The world and its dog are now familiar with the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities that affect multiple types of processors but foremost those from Intel. You'd think that some lawsuits would be flying over the issue, and you'd be right. The company revealed in a recent SEC filing that it was facing a total of 32 class-action lawsuits.
The 32 total lawsuits comprise 30 class-action lawsuits and two securities class-action lawsuits. The class-action complainants generally consider being misled by Intel's disclosures about its knowledge of the vulnerabilities, plus the fact that the fixes for them come with a performance drop. According to Intel, "the securities class-action plaintiffs […] purport to represent classes of acquirers of Intel stock between July 27, 2017 and January 4, 2018" and allege that "Intel and certain officers violated securities laws by making statements about Intel's products and internal controls that were revealed to be false or misleading by the disclosure of the security vulnerabilities."
For its part, Intel says it disputes all the claims and "intend[s] to defend the lawsuits vigorously." However, the company makes no prediction of the lawsuits' financial impact since it has pending questions about the class-action suits being certified, or if they have any merit. Additionally, there are three shareholders claiming that some of Intel's board members and officers engaged in insider trading, and that Intel took no action. The issue could be related to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich reportedly selling $39 million worth of stock options just before the vulnerabilities came to light.
This development is hardly surprising given the magnitude and impact of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. If you want to dig deeper into the document, look for the section that reads "Litigation related to security vulnerabilities."