MDL 2282, In re: Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., Wage and Hour Litigation, does not encompass a battle over venue, but one over whether centralization is in fact appropriate.  Home Depot claims “[t]hese seven actions are the remnants of an unsuccessful effort to certify a nationwide federal FLSA opt-in collective action and 25 state law classes pursuant to Rule 23 in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.”

Plaintiffs, led by Squitieri & Fearon, seek to consolidate five actions pending in other courts with two already pending in the D.N.J., and note that “a court’s class determination and the Panel’s determination under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 are ‘entirely different.'”  That’s certainly the case, at least in the Third Circuit.  A Panel motion doesn’t entail hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of expert evidence and multiple trips to the appellate court.