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Consumer Protection
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September 20, 2024
NFT Buyers Bring Securities Suit Against Crypto Co. OpenSea
Two Florida users of OpenSea hit the nonfungible token marketplace with a proposed securities class action claiming the assets the users bought on the platform are unregistered investment contracts in light of recent court decisions and regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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September 20, 2024
Golf Course Co. Sued Again; Earlier Data Breach Case Axed
An Illinois-based golf course and hospitality management business faces a new lawsuit from a former employee for allegedly failing to protect its customers' personal information following an April breach, while a separate case against the business has been dismissed.
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September 20, 2024
Calif. Panel Backs VW Drivers' $3.5M Data Breach Deal
California appellate justices have upheld Volkswagen and Audi drivers' $3.5 million data breach settlement and rejected an objector's request to intervene and vacate judgment, finding that her disagreement with their litigation strategy doesn't mean her interests weren't adequately represented.
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September 20, 2024
BofA, Consumers Ink Deal To End COVID Card Fraud Claims
Bank of America informed a New Jersey court on Friday it has reached a settlement in principle with three consumers who launched a proposed class action over the bank's allegedly insufficient security measures affecting prepaid debit cards for unemployment benefits during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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September 20, 2024
NYC Lexus Dealership Snags Partial Win In TCPA Text Suit
A Manhattan Lexus dealership was not using technology that violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's ban on autodialers, a New York federal judge has ruled, handing the dealership a partial win in a class action accusing it of bugging noncustomers with unsolicited texts.
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September 20, 2024
Fed's Surprise Rate Cut Gives M&A Markets Needed Relief
Mergers and acquisitions activity is inextricably linked to borrowing costs, which means the Federal Reserve's larger than expected half-point interest rate cut could provide just the type of relief dealmakers need for a significant rebound, attorneys say.
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September 20, 2024
JPMorgan Chase Sued Again Over Cash 'Sweep' Program
JPMorgan Chase & Co. was hit with another proposed class action in California federal court claiming the bank's cash sweep investment program funnels customer funds into low-interest bearing accounts at its affiliate Chase Bank, a move that benefits the financial giant while depriving customers of the chance to earn the market-rate interest.
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September 20, 2024
Conservative Pundit Seeks To Block Calif. AI Election Laws
A content creator who created a viral AI-generated video shared by billionaire Elon Musk that lampoons Vice President Kamala Harris' mannerisms has sued the state and asked a California federal judge to block recently enacted state laws cracking down on election-related deepfakes, arguing the new laws infringe influencers' constitutional rights.
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September 20, 2024
Plaintiffs Firms Battle Over Proposed $9B Deal In J&J Talc Suit
Two leading plaintiffs law firms in the multibillion-dollar litigation over Johnson & Johnson's tainted talcum powder are now warring among themselves, with Smith Law Firm PLLC suing Beasley Allen Law Firm for defamation after Beasley Allen accused the former of selling out clients to pay off litigation funders.
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September 20, 2024
Q&A With Former CPSC Chair Elliot Kaye
The legal career of Elliot Kaye, who was chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission from 2014 to 2017, has intrepidly crossed the government, private and nonprofit sectors. Kaye talked with Law360 about life after leaving the CPSC, which include a kidney transplant and being on the ground in Ukraine while working for World Central Kitchen.
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September 20, 2024
Panera Can't Delay Trial Over Shook Hardy Attys' Schedule
A Pennsylvania federal judge denied Panera Bread's repeated requests to delay a wrongful death trial, finding the restaurant chain will not be prejudiced if its desired Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP counsel cannot attend, as "plenty" of Shook Hardy lawyers can stand in, the judge said.
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September 20, 2024
FTC Accuses Drug Middlemen Of Raising Insulin Prices
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday accused the three largest pharmacy benefits managers, Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx, of artificially inflating insulin prices by relying on unfair rebate schemes that hurt competition.
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September 19, 2024
Wells Fargo Judge Says NDA Isn't A 'Gag' In Loan Bias Case
A California federal judge on Thursday challenged Wells Fargo's arguments seeking to prevent a former underwriter from testifying as an expert in a proposed class action claiming the bank discriminated against non-white borrowers, saying a confidentiality agreement the ex-employee purportedly signed couldn't be used as a "gag" to silence him.
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September 19, 2024
Publishers 'Did Not Trust Google,' Former Ad Tech Exec Says
A former Google executive acknowledged Thursday that at least some website publishers sought a workaround to the search giant's advertising placement technology because they didn't trust the company's consolidated control, which the Justice Department has challenged in a Virginia federal courtroom.
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September 19, 2024
Dems Seek School Lunch 'Junk Fee' Ban After CFPB Report
A group of Democratic senators has called on the Biden administration to crack down on payment processing fees in school lunch programs, citing a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report that raised concerns about the charges parents pay to fund their kids' online lunch money accounts.
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September 19, 2024
Safeway Touts Bogus Wine Discounts For Members, Suit Says
Safeway faces a proposed false advertising class action filed Wednesday in California federal court alleging it advertises bogus, limited-time offers of discounted prices on wine sold at its stores for its rewards program members, which misleads customers into thinking they're scoring a bargain.
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September 19, 2024
Congress Clears Bill Setting Aside Space Launch Spectrum
Congress has sent a bipartisan bill to the White House that would set aside certain airwaves specifically for use in commercial space launches in a bid to drive space industry growth.
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September 19, 2024
Republicans Air Grievances At House Hearing on FTC Practices
The Federal Trade Commission ought to stick to combating consumer scams and leave the competition regulation alone — that was the general tenor of Republicans on Wednesday morning at a House hearing about the agency's past and present practices.
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September 19, 2024
Birkin Bag Lovers Must Rework Antitrust Suit, Judge Says
A California federal judge said Thursday that consumers behind a proposed antitrust class action accusing Hermes of unlawfully tying the sale of its iconic Birkin handbag to other expensive items should amend their complaint, since the current version doesn't show how the luxury fashion retailer has foreclosed competition.
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September 19, 2024
CFPB's Chopra Sounds Alarm On Home Insurance 'Crisis'
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra called Thursday for concerted policy action to tame spiking homeowners insurance costs and said he's looking into streamlining rules on mortgage refinancing to help consumers take advantage of the Federal Reserve's shift into rate-cutting mode.
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September 19, 2024
FCC Chief Tanks Trump Call To Pull ABC Licenses
The government has no intention of seeking to revoke ABC's broadcast licenses at the behest of former President Donald Trump, the head of the Federal Communications Commission told lawmakers Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
GM Asks Full 6th Circ. To Rehear Truck Emissions Fraud Suit
General Motors LLC is asking the full Sixth Circuit for an en banc rehearing of a split decision that revived state law claims from four plaintiffs who alleged that GM misleadingly marked Chevrolet Silverado and Sierra vehicles as being more environmentally friendly than they were.
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September 19, 2024
FTC's Holyoak Offers 'Alternative Vision' For Privacy, AI Work
The Federal Trade Commission needs to rein in its work on data privacy and artificial intelligence rather than pursue sweeping actions that exceed its regulatory authority and threaten to compromise the support and funding the agency gets from Congress, according to one of its Republican commissioners.
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September 19, 2024
Roblox Can't Ax Negligence Claims In Online Gambling Case
Roblox must face claims it was negligent for failing to shield minor players from gambling through its platform after a California federal judge ruled Thursday that the plaintiffs adequately alleged it was foreseeable that the players would head to online casinos and gamble away their digital currency known as "Robux."
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September 19, 2024
Union Pacific Contractors Again Escape Texas Enviro Claims
A Texas appeals court on Thursday affirmed a trial court's decision to dismiss without prejudice the claims scores of people lodged against two Union Pacific Railroad Co. contractors in their litigation over cancer-causing contamination related to a Houston rail yard.
Expert Analysis
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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Unlocking Blockchain Opportunities Amid Legal Uncertainty
Dozens of laws and legal precedents will come into the fore as Web3, metaverse and non-fungible tokens gain momentum, so organizations need to design their programs with a broader view of potential exposures — and opportunities, say Teresa Goody Guillén and Robert Musiala at BakerHostetler and Steve McNew at FTI Consulting.
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4 Ways Businesses Can Address Threat Of Mass Arbitration
Attorneys at DLA Piper examine the rise of mass arbitration in light of JAMS' new procedures and guidelines, and provide four steps e-commerce businesses can take when revising their dispute resolution provisions to maximize the chances those revisions will be held enforceable.
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The Uncertain Scope Of The First Financial Fair Access Laws
With Florida and Tennessee soon to roll out laws banning financial institutions from making decisions based on customer traits like political affiliation, national financial services providers should consider how broadly worded “fair access” laws from these and other conservative-leaning states may place new obligations on their business operations, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
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Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ
Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.
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Boeing Saga Underscores Need For Ethical Corporate Culture
In the wake of recent allegations about Boeing’s safety culture, and amid the U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower incentives, business leaders should reinvigorate their emphasis on compliance by making clear that long-term profitability requires ethical business practices, says Maxwell Carr-Howard at Dentons.
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Debate Over CFPB Definition Of Credit Is Just Beginning
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recently worked to expand the meaning of credit, so anyone operating on the edges of the credit markets, or even those who assumed they were safely outside the scope of this regulatory perimeter, should pay close attention as legal challenges to broad interpretations of the definition unfold, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond
Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.
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How Federal And State Microfiber Pollution Policy Is Evolving
Growing efforts to address synthetic microfiber pollution may create compliance and litigation issues for businesses in the textile and apparel industries, so companies should track developing federal and state legislation and regulation in this space, and should consider associated greenwashing risks, says Arie Feltman-Frank at Jenner & Block.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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10 Tips To Build Trust With Your Witness During Trial Prep
Preparing a witness for deposition or trial requires more than just legal skills — lawyers must also work to cultivate trust with the witness, using strategies ranging from wearing a hat when conducting mock cross-examination to offering them a ride to court before they testify, say Faye Paul Teller and Sara McDermott at Munger Tolles.
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A Look At US-EU Consumer Finance Talks' Slow First Steps
The unhurried and informal nature of planned discussions between the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the European commissioner for justice and consumer protection suggests any coordinated regulatory action on issues like AI and "buy now, pay later" services is still a ways off, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits
Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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Calif. Web Tracking Cases Show Courts' Indecision Over CIPA
Several hundred cases filed to date, and two recent conflicting rulings, underscore California courts' uncertainty over whether the use of web analytics tools to track users' website interactions can give rise to a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, says Patricia Brum at Snell & Wilmer.