- **Class-Action #Lawsuit Dismissal Upheld:** A U.S. appeals court has confirmed the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit involving 16 investors against online brokerage Robinhood Markets. The lawsuit stemmed from Robinhood's actions during the 2021 meme stock trading frenzy.
- **Investor #Allegations and Lawsuit Background:** The investors claimed that Robinhood's restrictions on the purchase of "meme stocks" during the January 2021 short squeeze prevented them from profiting and caused share prices to drop. Robinhood had successfully moved to dismiss the complaint in January 2022 based on the plaintiffs' failure to state a valid claim.
- **Appeals #Court Decision and Legal Merit:** U.S. Appellate Court Judge Britt Grant upheld the dismissal, stating that the arguments lacked legal merit. The court noted that Robinhood had the right to impose trading restrictions since they were not legally obligated to protect investors from economic losses.
- **#Potential Further Action:** To continue pursuing the case, the investors would need to file a petition for a "writ of certiorari" with the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the chances of the case being heard at the Supreme Court level are relatively low, as only a small percentage of cases are selected out of thousands reviewed annually.
- **Meme Stock #Trading Frenzy Context:** The lawsuit emerged from the GameStop short squeeze phenomenon in early 2021, initiated by Reddit's /wallstreetbets subreddit users. This event targeted Wall Street firms shorting specific stocks like GameStop, AMC Entertainment, and others. GameStop's share price notably surged over 9,900% between April 2020 and January 2021.
