On July 22, 2014, NERA Economic Consulting (NERA) published a
study of consumer class action settlements between 2010 and
2013. The report states that NERA's data "show a
steady increase in consumer class action settlements from
2010–2013." NERA found that 66 class actions were
settled in 2010, 111 were settled in 2011, 141 were settled in 2012
and 161 were settled in 2013. In other words, nearly 100 more
class actions were settled in 2013 than were settled just three
years prior.
At the same time, however, NERA also concluded that the
aggregate amounts paid by settling defendants in each year only
exhibited a "gradually increasing trend" when two large,
outlier settlements are excluded. (These two outlier
settlements are a $7.25 billion settlement of antitrust claims
alleging that merchants paid excessive interchange fees for
accepting Visa/MasterCard and a $1.6 billion settlement of claims
alleging that Toyota vehicles experienced sudden,
