Delta Seeks to Stop Baggage Fee Class Action Certification

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Delta Air Lines Inc. has urged a Georgia federal judge not to certify a class action lawsuit that accuses it of conspiring with AirTran Airways Inc. to fix baggage fees, claiming the plaintiffs failed to meet the requirements to certify the class.

According to Delta, the plaintiffs failed to ensure that the proposed class was readily identifiable. The airline also argued that it should have opportunity to defend itself from individual claims before the case is certified.

“Certification here is foreclosed for at least two overriding reasons: (1) class members are not ascertainable without extensive class-member specific discovery and adjudication; and (2) Delta has genuine and serious defenses to the injury claim of many class members, and allowing this case to proceed as a class action would improperly deprive Delta of its right to litigate and assert those defenses,” the airline argued in its motion opposing certification of the class action lawsuit.

Delta argued that the plaintiffs have not come up with an acceptable method for identifying putative Class Members. The airline cited two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that make it clear that the class action lawsuit cannot be certified without violating the U.S. Constitution and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. According to Delta, the plaintiffs “failed to offer any methodology for identifying proposed class members—a failure that, on its own, dooms Plaintiffs’ request for certification.”

Delta also argues that it has numerous defenses available to demonstrate how individual members of the proposed class were not injured by the first bag fee, including reductions in base fares, reimbursement of the bag fee, and reduced fees for checking a second bag. The airline insists that an individual assessment is required to determine the extent of the injury a passenger may have experienced.

The class action lawsuit was initially filed in 2009 by plaintiffs who accused the companies of conspiring to increase the baggage fee prices through a series of discussions and negotiations. They argue that their allegations are supported by the fact that both airlines implemented $15 baggage fees on Dec. 5, 2008. The plaintiffs argue that the companies would not have taken that action without the knowledge that the other company was going to do so as well.

The plaintiffs moved for certification of their class action lawsuit on June 30, 2010. A federal judge dismissed some claims but allowed the class action lawsuit to continue in Aug. 2010.

The plaintiffs are represented by Conley Griggs LLP, Kotchen & Low LLP, McCulley McCluer PLLC, Richardson Patrick Westbrook & Brickman LLC and Schreeder Wheeler & Flint LLP.

The Delta/AirTran Baggage Fee Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Airline Baggage Fee Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:09-md-02089, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

UPDATE: On Aug. 5, 2015, a judge granted Class certification in the baggage fee class action lawsuit.

UPDATE 5: On Jan. 25, 2017, plaintiffs challenging baggage fees charged by Delta and AirTran asked a federal appeals court to uphold certification of a Class consisting of around 28 million former airline passengers.