On September 18, 2020, U.S. District Judge Mark S. Norris denied in its entirety AutoZone’s motion to dismiss the Complaint filed by ERISA Excessive Fee Litigation Group lawyer James White on behalf of employees who had invested in Autozone’s 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan.

The Complaint alleges Autozone breached its fiduciary duties to Plaintiffs in multiple ways, including allowing the Plan’s managers and advisors to steer employees into high-cost proprietary funds and services and to charge them exorbitant fees, and estimates losses to the Plan and participants to be $60 Million.

As Judge Norris noted in denying Autozone’s motion, “The fact that AutoZone concedes it retained retail-class shares to provide more basis points for revenue sharing (i.e., to make sure Prudential’s recordkeeping fees were paid for) supports the inference that mutual fund options were not selected based on their merits.”

The full Order may be found here.