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Consumer Protection
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August 27, 2024
Asbestos Claimants Tell 4th Circ. Bestwall Isn't Distressed
The official committee of asbestos claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific unit Bestwall told the Fourth Circuit that the company's bankruptcy should be tossed because commitments to fund asbestos liabilities by the parent mean the debtor isn't facing financial distress.
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August 27, 2024
Car-Sharing Co. Turo Accused Of Shirking Own Arb. Terms
California-based car-sharing company Turo has been hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court claiming it violated its own terms of service by refusing to arbitrate consumers' disputes or pay its required portion of the arbitration filing fees.
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August 27, 2024
Split 5th Circ. Revives Tesla's Case Over La. Sales Ban
A split Fifth Circuit panel revived Tesla's case accusing Louisiana car dealers and regulators of illegally excluding the direct-sale automaker from the state, finding Tesla had done enough to survive dismissal by alleging a regulatory board that included competitors is biased against it.
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August 27, 2024
Bank Customer Mistaken For Criminal Loses Class Cert. Bid
A Pennsylvania federal judge has declined a former Capital One customer's bid to certify a proposed class action against a pair of compliance companies that allegedly mistook him for his criminally convicted son when creating an erroneous background report that, in turn, caused his credit accounts to be shut down.
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August 27, 2024
Samsung Must Face Exploding Vape Battery Suit
Samsung can't escape a suit over injuries sustained by a man after a lithium-ion battery exploded in his pocket, a Houston appellate court ruled Tuesday, rejecting the South Korean company's argument that a Texas court doesn't have jurisdiction because it doesn't do business directly in Texas.
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August 27, 2024
CPSC Suit 'Makes A Mockery' Of Standing, SG Tells Justices
The federal government is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to pass on a "highly artificial suit" that seeks to unravel removal protections for commissioners on the Consumer Product Safety Commission, saying the groups behind the suit have no standing to pursue the legal challenge.
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August 27, 2024
Broadcaster Settles With FCC For $8K Over Stock Transfers
An Arkansas radio broadcaster will pay an $8,000 fine to settle a Federal Communications Commission probe into unauthorized changes in control of the company's stock that occurred over two years.
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August 27, 2024
FCC Urged To Include Streetlight Poles In Deployment Regs
It's time for the Federal Communications Commission to clarify that streetlight poles are utility poles as far as the Communications Act's mandates on pole attachments are concerned, a trade group and the country's biggest mobile companies have teamed up to tell the agency.
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August 27, 2024
Sig Sauer Shouldn't Get Retrial, Says Winner Of $2M Verdict
Sig Sauer Inc. shouldn't get a new trial, said a man who won a $2.35 million jury verdict in his suit alleging that a defect in his P320 pistol caused him to accidentally shoot himself, telling a Georgia federal court Monday that the gunmaker comes nowhere close to showing any error.
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August 27, 2024
Deceptive Coppertone Label Suit Tossed From Conn. Court
Consumers who filed suit against the makers of Coppertone sunscreen have agreed to drop their proposed class action claiming its "Face 50" Sports Mineral sunscreen was deceptively advertised, according to an order issued Monday in Connecticut federal court.
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August 27, 2024
Google Privacy Class Action Delays Irk Discovery Judge
A California federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday with discovery delays in a years-old class action alleging Google Assistant-enabled devices surreptitiously recorded conversations, telling attorneys they've already "been around and around and around" on discovery fights, and "we need to keep this moving."
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August 27, 2024
SpaceX, T-Mobile Seek Speedy Action On Mobile 'Dead Zones'
SpaceX and T-Mobile last week continued to push the Federal Communications Commission to approve Starlink's planned direct-to-cellular service in light of the agency's approval of rules allowing satellite companies to join with terrestrial mobile providers to fill gaps in wireless service.
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August 27, 2024
NTIA Gathers Info On Best Techs For Reaching Remote Areas
As the government continues rolling out a $42.5 billion spending program to deploy broadband to unserved areas, the U.S. Department of Commerce has asked the public to help identify technologies suitable for connecting the most remote and hard-to-reach areas.
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August 27, 2024
Connecticut Litigation To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2024
The Connecticut state and federal courts will grapple with a number of closely watched cases during the second half of 2024, including three key lawsuits by state Attorney General William Tong.
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August 27, 2024
Global Payments' $3.6M Deal Gets Initial OK
A Georgia federal judge has given preliminary approval to a $3.6 million deal between Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc. and investors who allege a subsidiary of the payment tech company "tricked" consumers into signing up for a program that had undisclosed fees.
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August 27, 2024
Va. Ad Tech Judge Warns Google Over Chat Deletion
Google's defense of its advertising technology could get a little harder after a Virginia federal judge on Tuesday kept the door open to assuming that deleted internal chats hid evidence that would support U.S. Department of Justice monopolization claims bound for a bench trial next month.
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August 26, 2024
Uber Hit With €290M Dutch Fine For EU Data Transfers To US
The Netherlands' data protection authority has fined Uber €290 million ($324 million) on allegations it failed to use a valid mechanism for sending European drivers' personal data to the U.S. for more than two years, a penalty that the ride-sharing provider has vowed to appeal.
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August 26, 2024
Albertsons Paints Picture Of Dire Future Without Kroger Deal
Albertsons told an Oregon federal judge Monday that if the Federal Trade Commission is able to block a proposed merger with Kroger, it could lead to layoffs and shuttered stores, because a go-it-alone Albertsons doesn't have the wholesale buying power to compete with Walmart and Costco on prices.
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August 26, 2024
Pool Co. Secures $1.1M In Fees For False Ad Trial Win
A North Carolina federal judge has granted $1.1 million in fees for attorneys from McCarter & English LLP and Womble Bond Dickinson who represented a swimming pool salt system supplier in a trial against a competitor, finding the case qualifies as exceptional since the opposing company acted "unreasonably."
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August 26, 2024
Care.com To Pay $8.5M To Settle FTC's Deception Claims
Caregiver job website Care.com has agreed to shell out $8.5 million in refunds to put to rest allegations it misled caregivers about wages and job availability and also made it difficult for families to cancel paid memberships, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced Monday.
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August 26, 2024
AT&T To Pay $950K To Settle With FCC Over 911 Outage
AT&T has agreed to pay $950,000 to end an enforcement action stemming from an August 2023 outage that affected 911 calls in parts of four states, the Federal Communications Commission said Monday.
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August 26, 2024
Rival Can't Avoid Drugmaker's False Ad Claim Over Pain Med
A Texas federal magistrate on Monday advised against dismissing Pacira Biosciences Inc.'s suit against a rival, finding that Pacira had alleged enough facts to show QuVa Pharma Inc.'s advertising is deceptive in a suit over the former company's compounded drug for pain.
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August 26, 2024
Former Google Execs Fight Ad Tech Trial Subpoenas
Former Google vice presidents and other company managers have filed a series of motions asking a Virginia federal judge to block U.S. Department of Justice subpoenas trying to force their testimony at next month's advertising technology monopolization trial, arguing their live participation is unneeded and improperly demanded.
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August 26, 2024
Parents Sue Kratom Cos. Over Adult Daughter's Death
The parents of a woman who died allegedly due to a kratom overdose are suing manufacturers and retailer sellers of the supplement, saying the companies should have known their product was "unreasonably dangerous" for humans to eat, according to a Colorado state lawsuit.
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August 26, 2024
CFPB Defeats Challenge To Small-Biz Lending Rules
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau landed an early win Monday in an industry-backed challenge to its reporting requirements for small business lenders, with a Texas federal judge finding the rule "is much more modest than plaintiffs would lead the court to believe."
Expert Analysis
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Classwide Calculations May Get Price Premium Damages Wrong
In many consumer class actions, plaintiffs assert that they overpaid for a product because of a misrepresented or defective product feature, and that a single price premium estimate can be applied classwide — but failure to account for differences in price premiums across a putative class may lead to improper damage awards, say economists at Ankura Consulting.
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Opinion
Texas Judges Ignored ERISA's Core To Stall Fiduciary Rule
Two recent rulings from Texas federal courts, which rely on a plainly wrong reading of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to effectively strike a forthcoming rule that would impose functional fiduciary duties onto sellers of investment services, may expose financially unsophisticated 401(k) participants to peddlers of misleading advice, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Inside OCC's Retail Nondeposit Investment Products Refresh
In addition to clarifying safe and sound risk management practices generally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's revised booklet on retail nondeposit investment products updates its guidance around certain sales practices in light of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption of Regulation Best Interest, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Loper Fuels Debate Over Merchant Cash Advances As Credit
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright may escalate a Florida federal court dispute between the Revenue Based Finance Coalition and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over whether merchant cash advances should be considered credit under the Dodd-Frank Act, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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FTC's Drug Middlemen Probe Highlights Ongoing Scrutiny
The Federal Trade Commission's interim staff report on its inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers suggests that the industry will remain under an enforcement microscope for the foreseeable future due to concerns about how PBMs affect drug costs and accessibility, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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6 Factors That Can Make For A 'Nuclear' Juror
Drawing from recent research that examines the rise in nuclear verdicts, Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies identifies a few juror characteristics most likely to matter in assessing case risk and preparing for jury selection — some of which are long-known, and others that are emerging post-pandemic.
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Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
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A Look At The Regulatory Scrutiny Facing Liquid Restaking
Recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions highlight the regulatory challenges facing emerging financial instruments like liquid restaking tokens and services, say Daniel Davis and Alexander Kim at Katten.
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Considerations When Using Publicly Available Data To Train AI
To maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks of using publicly available data to train artificial intelligence models, companies should maintain a balance between openness and protection, and consider certain best practices, says Michael Cole at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America.
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Del. Dispatch: Director Caremark Claims Need Extreme Facts
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently dismissed Caremark claims against the directors of Centene in Bricklayers Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania v. Brinkley, indicating a high bar for a finding of the required element of bad faith for Caremark liability, and stressing the need to resist hindsight bias, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Illinois BIPA Reform Offers Welcome Relief To Businesses
Illinois' recent amendment to its Biometric Information Privacy Act limits the number of violations and damages a plaintiff can claim — a crucial step in shielding businesses from unintended legal consequences, including litigation risk and compliance costs, say attorneys at Taft.
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Gilead Drug Ruling Creates Corporate Governance Dilemma
If upheld, a California state appellate court's decision — finding that Gilead is liable for delaying commercialization of a safer HIV drug to maximize profits on another drug — threatens to undermine long-standing rules of corporate law and exposes companies to liability for decisions based on sound business judgment, says Shireen Barday at Pallas.
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Class Action Law Makes An LLC A 'Jurisdictional Platypus'
The applicability of Section 1332(d)(10) of the Class Action Fairness Act is still widely misunderstood — and given the ambiguous nature of limited liability companies, the law will likely continue to confound courts and litigants — so parties should be prepared for a range of outcomes, says Andrew Gunem at Strauss Borrelli.
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Unpacking The Latest FTC Guidance On Multilevel Marketing
Branko Jovanovic and Monica Zhong at Edgeworth Economics discuss the Federal Trade Commission's recent advice for multilevel marketers on how MLMs should approach their income and earnings reports, including participants costs, typical proceeds and distributor gains.