Katie R. Beran

Experience

Antitrust/Competition

• In re Google Play Developer Antitrust Litigation – Represents a class of app developers that sold apps or in-app products via the Google Play store. The developers alleged that Google abused its market power to exclude competing app stores from Android phones, stifling innovation and consumer choice, and resulting in a supracompetitive default 30% transaction fee. The developer class settled for $90 million and significant injunctive relief.
• In re Thalomid and Revlimid Antitrust Litigation – A class action alleging that the defendant’s extensive anticompetitive conduct excluded generic alternatives for Thalomid and Revlimid, two drugs used to treat rare but deadly conditions, from entering the market, causing end payors to incur millions of dollars in overcharges (settled for $34 million)
• In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation – A case alleging a conspiracy to fix the prices of foreign exchange instruments among some of the largest banks in the world, in which the firm has secured more than $2.3 billion in settlements.
• In re Apple Inc., Smartphone Antitrust Litigation – Hausfeld represents a class of direct purchasers seeking recovery for alleged monopolization of smart phones.
• In Re: RealPage, Inc., Rental Software Antitrust Litigation – Hausfeld serves as co-lead counsel in the federal antitrust class action against RealPage, Inc. and several of their property management clients, alleging that the Defendants, some of the largest owners and managers of rental real estate in the United States, conspired to use RealPage’s so-called “revenue management” service to set rental prices and restrict the supply of available rental units in major metropolitan areas across the United States.
• Greystone Mortgage Inc. and First Financial Lending LLC v. Equifax Workforce Solutions LLC and Equifax Inc. – Hausfeld represents lenders in an antitrust class action alleging Equifax monopolized the market for electronic verification of income and employment services, causing lenders, such as mortgage brokers and car dealerships, to overpay when initiating loans for consumers.

Environmental & Product Liability

• State of Maine v. BP P.L.C., et al – Hausfeld represents the State of Maine in climate deception litigation alleging that the defendant fossil fuel companies misled the public about the dangers of climate change, resulting in severe environmental and public health impacts across the state.
• SCWA v. Dow, et al. – Katie represents Suffolk County Water Authority, one of the largest water providers in the U.S., in this first-in-the-nation water contamination case seeking to hold chemical manufacturers responsible for their decades-long release of the toxic chemical 1,4-dioxane into groundwater
• SCWA v. 3M Company, et al & Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2873) – SCWA filed one of the first PFAS lawsuits in the country against 3M, DuPont, and other manufacturers and distributors of products containing PFAS “forever chemicals” for their contamination of the local public drinking water supply. SCWA’s case was transferred to the AFFF MDL, where Hausfeld serves on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee.
• New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection et al. v. Ford Motor Company et al. – Katie serves as Special Counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General in an environmental justice suit against Ford Motor Company seeking natural resource damages related to environmental pollution near the company’s Mahwah, NJ plant. The State alleges that Ford polluted an area that includes the homeland of a Native American tribe and later concealed the extent of the contamination from subsequent property owners and regulators (as depicted in the HBO documentary Mann V. Ford).
• Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, et al. v. Dow Chemical Co., et al. –  Katie serves as Special Counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General in environmental litigation on behalf of the State of New Jersey against the manufacturers of the toxic chemical 1,4-dioxane for contamination of the State’s natural resources and drinking water supply, as well as deceptive and fraudulent business practices regarding the sale of 1,4-dioxane products to industrial facilities and New Jersey consumers.
• City of Philadelphia v. Polymer80, Inc. and JSD Supply, Inc. – Katie served as lead counsel to the City of Philadelphia, in partnership with the Giffords Law Center, in a lawsuit against defendants Polymer80, Inc. and JSD Supply, which are among the largest suppliers of ghost guns confiscated in Philadelphia, alleging that the named distributors have contributed to the gun violence crisis and threatened the public’s right to health and safety by marketing, selling, and dispersing unserialized ghost guns into Philadelphia. The case settled in less than a year and achieved the broadest injunctive relief in any ghost gun case in the country, as well as $1.3M in compensation for the City, which will be directed towards efforts to remediate the harms caused by the gun violence epidemic.
• Bhatia v. 3M Company, No. 0:16 cv-1304 (D. Minn.) – A class action filed on behalf of dentists and dental practices alleging that 3M knowingly sold defective dental crowns and, even after pulling the product from the market, refused to reimburse dentists for the replacement costs, which ultimately settled for $32.5 million.
• Bell v. Al-Khatib - In an important environmental justice case, Hausfeld, along with the Public Interest Law Center, filed a complaint on behalf of a group of Philadelphia residents against an auto body shop for its unlawful operations resulting in nuisance and trespass in their neighborhood, which has been designated by the EPA as an “environmental justice community.” This litigation—focused on just one of scores of auto-related businesses operating improperly in low income communities of color in Southwest Philadelphia—concluded in a swift and favorable settlement including the elimination of the nuisance and the removal of the unlawfully operating business from the property.

Human Rights

• Padre et al. v. MVM - Hausfeld represents families that were unlawfully separated pursuant to the unconstitutional family separation policy implemented during the first Trump administration. The defendant in this class action lawsuit is MVM, Inc., the private security contractor that transported thousands of migrant children away from their parents. The plaintiffs bring human rights claims for enforced disappearance, torture, and cruel and inhumane treatment under the Alien Tort Statute, among other claims.
• Partnering with various local branches of the ACLU and other non-profit organizations, Katie has represented student victims of racial discrimination in schools, acted as counsel in prisoner civil rights litigation, represented youth plaintiffs alleging their constitutional rights have been violated in climate change impact litigation, and served as counsel for victims of childhood sexual abuse by Pennsylvania clergy.