Client Alert: Supreme Court Reinforces and Clarifies Rule that Individual “Concrete Injury” is Required to Establish Article III Standing for Claims Seeking Monetary Damages in Both Individual and Class Actions

On June 25, 2021, the United States Supreme Court strongly reinforced the rule that every plaintiff in an individual action, and each class member in a class action, must have suffered a concrete injury-in-fact in order to pursue a claim for monetary damages in federal court, even if the claim is for violation of federal statute and Congress has authorized the recovery of statutory damages. TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, --- U.S. --- (2021). Clarifying language from a prior case, the Court held that a mere risk of future harm does not support Article III standing in a claim for monetary damages.

This Client Alert, authored by Partner James J. Boland, details what the decision means for future class actions.