opt-Outs ,
Prejudice ,
State and Local Government
In Williams v. Audible, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the “Court”) considered three applications in the context of a proposed conspiracy class action focused on exclusivity provisions in an agreement between Audible...more
8/26/2022
/ Apple ,
Canada ,
Class Certification ,
Competition ,
Competition Act ,
Contract Terms ,
e-Books ,
Exclusivity Clauses ,
iTunes ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Statutory Violations ,
Supreme Court of British Columbia
In Douez v. Facebook, Inc., 2022 BCSC 914, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the “Court”) held that Facebook used class members’ names and images in its “Sponsored Stories” advertising program without their consent,...more
6/30/2022
/ Advertising ,
Appeals ,
Canada ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Collection ,
Facebook ,
Forum Selection ,
Implied Consent ,
Motion to Amend ,
Online Advertisements ,
Privacy Acts ,
Right to Privacy ,
Social Media ,
Statutory Violations ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Supreme Court of British Columbia ,
Terms of Use
In Stewart v. Demme, the Ontario Divisional Court (the “Court”) overturned the certification of an intrusion upon seclusion claim in a data breach class action against a hospital, where a nurse used patient health records to...more
4/22/2022
/ Canada ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Damages ,
Data Breach ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Intrusion Upon Seclusion ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Negligence ,
Ontario ,
PHI ,
Recklessness ,
Tort
In Simpson v. Facebook, Inc., the Ontario Divisional Court upheld the dismissal of the plaintiff’s certification motion against Facebook in a proposed class action alleging that the personal data of Canadian Facebook users...more
3/17/2022
/ Appeals ,
Cambridge Analytica ,
Canada ,
Class Certification ,
Data Privacy ,
Data-Sharing ,
Facebook ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Personal Data ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Terms of Use
In Sutter Hill Management Corporation v. Mpire Capital Corporation (Sutter), the British Columbia Court of Appeal found that the acquiror of an Abbotsford, B.C. care home had breached the purchase and sale agreement by...more
2/14/2022
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Breach of Contract ,
Canada ,
Contract Drafting ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Merger Agreements ,
Purchase and Sale Agreements ,
Reasonable Best Efforts ,
Regulatory Approval ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Supreme Court of British Columbia