Consumer Protection

  • October 22, 2024

    EchoStar Blasts SpaceX 12 GHz Study As 'Deeply Flawed'

    Dish owner EchoStar hit back at SpaceX in a new filing with the Federal Communications Commission last week, calling a SpaceX study claiming that Dish's proposed fixed 5G service in the 12 gigahertz band would interfere with existing satellite broadband and broadcast service "deeply flawed" and based on "imaginary interference."

  • October 22, 2024

    FCC Expands FirstNet Spectrum Use In 4.9 GHz Band

    The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday unveiled a controversial plan to expand spectrum rights for AT&T's FirstNet emergency response network in the 4.9 gigahertz airwaves set aside for a wide range of public safety uses.

  • October 22, 2024

    How Law Firms Get And Keep Elite Status

    For decades, a handful of New York-based law firms thoroughly dominated the national consciousness when it came to power, profitability and prestige. But in today's legal market, increased movement of partners and clients from one firm to the next has begun to shake things up and create opportunities for go-getters to ascend the ranks.

  • October 22, 2024

    The 2024 Prestige Leaders

    Check out our Prestige Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their financial performance, attractiveness to attorneys and law students, ability to secure accolades and positive legal news media representation.

  • October 22, 2024

    CFPB's Open Banking Rule Flops With Industry, Lands In Court

    Banks will face new requirements to make account data freely available for consumers to share with fintech firms and other competitors under a long-awaited rule that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled Tuesday, drawing an immediate industry legal challenge seeking to block it.

  • October 21, 2024

    Rocket Mortgage Faces DOJ Suit Alleging Refi Race Bias

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued Rocket Mortgage and two appraisal companies in Colorado federal court for allegedly undervaluing a woman's Denver home because she was Black, asserting that the mortgage company then canceled her refinancing application when she reported the alleged discrimination.

  • October 21, 2024

    Mazda Buyers Ask 9th Circ. To Revive Water Pump Defect Suit

    Counsel for a group of Mazda vehicle owners urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to reinstate their putative class action alleging that Mazda sedans and SUVs contain a design defect that results in leaky water pumps, saying a district court judge wrongly found fault with their engineering expert's report and tossed the case.

  • October 21, 2024

    Target Wants Sanctions For 'Bogus' BIPA Suit

    An Illinois federal judge should sanction a group of Target customers and their lawyers for pursuing a facial recognition privacy case even though the plaintiffs had seen evidence their legal theory was "bogus," the retail giant says.

  • October 21, 2024

    John Deere's Tractor Brake Recall Is Also Defective, Suit Says

    John Deere sold utility tractors with a brake defect that can cause them to crash, and the company's recent recall doesn't guarantee a permanent fix but rather appears to simply "replace defective systems with even more defective systems," according to a proposed class action in South Carolina federal court.

  • October 21, 2024

    Nissan Fights Uphill To Undo Cert. In Sunroof Defect Fight

    Ninth Circuit judges on Monday doubted Nissan's bid to undo an order certification of a class of drivers who allege the Japanese carmaker sold vehicles with panoramic sunroofs that are prone to shattering, telling Nissan's counsel the appeal appears to challenge the claims' merits, and not whether they could be resolved classwide.

  • October 21, 2024

    FDA Tells Court Menthol Cigarette Ban Is Still Under Review

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it's still evaluating whether to finalize a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes, urging a California federal court to throw out a lawsuit that's attempting a "judicial end-run" around the ongoing review.

  • October 21, 2024

    X Corp. 'Sabotaging' Discovery Process, Media Matters Says

    Left-leaning watchdog Media Matters for America says that X Corp. is "jamming the wheels of discovery" by refusing to answer questions or provide documents relating to Elon Musk's role in the site's content moderation, asking a Texas federal court Friday to order X to comply.

  • October 21, 2024

    PBMs Keep Door Open To Constitutional Riposte Against FTC

    Attorneys for Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx kept the door open Monday to challenging the Federal Trade Commission's constitutionality as they face an in-house case accusing the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices by relying on unfair rebate schemes.

  • October 21, 2024

    Court Kicks Cannabis Consumer Case Back To Conn. State

    Smoke and vape wholesalers accused of illegally selling intoxicating hemp products have lost a bid to keep an unfair trade lawsuit brought against them by the Connecticut attorney general out of state court after a district court judge ruled it doesn't matter if the THC in the vapes was derived from federally legal hemp.

  • October 21, 2024

    CFPB Funding No Reason To Ax SoLo Suit, Calif. Judge Says

    Another federal judge has refused to dismiss a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit on the grounds that the agency lacks valid funding, and has found that the agency has pled plausible deceptive advertising, state violations and other counts against fintech lender SoLo Funds Inc.

  • October 21, 2024

    Google, Meta Want Out Of GoodRx Health Data Sharing Suit

    Google, Meta Platforms and Criteo have asked a California federal court to cut them loose from litigation alleging that GoodRx improperly shared patients' protected health information with the tech companies, saying the claims are "fundamentally flawed."

  • October 21, 2024

    Colo. Tenants Facing Eviction Are Entitled To Jury Trials

    The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that tenants in the state have a right to jury trials in eviction actions filed by their landlords if factual disputes exist in the case.

  • October 21, 2024

    Kroger Beats Class Cert. Bid In Pain Patch False Ad Suit

    An Illinois federal judge on Monday denied class certification to consumers who sued Kroger over lidocaine patches they asserted could not stay on long enough to provide up to eight hours of relief as advertised, saying neither of two proposed class representatives purchased the allegedly misleading patches.

  • October 21, 2024

    Judge Hints 'Contract' Key To Utility Cleanup Enforcement

    An Avangrid Inc. unit's responsibility or lack thereof for cleaning up a contaminated former power plant hinges on whether a partial consent order from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, or DEEP, is legally a contract, a state court judge signaled Monday. 

  • October 21, 2024

    Belgium Joins French Courts In Telegram CEO Criminal Probe

    Belgian investigators have joined French law enforcement in the criminal investigation of Pavel Durov, the CEO of encrypted messaging-platform Telegram, who is charged in France with aiding illegal child pornography, fraud and other crimes, the Paris prosecutor's office announced.

  • October 21, 2024

    3M Asks 2nd Circ. To Keep Vermont PFAS Case In Fed Court

    3M Co. is asking the Second Circuit to reverse an order remanding a suit by the state of Vermont over "forever chemical" contamination back to state court, saying that it filed for removal as soon as it learned that the claims involved products from a facility that made products for the military.

  • October 21, 2024

    Truist Bank To Pay $9.1M Over 'Unwise' Trust Administration

    Charlotte-based Truist Bank has agreed to pay the federal government $9.1 million to resolve claims that its predecessor SunTrust Bank ran afoul of the law by approving unwise disbursements for beneficiaries of a lead poisoning settlement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

  • October 21, 2024

    Mike Pence Supports US Steel-Nippon, Calls Critiques 'Bogus'

    Former Vice President Mike Pence has come out in support of Nippon Steel's planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, stating that Nippon will inject essential funding into the ailing Pennsylvania-based steelmaker while helping to fend off China and Russia's growing levels of global steel production. 

  • October 21, 2024

    North Carolina Hits Vacation Rental Co. With Robocall Lawsuit

    North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein filed suit against timeshare company Club Exploria LLC in North Carolina federal court, accusing the company of illegally spamming residents across the state with robocalls that sought to sell timeshares and vacation rentals.

  • October 21, 2024

    PAC Exec To Admit Pilfering From $28M Charitable Donor Haul

    A political action committee founder from Wisconsin accused of pilfering most of $28 million he raised through four PACs that were supposed to support veterans and firefighters is set to plead guilty to fraud charges, according to a Monday filing.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    The FTC Needs To Challenge The Novo-Catalent Deal

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    Novo's acquisition of Catalent threatens to substantially lessen competition in the manufacturing and marketing of GLP-1 diabetes and obesity drugs, and the Federal Trade Commission should challenge it under a vertical theory of harm, as it aligns with last year's merger guidelines and the Fifth Circuit decision in Illumina, says attorney David Balto.

  • Md. Deal Highlights Consumer Finance Program Regulations

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    Maryland regulators’ recent settlement with the Bank of Missouri and its consumer lending partners, Atlanticus and Fortiva, offers a reminder that it is important to properly structure such partnerships and conduct sufficient due diligence on state licensing requirements, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • 3 Areas Of Enforcement Risk Facing The EV Industry

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    Companies in the EV manufacturing ecosystem are experiencing a boom in business, but with this boom comes increased regulatory and enforcement risks, from the corruption issues that have historically pervaded the extractive sector to newer risks posed by artificial intelligence, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Nat'l Security Considerations For Telecom Products Counsel

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    An increase in federal national security measures in the telecommunications space, particularly from the Federal Communications Commission, means that products counsel need to broaden their considerations as they advise on new products and services, says Laura Stefani at Venable.

  • Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule

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    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.

  • Boeing Plea Deal Is A Mixed Bag, Providing Lessons For Cos.

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    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.

  • Unpacking The Increasingly Popular Fair Credit Billing Act

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    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.

  • Takeaways From EU's Initial Findings On Apple's App Store

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    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.

  • 2 Rulings Serve As Conversion Fee Warnings For Banks

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    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.

  • Expect CFPB To Enforce Warning Against 'Coercive' Fine Print

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    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.

  • Loss Causation Ruling Departs From Usual Securities Cases

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism

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    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.

  • 'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed

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    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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