Maciel v. M.A.C. Cosmetics Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJuly 24, 2025
Docket3:23-cv-03718
StatusUnknown

This text of Maciel v. M.A.C. Cosmetics Inc. (Maciel v. M.A.C. Cosmetics Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maciel v. M.A.C. Cosmetics Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 IGNACIO MACIEL, et al., Case No. 23-cv-03718-AMO

8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR 9 v. PRELIMINARY APPROVAL

10 M.A.C. COSMETICS INC., Re: Dkt. No. 63 Defendant. 11

12 13 This is a case about M.A.C.’s alleged failure to compensate its employees for time and 14 expenses incurred to comply with M.A.C.’s dress code. Before the Court is Plaintiffs Ignacio 15 Maciel and Ruth Torres’s motion for preliminary approval of class action and PAGA settlement. 16 ECF 63 (“Mot.”). This Order assumes familiarity with the facts and procedural history of the 17 case. Because the motion was appropriate for determination on the papers, the Court vacated the 18 July 17, 2025 hearing. ECF 76. Having carefully reviewed the motion and the relevant legal 19 authority, the Court hereby GRANTS the motion for the following reasons. 20 I. DISCUSSION 21 The Settlement defines a class member as “[a] person employed by M.A.C. in California as 22 an hourly paid, non-exempt employee, at any time from April 27, 2018, to the date of the Court’s 23 order preliminarily approving this Settlement,” and provides for a gross settlement amount of $12 24 million. ECF 63-1 (“Settlement”) ¶ 6; Declaration of Matthew Righetti (“Righetti Decl.”) (ECF 25 63-2), Ex. A ¶ 17. The Settlement contemplates that Plaintiffs’ counsel may request up to 35 26 percent of the gross settlement amount, caps costs at $150,000, and provides for class 27 representative awards of $20,000 each. Settlement ¶¶ 4, 9. The Settlement allocates $300,000 to 1 Workforce Development Agency and $75,000 to be distributed among class members who worked 2 during the PAGA period. Settlement ¶¶ 23-27. After accounting for these fees, costs, and awards, 3 the net settlement amount will be distributed to the 5,282 class members with an estimated 4 payment of $2,271.86 each and average net recovery of $1,378.45. No funds will revert to 5 M.A.C. Settlement ¶ 45(b). 6 The Court first determines if conditional certification of the class is appropriate before 7 assessing whether the settlement is fundamentally fair, adequate, and reasonable. Finally, the 8 Court considers Plaintiffs’ proposed notice plan. 9 A. Preliminary Approval 10 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(e) requires court approval of any settlement that will 11 bind absent class members. A court need not conclude the settlement is the best outcome for the 12 class, but rather it must determine that the settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable. In re Calif. 13 Pizza Kitchen Data Breach Litig., 129 F.4th 667, 674 (9th Cir. 2025). Thus, courts may “neither 14 rubberstamp the settlement nor unduly meddle in the parties’ affairs.” Id. Where a class action 15 has settled before class certification, courts first determine whether class certification is 16 appropriate before making a “preliminary determination” that the settlement is “fundamentally 17 fair, adequate and reasonable.” See Manual for Complex Litigation, Fourth § 21.632 (FJC 2004); 18 In re Heritage Bond Litig., 546 F.3d 667, 674-75 (9th Cir. 2008). Courts will then “direct notice 19 in a reasonable manner to all class members who would be bound by the proposal.” Fed. R. Civ. 20 P. 23(e)(1)(B). Finally, courts will hold a hearing pursuant to Rule 23(e)(2) for final approval of 21 the settlement. 22 1. Conditional Certification 23 Class certification requires a plaintiff to satisfy Rule 23(a)’s requirements – numerosity, 24 commonality, typicality, and adequacy – and one of the bases for certification in Rule 23(b). As 25 discussed below, Plaintiffs have satisfied Rule 23(a) and Rule 23(b)(3). 26 First, because the class includes 5,282 individuals, Righetti Decl. ¶ 25, it is sufficiently 27 numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, and therefore the first Rule 23(a) factor is 1 Second, Rule 23(a)(2) requires commonality, i.e. that there are “questions of fact or law 2 common to the class.” See Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 350 (2011). Here, the 3 question raised by the claims in this action – whether M.A.C. maintained a policy of failing to 4 include all qualifying wages in the regular rate when calculating overtime pay – is common to all 5 class members. Thus, Rule 23(a)(2) is satisfied. See Noroma v. Home Point Fin. Corp., No. 17- 6 CV-07205-HSG, 2019 WL 1589980, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 12, 2019) (finding commonality where 7 the central question was “whether [defendant] maintained a policy of failing to properly include 8 bonus payments and commissions in the regular rate when it calculated the overtime rate”). 9 Third, Rule 23(a)(3) requires plaintiffs to show that “the claims or defenses of the 10 representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class” to “assure that the interest 11 of the named representative aligns with the interests of the class.” Hanon v. Dataproducts Corp., 12 976 F.2d 497, 508 (9th Cir. 1992). Courts should determine “whether other members have the 13 same or similar injury, whether the action is based on conduct that is not unique to the named 14 plaintiffs, and whether other class members have been injured by the same course of conduct.” Id. 15 Claims are typical if they are “reasonably coextensive with those of absent members; they need 16 not be substantially identical.” DZ Rsrv. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 96 F.4th 1223, 1238 (9th Cir. 17 2024) (quoting Hanlon v. Crysler Corp., 150 F.3d 1011, 1020 (9th Cir. 1998)). Maciel and Torres 18 are typical of the class because they held the same positions as class members, challenge M.A.C.’s 19 policy of incorrectly calculating overtime, and assert that they were underpaid pursuant to that 20 policy. Thus, their “claims are based on the same legal theory.” Hunt v. Check Recovery Sys., 21 Inc., 241 F.R.D. 505, 511 (N.D. Cal. 2007). 22 Fourth, Rule 23(a)(4) requires that “the representative parties fairly and adequately protect 23 the interests of the class.” This requirement “tend[s] to merge” with the commonality and 24 typicality requirements of Rule 23(a), and aims to ensure class members’ interests “will be fairly 25 and adequately protected in their absence” and to consider “competency and conflicts of class 26 counsel.” Amchem Prods., Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 626 n.20 (1997) (quoting Gen. Tel. Co. 27 of Sw. v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147 n.13 (1982)). That Maciel and Torres have established 1 there are no signs of conflict between Maciel and Torres, their counsel, and the proposed class, nor 2 is there any suggestion Plaintiffs or their counsel will cease competently representing the class. 3 In addition to satisfying Rule 23(a), the proposed class must satisfy one of the Rule 23(b) 4 requirements. Plaintiffs argue that certification under Rule 23(b)(3) is proper here, as common 5 questions “predominate over any questions affecting only individual members” and class 6 resolution is “superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient resolution of the 7 controversy.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). Predominance is established where a proposed class is 8 “sufficiently cohesive to warrant adjudication by representation.” Tyson Foods, Inc.

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Maciel v. M.A.C. Cosmetics Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maciel-v-mac-cosmetics-inc-cand-2025.