A U.S. judge on Wednesday approved $3.2 million in legal fees for consumer lawyers who led a data privacy case against convenience store chain Wawa, reinstating an award that a federal appeals court last year saw as potentially unreasonable.
Wawa agreed to settle the case for $12.2 million, offering $9 million in gift cards and other compensation to a class of 22 million consumers. Class members claimed only about $2.9 million, however, so the award for fees and expenses ended up being greater than how much consumers recovered.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November overturned the fee award and ordered Pratter to take a “closer look.” The court directed Pratter to examine “the ratio between the fee award and amount recovered by the class members, and side agreements between class counsel and the defendant.”
The consumer plaintiffs’ lawyers and a representative for Wawa did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Theodore Frank, director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness, opposed the first fee award of $3.2 million. His appeal was the centerpiece of the 3rd Circuit’s decision to vacate the award and order a fresh analysis.
Frank on Wednesday told Reuters that “it’s hard for me to imagine a legal way to award that much money given the ratio of fees to class benefit.” He said he was still weighing Pratter’s decision, and did not immediately say whether he would appeal anew to the 3rd Circuit.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Pratter concluded that Wawa had a chance but declined to fight the plaintiffs' fee request.
There was no provision in the settlement that might have blocked Wawa from objecting, Pratter wrote, and he found the requested fee was in line with other similar cases.
Pratter also said the court has discretion to "consider either the amounts made available to the class or the amounts claimed by the class when considering the reasonableness of a fee award."
The case is In re Wawa Inc Data Security Litigation, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 2:19-cv-06019.
For consumer plaintiffs: Sherrie Savett of Berger Montague; Roberta Liebenberg of Fine, Kaplan and Black; Benjamin Johns of Shub & Johns; and Linda Nussbaum of Nussbaum Law Group
For Wawa: Kristin Hadgis, Gregory Parks and Michael Kenneally of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
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