BP West Coast Products, LLC v. Steven Scharfstein, Individually and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, et al.

In this class action, the Oregon courts upheld an aggregated statutory-damages award of $409 million based on petitioner’s failure to disclose a $0.35 debitcard fee on service-station street signs, even though the class claimed a total expenditure on those fees of only $716,000, the jury did not find that any of the two million class members was actually misled or that punitive damages were warranted, and there was no evidence that petitioner—which disclosed the fee on other service-station signage—intentionally violated Oregon’s signage laws. In reaching that decision, the Oregon courts held that the due-process standard governing the imposition of punitive damages is inapplicable to statutory damages and declined to decertify the class. The question presented is whether the aggregated $409 million statutory-damages award to the class members, class counsel, and cy pres beneficiaries violates due process and, if so, whether decertification of the class is required.