On June 16, 2025, Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel of the Southern District of California issued a sealed order certifying five classes in a long-running multi-district litigation against Bank of America. Plaintiffs in this litigation seek to hold the Bank accountable for violating state and federal laws in the course of administering the State’s unemployment insurance (“UI”) program during the COVID pandemic. The certified classes comprise roughly 109,000 Californians who received unemployment and disability benefits through Bank-issued prepaid debit cards during the pandemic, and who reported to the Bank that their UI funds had been stolen through one or more unauthorized ATM transactions.
The class action alleges that the Bank’s failure to implement basic security features on the prepaid debit cards enabled the theft of UI funds that class members experienced. The class action further alleges that the Bank failed to comply with its obligations under a federal statute, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, to investigate cardholders’ claims of unauthorized transactions and timely reimburse cardholders. Plaintiffs allege that instead of conducting the required investigations, the Bank used an automated Claim Fraud Filter to summarily deny all cardholder claims involving unauthorized transactions at ATMs, rescind previously issued credits, and freeze cardholders’ accounts. In addition to depriving Californians of access to previously paid benefits, the Bank also made it nearly impossible for many aggrieved cardholders to reach its customer service call centers, often forcing them to spend hours on hold.
This litigation began in January 2021, when Altshuler Berzon LLP and other law firms filed a series of class action lawsuits against the Bank, consolidated as Yick v. Bank of America, N.A. in the Northern District of California. After extensive briefing, the district court in June 2021 issued a Preliminary Injunction that, among other relief, required the Bank to stop using its Claim Fraud Filter to automatically deny all claims of unauthorized ATM transactions, to reimburse all cardholders whose claims the Bank improperly denied, and to take court-ordered steps to improve its call center customer service.
The consolidated Yick cases were subsequently transferred to the Southern District of California by the Joint Panel on Multi-District Litigation, where they became part of the In re Bank of America California Unemployment Benefits Litigation, Case No.3:21-md-2992-GPC-MSB. In those MDL proceedings, the district court has now certified all five classes requested by plaintiffs—referred to as the Claim Denial, Credit Rescission, Account Freeze, Customer Service, and EMV Chip classes. The plaintiffs in these actions are seeking classwide damages, including statutory, treble, and punitive damages, as a remedy for the Bank’s alleged wrongful conduct and violations of the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act, California Consumer Privacy Act, California Unfair Competition Law, violations of class members’ due process rights, and several common law violations.
A copy of the publicly filed, redacted class certification order (issued June 24, 2025) may be found here. A press release announcing the class certification order may be found here.
Altshuler Berzon LLP is co-lead counsel for the class, along with co-lead counsel at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.