Most of Amazon Settlement of Class Wage Claims Gets Initial Nod

An Amazon.com Services Inc. class action settlement between the shopping conglomerate’s business unit and an employee who alleged the company retaliated against her wage discrimination complaint mostly got preliminary approval from a federal magistrate judge.

Class counsel was approved for the Ninth Circuit’s 25% benchmark for attorneys’ fees, but their request for one third of the $3,000,000 gross settlement fund was rejected after Magistrate Judge Barbara A. McAuliffe ruled that the provided hourly rate was “high and above the upper limit of rates generally accepted in” the US District Court for the Eastern District of California.

McAuliffe adjusted the ...