Key takeaways 

• Class action settlement notices cannot be a "mere gesture"; a settlement notice program must be "reasonably calculated to apprise interested parties" of the settlement.
• Where class members are "notified" only through a single printing of the notice in the USA Today newspaper, they will not be bound by the settlement and can bring separate lawsuits even where a settlement has been approved and funded.
• The Second Circuit held that "reasonableness is a flexible standard," so notice costs can be proportionate to the value of a settlement, but suggested that no one-time publication in any single periodical may suffice.