Key takeaways 

• The Third Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed an earlier panel decision and approved the long-pending $272.5 million settlement of price-fixing claims in the consumer diamond market.
• The court's decision broadly approved of nationwide class action settlements to achieve "global peace," even where some members of the settlement class have no colorable claim.
• The decision, however, contained language that defendants in contested Third Circuit class actions may find troubling, suggesting that the bar to achieving certification of a multistate litigation class in the Third Circuit may be materially lower than it has been set by other Courts of Appeals.