Introduction to Cy Pres Awards

Cy pres, meaning “as close” in French and short for cy pres comme possible, or “as close as possible,” is a doctrine that allows courts to award any unallocated, unclaimed, or undeliverable funds from a settlement or judgment to a nonprofit organization. It is most commonly invoked in class action lawsuits where the plaintiff brings forward a lawsuit for the benefit of a larger group of affected parties.

How Cy Pres Awards Work

Courts use this doctrine to award the unclaimed funds to appropriate organizations, often nonprofits or charities, as the next best way to advance the core interests of the affected parties. The appropriate organization, referred to as the next best beneficiary, is usually a charity or nonprofit organization whose work closely resembles the original reason for the class action lawsuit. This process is a crucial aspect of Class Distribution and Class Action Distribution.

Why Choose the Consumer Federation of America?

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), an association of nearly 250 consumer organizations from around the US advancing the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education, is an ideal choice for a cy pres award. CFA’s work includes significant accomplishments that benefit consumers:

• The Dodd-Frank Act (2010): Resulted in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency whose sole purpose is to protect consumers.
• The Fiduciary Rule for Retirement Advisors: Established a strong fiduciary standard for retirement accounts, ensuring clients’ interests were put above financial advisors’ interests.
• The 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act: Gave the Food and Drug Administration new authority to regulate the way food is grown, harvested, and processed.
• America Saves Campaign: Motivates, encourages, and supports low to moderate income households to save money and plan for their financial future.
• The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act: Required mandatory standards for toys and infant products, created the first publicly accessible consumer product incident database, and provided resources to protect the public against unsafe consumer products.
• COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Successfully pressured auto insurance companies to give back $13 billion in premium refunds to consumers.
• Nevada Insurance Premium Regulation: Resulted in almost $27 million in refunds to Nevadans by implementing a temporary ban on the use of credit information to increase consumers’ insurance premiums.

Additional Contributions and Legal Involvement

CFA’s core strategic goal is to promote consumer welfare. As new technologies and corporate practices emerge every day, CFA is focused on those most harmful to consumers: predatory and high-cost lending, inaccurate credit reporting and scoring, investment fraud and misinformation, insurance inefficiency and abuse, data breaches and privacy violations, harmful products, discriminatory real estate practices, affordable housing, mislabeled and unsafe foods, costly and unreliable energy services, and the lack of reliable fuel efficiency and energy standards. We support and collaborate with grassroots advocates, community organizations, other national consumer advocates, and public interest law firms . We are regularly quoted in national and local media about consumer protection issues. CFA staff regularly testify before Congress, executive agencies, and state legislatures to build support for legislation and rules and advocate tirelessly for consumers in these fora and in the courts, directly through impact litigation and through amicus briefs, as well as in the court of public opinion.

Past Cy Pres Awards Received by CFA

Here are some examples of past cy pres awards that CFA has received:

• $59,804 in the case of Grund vs. Delaware Charter.
• $237,067 in the case of Thompson vs. Transamerica Life.
• $247,086 in the case of Feller vs. Transamerica.
• $708,654 in the case of Shay vs. Apple, Inc.

Contact Information

Please contact CEO Susan Weinstock at sweinstock@consumerfed.org to recommend CFA for a cy pres award or to request help drafting court-related documents.

By aligning the remaining funds with an organization like the Consumer Federation of America, courts ensure that the intended benefits of the settlement or judgment are preserved, even if direct distribution to class members is not possible. This aligns with principles of escheat and revision of unclaimed funds, ensuring they are used for the public good.