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Consumer Protection
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November 01, 2024
Electric Co-Ops Urge NTIA To 'True Up' Broadband Funding
Electric cooperatives want the U.S. Commerce Department to implement a "true-up" process to ensure that only locations still in need of reliable broadband match well with federal funds available under a $42.5 billion spending program to deploy service in unserved areas.
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November 01, 2024
Judge In Philly Inquirer Data Sharing Case Won't Join Class
The Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing a consolidated action accusing the Philadelphia Inquirer of sharing subscribers' video viewing habits with Meta is eligible to join the class, but has decided to renounce his right to class membership in order to continue being the judge.
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November 01, 2024
Up Next At High Court: Fed Funds And Securities Risks
The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday for its November arguments session, which will start off with a debate over whether the Federal Communications Commission telecom subsidy program involves federal funds subject to the False Claims Act, and on Tuesday how Medicare funding should be calculated for hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients.
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November 01, 2024
Capital One Says CFPB Eyeing Case Over Savings Accounts
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering whether to pursue an enforcement action against Capital One over the interest rates it pays on high-yield savings accounts that are the subject of ongoing class action litigation, the financial services company said.
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November 01, 2024
US Must Revamp Spectrum Policy To Compete, Org. Says
The U.S. is on the verge of a "great strategic blunder" by allowing its spectrum auction authority to lapse and setting aside too much spectrum for short-range unlicensed wireless use, risking the loss of its competitive edge to China, a think tank says.
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November 01, 2024
Tree Removal Co. Swindled Helene Victims, NC AG Says
A landscaping business fleeced a western North Carolina couple for tree removal services after Hurricane Helene, dropping tree limbs into their house through a hole in the roof and then leaving without finishing the job, according to a new complaint filed by the state's attorney general.
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October 31, 2024
Judge 'Duped' By BigLaw Attys Urged To Preserve Sanctions
Guardant Health urged a California federal judge Thursday to reject a request from Natera's Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP attorneys to lessen sanctions barring clinical trial evidence in Guardant's false advertising case, noting the court said it had been "duped" by false and misleading statements from Natera's expert and counsel.
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October 31, 2024
Berkshire Bank Escapes Claims It Aided $90M Ponzi Scheme
A New York federal judge on Thursday freed Berkshire Bank from a proposed class action that alleged it helped a local businessman's $90 million Ponzi scheme for roughly a decade, saying an investor in a fund central to the scheme didn't show the bank had actual knowledge of the fraud.
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October 31, 2024
UPS Denies Liability For Mailing Robb Elementary Gun Parts
UPS Inc. has asked a San Antonio federal judge to toss a lawsuit filed by the families of victims of the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, writing that while it is "deeply sympathetic" to the victims, UPS cannot be held responsible for the tragedy.
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October 31, 2024
Cable Cos. Seek Looser TV Blackout Reporting Rules At FCC
A major cable industry trade group is asking the Federal Communications Commission to scale back proposed blackout reporting requirements, arguing that heightened reporting mandates should only apply to blackouts of major network feeds.
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October 31, 2024
Crypto Lobby Says Members Spent $426M Fighting SEC
The Blockchain Association, a cryptocurrency lobby, said in a report released Thursday that its members reported incurring $426 million in legal costs so far defending actions from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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October 31, 2024
Drug Cos. To Pay $49M For State-Led Generic Pricing Claims
A contingent of state-level enforcers reached settlements totaling $49.1 million on Thursday with Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Apotex Corp. for their alleged part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to inflate the price of generic drugs.
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October 31, 2024
EPA Can't Declare La. Deadline Extension Invalid, 5th Circ. Told
A Louisiana neoprene maker on Wednesday told the Fifth Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has no authority to invalidate a two-year compliance deadline extension that the state granted to the company, which is being sued by the EPA.
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October 31, 2024
Scott + Scott Sues Robins Kaplan For $5M In Swipe Deal Fees
Scott + Scott Attorneys at Law LLP alleged in a New York state court lawsuit that Robins Kaplan LLP, its co-counsel in antitrust litigation over Visa Inc. and Mastercard's interchange fees, is withholding $5 million in promised payouts from the case's $5.6 billion settlement.
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October 31, 2024
6th Circ. Wrestles With Reach Of FCC's Net Neutrality Powers
Sixth Circuit judges on Thursday sought to clear up what one described as a "close call" over how much authority Congress gave the Federal Communications Commission to regulate internet traffic when lawmakers overhauled telecommunications law in 1996.
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October 31, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Revive 'Ghost Cattle' Contract Fight With Tyson
The Ninth Circuit said Thursday a rancher who admitted to invoicing Tyson Foods Inc. for nonexistent cattle cannot sue the meat company for allegedly using his name and photograph in marketing materials without giving him a cut of the profits, rejecting the rancher's argument that Tyson had agreed orally to the deal.
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October 31, 2024
Flint Water Case Paused For 'Advanced' Settlement Talks
Days after a jury trial meant to decide whether a water firm failed to properly warn of the dangers of the city of Flint's water was delayed a second time, a Michigan federal judge paused two bellwether cases because of "advanced settlement negotiations" between individual plaintiffs and the firm.
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October 31, 2024
LA Hits Pepsi, Coca-Cola With Plastic Waste, Deception Suit
Los Angeles County hit PepsiCo Inc. and The Coca-Cola Co. with a California state suit claiming the longtime soft drink rivals are spouting falsehoods about recycling's ability to address their single-use plastic waste and flooding the environment with growing amounts of harmful plastic despite pledges to reduce it.
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October 31, 2024
Copyright Office Says Rest Of AI Report To Come By Year End
The U.S. Copyright Office plans to submit the remainder of a report on the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law by the end of the year, the office told House lawmakers who expressed concern over what they said were late submissions.
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October 31, 2024
FCC's Senior Republican Blasts Bulk-Billing Restrictions
One-half of the Federal Communicatiions Commission's Republican minority is coming out strong against the majority's plans to restrict bulk billing for broadband services, saying that the commission was under pressure by the Biden administration to "raise the price of Internet service for Americans living in apartments by as much as 50%."
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October 31, 2024
Fridge Owners Seek OK On Whirlpool Defect Suit Settlement
A proposed class of refrigerator owners is asking a California federal court to give the go-ahead to a settlement to resolve claims that Whirlpool Corp. sold refrigerators with a defect that caused food to spoil or go moldy.
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October 31, 2024
Meta Users Fight Uphill For Cert., But Advertisers Have A Shot
A California federal judge who was asked to certify two classes in litigation alleging that Facebook parent Meta Platforms monopolized the social media advertising market and misused users' data said Thursday that the users' damage theory wasn't "plausible," but appeared open to the advertisers' claim they suffered the same alleged injury.
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October 31, 2024
Health District Must Face Cyberattack Suit, Wash. Judges Say
A municipal health department in Washington is back on the hook in litigation over a cyberattack that affected nearly 109,000 individuals, thanks to a precedential ruling by a state appellate court Thursday reviving claims that the department was negligent in storing patients' personal information.
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October 31, 2024
Ga. Private Pilot Sues Engine Co. After Golf Course Landing
A Georgia man has sued a division of Avco Corp. alleging that the engine had failed in a small plane that he had rented, forcing him to crash-land on a golf course in Illinois, injuring him and his family.
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October 31, 2024
Philly DA's Suit Over Musk's $1M Voter 'Lottery' Goes Federal
A Pennsylvania federal judge is set to decide whether Elon Musk's $1 million daily giveaway to battleground state voters who sign a pledge from his PAC is an illegal lottery, as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner claimed in a suit transferred to federal court on Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule
A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.
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Boeing Plea Deal Is A Mixed Bag, Providing Lessons For Cos.
The plea deal for conspiracy to defraud regulators that Boeing has tentatively agreed to will, on the one hand, probably help the company avoid further reputational damage, but also demonstrates to companies that deferred prosecution agreements have real teeth, and that noncompliance with DPA terms can be costly, says Edmund Vickers at Red Lion Chambers.
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Unpacking The Increasingly Popular Fair Credit Billing Act
The Fair Credit Billing Act is receiving increased attention from regulators and consumers disputing credit card charges, so creditors should understand its procedural requirements — including the law's focus on the mechanics of a dispute and its potential to create civil liability, say David Gettings and Courtney Hitchcock at Troutman Pepper.
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Takeaways From EU's Initial Findings On Apple's App Store
A deep dive into the European Commission's recent preliminary findings that Apple's App Store rules are in breach of the Digital Markets Act reveal that enforcement of the EU's Big Tech law might go beyond the literal text of the regulation and more toward the spirit of compliance, say William Dolan and Pratik Agarwal at Rule Garza.
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2 Rulings Serve As Conversion Fee Warnings For Banks
A comparison of the different outcomes in Wright v. Capital One in a Virginia federal court, and in Guerrero v. Bank of America in a North Carolina federal court, highlights how banks must be careful in describing how currency exchange fees and charges are determined in their customer agreements, say attorneys at Weiner Brodsky.
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Expect CFPB To Enforce Warning Against 'Coercive' Fine Print
The recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warning against unenforceable terms "deceptively" slipped into the fine print of contracts will likely be challenged in court, but until then, companies should expect the agency to treat its guidance as law and must carefully scrutinize their consumer contracts, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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Loss Causation Ruling Departs From Usual Securities Cases
A California federal court recently dismissed Ramos v. Comerica, finding that the allegations failed to establish loss causation, but the reasoning is in tension with the pleading-stage approaches generally followed by both courts and economists in securities fraud litigation, say Jesse Jensen and Aasiya Glover at Bernstein Litowitz.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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Series
After Chevron: Impact On CFPB May Be Limited
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is likely to have a limited impact on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's regulatory activities, and for those who value due process, consistency and predictability in consumer financial services regulation, this may be a good thing, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Synapse Bankruptcy Has Ripple Effects For Fintech Industry
Synapse Financial Technologies’ recent bankruptcy filing marks a significant moment in the fintech industry's evolution, highlighting that stringent compliance and risk management in fintech partnerships are essential to mitigate risk and protect consumers, say Joann Needleman and Ryan Blumberg at Clark Hill.
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Opinion
Discount Window Reform Needed To Curb Modern Bank Runs
We learned during the spring 2023 failures that bank runs can happen extraordinarily fast in light of modern technology, especially when banks have a greater concentration of large deposits, demonstrating that the antiquated but effective discount window needs to be overhauled before the next crisis, says Cris Cicala at Stinson.