Credit/Debit Card Tying Cases CA1/3

I. INTRODUCTION

This appeal brings this coordinated unfair competition class action (the Credit/Debit Card Tying Cases) before this court for the second time, at the behest of essentially the same appellants (Objectors1). Objectors’ first appeal (the First Appeal) arose from an order approving a settlement agreement (the First Settlement) that effectively, albeit not expressly, released the claims asserted in a separate pending lawsuit filed by one of the Objectors, Richard Attridge (the Attridge claims). On January 9, 2012, we filed an unpublished opinion deciding the First Appeal, in which we concluded that the trial judge had “erred in approving the [First] [S]ettlement without considering

1 The Objectors who filed the present appeal include all those who appeared as objectors on the earlier appeal, plus one additional individual, Tony Buhowski.

1 whether it included adequate compensation for the release of the Attridge claims.” (Credit/Debit Card Tying Cases (Jan. 9, 2012, A129672) [nonpub. opn.], p. 2] (Credit/Debit I).) We therefore “vacate[d] the order approving the [First] [S]ettlement, and remand[ed] the matter to permit the trial court to reconsider the fairness and…