JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the bank inappropriately closed an estimated 55,000 credit card accounts, leaving consumers unable to redeem the reward points they had accumulated. The financial institution has been accused of deceptive practices and fraudulent inducement, but according to the filing, the bank maintains that it has done nothing wrong.
Plaintiff Harry Gao claims that his credit card account was randomly terminated in July 2013 despite the fact that he had never missed a payment, causing him to lose two years’ worth of rewards points. He and fellow lead plaintiff Roberta Socall had opened the credit accounts and charged thousands of dollars to the card in order to accumulate points. While they were able to redeem some of their rewards, the rest were lost “almost without warning” when the bank abruptly closed their accounts.
In a motion for approval on October 6, 2016, the plaintiffs stated the following:
"The court has good cause to grant preliminary approval of this settlement, which is the product of vigorous, arm's-length negotiations by experienced counsel. The resulting settlement is a fair, reasonable and adequate resolution of all claims."
The class is represented by Richard M. Golomb of Golomb Legalalong with Ted Trief and Barbara Olk of Trief & Olk. The case is Harry Gao et al. v. JPMorgan Chase & Co. et al., cause number 1:14-cv-04281 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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