Major Lawsuits

Alphabet Inc.

The U.S. DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in 2020. In 2024, a federal judge ruled Google held an illegal monopoly in search.

Chiquita Brands International

A Florida jury found in 2024 that Chiquita was liable for financing paramilitary death squads in Colombia that killed thousands of people, awarding $38.3 million to families of eight victims.

Chiquita Brands International

Chiquita Brands pleaded guilty in 2007 to making payments totaling $1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a designated terrorist organization, and was fined $25 million by the DOJ.

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.

The DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster in 2024, alleging illegal monopolization of the live events industry.

Amazon.com, Inc.

The FTC and 17 state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon in 2023, alleging it illegally maintains monopoly power.

ByteDance Ltd.

TikTok was fined EUR 345 million by the Irish DPC in 2023 for violating children's privacy under GDPR.

Johnson & Johnson

J&J faced over 38,000 lawsuits alleging its talc baby powder contained asbestos and caused cancer. J&J proposed an $8.9 billion settlement in 2023.

Johnson & Johnson

A Reuters investigation in 2018 found J&J knew for decades that asbestos contaminated its baby powder but did not disclose this.

Clearview AI, Inc.

Clearview AI settled a BIPA lawsuit in 2022, agreeing to restrict sales of its facial recognition database to most private companies in the U.S.

Clearview AI, Inc.

Clearview AI was fined EUR 20 million by Italy's data protection authority in 2022 for illegally scraping billions of facial images without consent.

Purdue Pharma L.P.

The Sackler family agreed to pay up to $6 billion to settle opioid claims, after being accused of extracting billions while fueling the opioid epidemic.

Purdue Pharma L.P.

Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty in 2020 to federal criminal charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. in marketing OxyContin. The DOJ imposed $8.3 billion in penalties.

Nestlé S.A.

In Nestlé USA v. Doe (2021), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that former child slaves from Mali could not sue Nestlé under the Alien Tort Statute for aiding and abetting child labor on Ivorian cocoa farms.

Shell plc

A Dutch court in 2021 ordered Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, in a landmark climate liability case.

Boeing Company

Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in 2021 to resolve a DOJ criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the FAA in connection with the 737 MAX crashes.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Goldman Sachs paid over $5 billion globally to settle charges related to the 1MDB scandal, in which the bank helped raise $6.5 billion that was looted.

Bayer AG

Bayer agreed to pay approximately $10.9 billion in 2020 to settle roughly 125,000 Roundup cancer lawsuits alleging glyphosate caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Bayer AG

In the first Roundup trial, a California jury awarded $289 million finding Roundup was a substantial factor in causing a groundskeeper's terminal cancer.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in 2018 on a U.S. extradition warrant for alleged bank fraud related to Iran sanctions violations.

JBS S.A.

JBS parent J&F Investimentos agreed to pay a record $3.2 billion fine in Brazil in 2017 for a massive bribery scandal involving payments to over 1,800 politicians.

Conagra Brands, Inc.

ConAgra (now Conagra Brands) agreed to pay $11.2 million in 2016 to settle FTC charges that it deceptively marketed its Wesson cooking oils as "100% Natural" when they contained genetically modified organisms.

Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo was fined $185 million in 2016 after employees opened approximately 3.5 million unauthorized accounts in customers' names.

BP p.l.c.

BP agreed to pay $20.8 billion in 2016 — the largest environmental settlement in U.S. history — resolving claims from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Volkswagen AG

In 2015, the EPA discovered VW installed defeat device software in 11 million diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. VW paid over $34 billion globally.

Credit Suisse Group AG

Credit Suisse pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to aid U.S. tax evasion and paid $2.6 billion — the first major bank to plead guilty to a criminal charge in over 20 years.

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC paid $1.92 billion in 2012 for failing to maintain anti-money laundering controls, allowing Mexican drug cartels to launder money through its accounts.

Chevron Corporation

An Ecuadorian court issued a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron for massive oil contamination in the Amazon rainforest.

UBS Group AG

UBS paid $780 million in 2009 for helping U.S. taxpayers hide assets in Swiss bank accounts to evade taxes.

Philip Morris International Inc.

Philip Morris and other tobacco companies were found by a federal judge in 2006 to have engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to deceive the public about health risks of smoking.