Consumer Protection

  • November 19, 2024

    All States Now Approved For Feds' Broadband Program

    Everyone who is eligible for a slice of the $42.5 billion BEAD Program pie has officially had their broadband deployment plans approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency revealed Tuesday.

  • November 19, 2024

    CFPB's Medical Debt Guidance Faces Industry Injunction Bid

    Debt collectors asked a D.C. federal court on Monday to put an immediate hold on recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance aimed at the medical debt collection market, escalating their challenge to the document ahead of its looming effective date.

  • November 19, 2024

    What's On Deck At 10th Circ. Arguments In CPSC Magnet Case

    On Wednesday, the Tenth Circuit will hear arguments over whether a rule from the Consumer Product Safety Commission over safety standards for high-powered magnets is overly broad and unconstitutional. Here, Law360 looks at what the parties are expected to argue.

  • November 19, 2024

    Jury To Decide If Gemini's Bitcoin Statements Were False

    A New York federal judge has found that crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co. was the "maker" of alleged misrepresentations to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission about its plans to offer bitcoin futures contracts, but a jury will have to decide if the statements were materially false or misleading.

  • November 19, 2024

    Trump DOT Pick Puts Highway, Road Rebuilds Back In Focus

    President-elect Donald Trump's selection of former Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy to serve as his secretary of transportation would send a savvy communicator to liaise with Capitol Hill and refocus the federal government's infrastructure investment priorities more on highways, roads and bridges and less on renewables and clean-energy initiatives, experts say.

  • November 19, 2024

    Alaska Airlines Fights Emergency 9th Circ. Bid To Halt Merger

    Alaska Airlines has urged the Ninth Circuit not to grant an emergency motion blocking its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, saying the request was filed by flyers and travel agents "without an emergency" after they waited for four months to try to enjoin the airlines from merging.

  • November 19, 2024

    Court Won't Toss Consumer Antitrust Case Against Amazon

    A Washington federal court issued a sealed order Tuesday denying Amazon's bid to toss updated claims from consumers seeking billions of dollars over allegations that they pay higher prices thanks to the e-commerce giant's treatment of sellers on its platform.

  • November 19, 2024

    Shaq Reaches $11M Deal With Astrals NFT Buyers

    Hall of Fame basketball player Shaquille O'Neal and the creators of the Astrals nonfungible token project have agreed to pay $11 million to settle a proposed securities class action with buyers of the tokens that O'Neal allegedly promoted.

  • November 19, 2024

    32 State AGs Urge Congress To Back Kids' Online Safety Bill

    More than 30 state attorneys general urged federal lawmakers to back bipartisan legislation aimed at bolstering youth safety online, writing a letter Monday encouraging Congress to "act to aid our state-level efforts" which included opening investigations and commencing with litigation against social media companies like TikTok and Meta. 

  • November 19, 2024

    NHTSA Letter Unmoots Fire Risk Claims, Ford Drivers Say

    Drivers seeking another shot at their tossed case claiming they overpaid for Ford vehicles that spontaneously catch fire say new evidence shows the recall that mooted their claims didn't fix the alleged fuel injector defect, telling a Michigan federal judge Tuesday regulators' concern over the recall's adequacy supports renewing their allegations.

  • November 19, 2024

    10th Circ. Iffy On Colo.'s Remedy To Generic EpiPen Takings

    A Tenth Circuit panel on Tuesday pressed Colorado regulators on whether requiring epinephrine auto-injector makers to repeatedly sue over the cost of complying with a state program provides an adequate legal remedy, with one judge saying that that route offers no finality for manufacturers.

  • November 19, 2024

    Fox TV Renewal Calls For Strict License Test, Advocates Say

    A media advocacy group said Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission needs to act quickly to "establish a bright-line test" for broadcasters' fitness for a station license by setting up a hearing on the controversial renewal bid for Fox TV's Philadelphia station.

  • November 19, 2024

    Undefined Terms Cinch Cloudera's Win In 'Cloudy' Fraud Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action against Cloudera Inc. alleging the data management and analytics company duped investors into buying stock at artificially inflated prices, saying the suit didn't substantiate its falsity claims with clear definitions for terms like "cloud native."

  • November 19, 2024

    DOJ Effort To Force Google Chrome Sale Draws Criticism

    Google's regulatory chief and at least one trade group are blasting a reported push from the U.S. Department of Justice to seek expansive remedies and potentially force a sale of Google Chrome in an ongoing court battle with the tech giant.

  • November 19, 2024

    FCC To Vote On More Credit Options To Back Broadband Aid

    The Federal Communications Commission is poised to allow more financial institutions to issue letters of credit that broadband providers can rely on to secure federal funding for high-speed infrastructure projects.

  • November 19, 2024

    Senators Blast Visa And Mastercard, Promise Action On Fees

    A bipartisan group of Senate Judiciary Committee members blasted executives from Visa and Mastercard on Tuesday over swipe fees charged to merchants, promising to rein in what the lawmakers called the companies' monopoly on credit card payments if they do not change their practices.

  • November 19, 2024

    Calif. Man Wants 9th Circ. To Rehear LG Battery Decision

    A California man who alleges that a faulty LG Chem Ltd. 18650 lithium-ion battery melted the skin off his hand is asking the Ninth Circuit for an en banc rehearing of a decision dismissing his defect claims against the company, saying the panel broke with other circuits and binding precedent by finding that California courts did not have jurisdiction over the Seoul-based company.

  • November 19, 2024

    Ballard Spahr Brings On Former Federal Prosecutor In LA

    Ballard Spahr LLP is expanding its consumer finance services team, announcing Tuesday that a former assistant U.S. attorney is joining its Los Angeles office as of counsel.

  • November 19, 2024

    1st Circ. Won't Pause Prison Phone Rate Caps

    The First Circuit said it won't stop the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing new caps on rates charged for prison phone calls while service providers challenge the rules in court.

  • November 19, 2024

    Unjust PJM Power Auction Rules Must Be Redone, FERC Told

    State consumer advocates want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to rewrite the electricity capacity auction rules for the nation's largest regional grid operator, saying PJM Interconnection's existing rules unjustly saddle consumers with billions of dollars of extra costs.

  • November 19, 2024

    FDIC's Gruenberg To Exit On Eve Of Trump's Inauguration

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s embattled chairman, Martin Gruenberg, said Tuesday that he will step down and retire from the agency before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, clearing the way for a new, likely Republican leader at the deposit insurer.

  • November 18, 2024

    Meta, Netflix Shook Hands On Illicit Streaming Deal, Suit Says

    Meta Platforms and Netflix made an unlawful agreement where the social media giant would cede the video-streaming market to Netflix by hobbling its competing service and the streaming giant would funnel its customers' data to boost Facebook's advertising algorithms, according to a proposed class action filed Monday in Illinois federal court.

  • November 18, 2024

    Monsanto PCB Jury Hears About Ex-Schoolchildren's Illness

    Four teenagers and a mother suing Monsanto over PCB damage at their former school took the stand Monday to testify, some tearfully, about physical and mental maladies they believe stem from exposure to decades-old light fixture fluid.

  • November 18, 2024

    Plaintiffs Dispute Ruling Applying BIPA Change To Past Cases

    Workers suing over the allegedly unlawful collection of their fingerprints are urging an Illinois federal court to reject a recent ruling that a legislative amendment limiting damages under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act applies to previously filed disputes, arguing that several state courts have reached the opposite conclusion.

  • November 18, 2024

    'You Stepped Over The Line': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel Atty

    A California federal judge told a Quinn Emanuel partner defending Natera Inc. at trial Monday in Guardant Health Inc.'s false advertising case that she'd be sanctioned over her questioning of a Natera expert about Guardant's alleged damages, saying, "You stepped over the line, and you did it several times."

Expert Analysis

  • Unpacking State AG Approaches To Digital Asset Enforcement

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    Attorneys at Cozen O'Connor survey recent digital asset enforcement by attorneys general nationwide driven by concerns over regulatory gaps where technological developments and market changes have outpaced legislation.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • CFPB School Lunch Focus Could Expand E-Payment Scrutiny

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent spotlight on payment processing systems used to add funds to school lunch accounts shows its continued ambitions to further expand its supervisory power in the payments industry, all the way down to the school lunch market, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Opinion

    Rental Price-Fixing Suit Against RealPage Doesn't Add Up

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    Recent government antitrust litigation against RealPage, alleging that the software company's algorithm for setting rental prices amounts to price-fixing, has failed to allege an actual conspiracy, and is an example of regulatory overreach that should be reined in, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.

  • Compliance Pointers For Amended Pa. Data Breach Law

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    Recent updates to the Pennsylvania Breach of Personal Information Notification Act include a requirement that organizations alert the state's attorney general of certain consumer data breach notifications, and several incident response and cybersecurity considerations will be necessary to ensure compliance, say Matthew Meade and Laura Decker at Eckert Seamans.

  • Opinion

    FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos

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    A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Ga. Fintech Bank Charter Could Reshape Payments Industry

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    Georgia’s recent granting of a special banking charter to transaction processor Fiserv, allowing the fintech company to access major card payment networks without a traditional bank as intermediary, could spark a restructuring of the national payments infrastructure and open new possibilities for businesses and consumers, says Jessica Cino at Krevolin & Horst.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Perspectives

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.

  • Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.

  • New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright

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    The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

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