Abercrombie & Fitch Company ("Abercrombie" or the Company) is an American retailer of of apparel and accessories, primarily casual wear.

The original Complaint alleges that Defendants Abercrombie and certain of its present and former officers and/or directors violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market during the Class Period, thereby artificially inflating the price of Abercrombie securities.

The Complaint alleges that Abercrombie (a) carried out a scheme to deceive the investing public; (b) made untrue statements of material fact and/or omitted to state material facts necessary to make the statements not misleading; and (c) engaged in acts, practices, and a course of business which operated as a fraud and deceit upon the purchasers of the Company's securities in an effort to maintain artificially high market prices for Abercrombie securities. More specifically, the Complaint alleges that during the class period, Abercrombie made positive public announcements about its monthly and quarterly sales results while, at the same time, they did not reveal that the Company's margins, a material indicator of the Company's true financial condition, would be lower in its 2005 second fiscal quarter. In July 2005, Abercrombie's Chairman and CEO sold more than 1.6 million shares of Abercrombie common stock, reaping $118 million in profits based on negative, material Company information known to him, but unknown to Plaintiff and the Class. Following the revelation of the material, undisclosed information, Abercrombie's common stock price plummeted, resulting in substantial losses to shareholders.

As disclosed by the Company’s FORM 10-Q for the quarterly period ended July 29, 2006, in September and October of 2005, six purported class actions were filed against the Company and other Defendants in the same Court. All six cases allege claims under the federal securities laws, and seek unspecified monetary damages, as a result of a decline in the price of Abercrombie's Class A Common Stock in the summer of 2005. On November 1, 2005, a motion to consolidate all these purported class actions into the first-filed case was filed by some of the Plaintiffs. The Company joined in that motion. On March 22, 2006, the motions to consolidate were granted, and these actions (together with the federal court derivative cases) were consolidated for purposes of motion practice, discovery and pretrial proceedings. A consolidated amended Complaint was filed on August 14, 2006.

On October 13, 2006, the Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint.

According to an article dated August 13, 2007, the federal judge overseeing consolidated securities litigation against Abercrombie over allegations that the clothing retailer concealed evidence of diminishing sales has rejected the Defendants' bid for dismissal. U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus on Thursday handed down a 30-page opinion and order denying Abercrombie's motion to dismiss the amended Complaint, which was filed on behalf of those who purchased Abercrombie's securities between June 2, 2005 and Aug. 16, 2005. Plaintiffs' liaison Counsel Brian Murphy said Monday the discovery will come next, followed by a motion for class certification.

As summarized by the Company's FORM 10-Q for the quarterly period ended October 30, 2010, on September 14, 2007, Defendants filed answers denying the material allegations of the Complaint and asserting affirmative defenses. On October 26, 2007, Plaintiffs moved to certify their purported class. After briefing and argument, the motion was submitted on March 24, 2009, and granted on May 21, 2009. On June 5, 2009, Defendants petitioned the Sixth Circuit for permission to appeal the class certification order and on August 24, 2009, the Sixth Circuit granted leave to appeal. On May 26, 2010, after mediation which commenced on May 17, 2010, the parties reached an agreement in principle to settle the consolidated cases as a class action, subject to Court approval. On September 24, 2010, the District Court approved the settlement and dismissed the class action. The dismissal has now become final.