Consumer Protection

  • July 19, 2024

    Ex-Pharma Sales Exec Denies Fake Prescription Scheme

    The former vice president of sales for pharmaceutical company U.S. Compounding Inc. pled not guilty in Manhattan federal court Friday to forging fake horse drug prescriptions in order to juice revenues.

  • July 19, 2024

    FTC Says Microsoft Price Hike Shows Activision Deal Harm

    The Federal Trade Commission told the Ninth Circuit that Microsoft's recently announced Game Pass price increase is an example of the harm caused by the company's $68.7 billion acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard Inc.

  • July 19, 2024

    Fed Fines Green Dot $44M Over Lax Compliance Program

    The Federal Reserve Board on Friday fined prepaid debit card issuer Green Dot $44 million, accusing it of violating consumer protection law through several unfair and deceptive practices and maintaining a "deficient" consumer compliance risk management program.

  • July 19, 2024

    FCC Looking Into 911 Disruptions From Global IT Outage

    The Federal Communications Commission said Friday it was helping investigate 911 service disruptions that resulted from a global information technology outage that affected numerous industries, including telecommunications.

  • July 18, 2024

    Abbott Wins Trust Asset Freeze To Collect $33M In TM Fight

    A New York federal judge has agreed to freeze trusts tied to a couple who owe Abbott Laboratories $33.4 million in sprawling trademark litigation over gray-market diabetes test strips, finding an asset freeze is necessary due to the defendants' "pervasive and repeated" use of the trusts for personal expenses and gambling.

  • July 18, 2024

    Grindr Faces Privacy Suit By Prominent 'Outed' Catholic Priest

    Gay dating app Grindr allegedly sold a prominent Catholic priest's sensitive personal information, causing him to lose his position as the general secretariat for the national conference of U.S. bishops, the priest alleged in a lawsuit seeking damages in California state court.

  • July 18, 2024

    Crypto Law Firm's SEC Challenge Met With Doubt At 9th Circ.

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday of a law firm's quest for a judgment that its use of the crypto asset ether doesn't offend securities laws, questioning whether the firm has shown it faces enough of a threat from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to keep its case against the regulator alive.

  • July 18, 2024

    8th Circ. Blocks Another Biden Student Debt Relief Plan

    The Eighth Circuit has blocked the Biden administration from implementing another plan for student loan forgiveness while the appellate court considers a Missouri-led state alliance's injunction request, according to an order entered Thursday.

  • July 18, 2024

    OCC's Hsu Calls For 'More Nuanced' Preemption Approach

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's acting chief has signaled plans for a potential shift in his agency's approach to federal preemption following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, calling for "more nuanced analysis" when evaluating the applicability of state laws to banks it oversees.

  • July 18, 2024

    American Airlines Beats Hidden Fees Suit Over Product Sales

    American Airlines defeated a proposed class action alleging it violated its conditions of carriage by failing to disclose that it gets fees for hawking Allianz Global travel assistance products to customers booking flights, after a Michigan federal judge said Thursday the plaintiff paid Allianz Global, not American Airlines, for the products.

  • July 18, 2024

    LPL Reaps Benefits From Forced Cash Sweep, Suit Says

    LPL Financial was hit with a putative class suit by a customer who claims the broker-dealer automatically moves customers' uninvested cash into its cash sweep programs, primarily benefiting the firm at the expense of its clients.

  • July 18, 2024

    Epic Says Apple's 'Strategic Delay' Tactics Still Ongoing

    The ongoing fight between Epic Games and Apple over the tech giant's compliance with a court order meant to open up app payment competition showed little sign of abating as Epic continued to blast Apple for slow and incomplete production.

  • July 18, 2024

    Chase Can't Arbitrate Returned-Check Suit, Customers Say

    Chase Bank customers have urged a federal judge not to let the bank force them to arbitrate a complaint over fees charged on deposited checks that were returned, arguing that they never agreed to an arbitration clause and that the bank failed to prove their consent to arbitration.

  • July 18, 2024

    State PUCs Urged To Keep Eye On Broadband Projects

    States need to step up and do more to ensure that telecommunication companies working on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund projects within their borders do the work they committed to doing on time, according to a former Federal Communications Commission official.

  • July 18, 2024

    Live Nation Previews Part Of Case Against DOJ Suit

    Live Nation and Ticketmaster have teed up part of their fight against an antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and multiple state attorneys general, arguing that the state law claims are "threadbare" and that a chunk of the DOJ case amounts to trying to force them to deal with competitors.

  • July 18, 2024

    FCC Votes On Party Lines To Subsidize Wi-Fi For Students

    The Federal Communications Commission voted along a partisan divide Thursday to expand a federal school and library subsidy to cover Wi-Fi services for students to remedy gaps in broadband access.

  • July 18, 2024

    LegitScript Asks 9th Circ. To Ax Price-Checker Antitrust Suit

    LegitScript has told the Ninth Circuit that PharmacyChecker cannot bring antitrust claims for allegedly having its price-checking website blacklisted because the bulk of its business is geared towards helping people illegally import prescription drugs.

  • July 18, 2024

    FDA Sends More Warnings Over THC 'Copycat' Snacks

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned six companies to stop selling delta-8 edibles that resemble brand-name snacks such as Skittles, Chips Ahoy, Cheetos and Oreos, saying the lookalikes can fool "children or unsuspecting adults" and pose a real health hazard.

  • July 18, 2024

    GSK, Boehringer Face Jurors Again On Zantac Cancer Claims

    GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim returned to Illinois state court Thursday, where they face separate juries to defend against Zantac users' claims that the drug caused them to develop cancer.

  • July 18, 2024

    Urban Outfitters Freed From Class Claims Over 'Spy Pixels'

    A Pennsylvania federal judge said an Arizona woman lacked standing to bring a class action against clothing retailer Urban Outfitters over its alleged use of "spy pixels" to track customer activity because she failed to show a violation of that state's recording laws.

  • July 18, 2024

    Avatar-Maker Draws Facial-Scan BIPA Suit

    Avatar company Ready Player Me Inc. has been hit with proposed class claims that it creates Illinois users' digital characters by scanning, storing and using their facial data without first obtaining informed consent.

  • July 18, 2024

    Court Denies Bid To Halt NYC Crackdown On Illicit Pot Shops

    A New York federal judge on Thursday rejected a bid from 27 retailers to halt city officials' enforcement efforts aimed at closing stores that sell cannabis without a license, saying the shops were unlikely to prevail on claims their due process rights were violated.

  • July 18, 2024

    FCC Caps Prison Phone Rates To Be 'Just And Reasonable'

    The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday placed new caps on prison phone rates under the Martha Wright-Reed Act, enacted to make sure that rates for incarcerated people and their families are "just and reasonable."

  • July 18, 2024

    American Airlines Hit With Class Action Over Sales Strategy

    An investor launched a proposed class action against American Airlines over the company's botched sales and distribution strategy, saying that American touted its strategy as driving revenue while hiding the fact that the strategy was "driving customers away" in a Texas federal court on Thursday.

  • July 18, 2024

    Consumers Hit CenterPoint With 2nd Class Action Over Beryl

    CenterPoint Energy Inc. has been hit with a second proposed class action over widespread power outages in the Houston area following Hurricane Beryl, this time from consumers in the Houston-Galveston area who were impacted by the storm.

Expert Analysis

  • Setting Goals For Kicking Corruption Off FIFA World Cup Field

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    The unprecedented tri-country nature of the 2026 men's World Cup will add to the complexity of an already complicated event, but best practices can help businesses stay on the right side of anti-corruption rules during this historic competition, say Sandra Moser and ​​​​​​​Emily Ahdieh at Morgan Lewis.

  • Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert

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    As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.

  • Takeaways From FDIC's Spring Supervisory Highlights

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s spring 2024 consumer compliance supervisory report found that relatively few institutions had significant consumer compliance issues last year, but the common thread among those that did were inadequacies or failures in disclosures to consumers, says Matthew Hanaghan at Nutter.

  • Online Portal Helps Fortify Feds' Unfair Health Practices Fight

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    The Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently launched an online portal where the public can report potentially unfair healthcare practices, effectively maximizing enforcers' abilities to police anti-competitive actions that can drive up healthcare costs and chill innovation, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Series

    Walking With My Dog Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Thanks to my dog Birdie, I've learned that carving out an activity different from the practice of law — like daily outdoor walks that allow you to interact with new people — can contribute to professional success by boosting creativity and mental acuity, as well as expanding your social network, says Sarah Petrie at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

  • Key Issues Raised By Colorado's Brain Data Privacy Bill

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    Colorado recently became the first state to provide consumer privacy protections for data generated from a person's brain waves, and despite the bill’s ambiguity and open questions introduced, the new law has helped turn the spotlight on neurodata, says Sara Pullen Guercio at Alston & Bird.

  • Birkin Bag Case Carries Competition Lessons For Retailers

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    A recently proposed antitrust class action alleging that Hermès violated federal and California law when selling its iconic Birkin and Kelly handbags highlights some issues that other brands and retailers should consider, particularly given a prevailing landscape that seems to prioritize antitrust scrutiny, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Expect Tougher Bank Exams 1 Year After Spring 2023 Failures

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    With federal banking agencies still implementing harsher examinations with swifter escalations a year after the spring 2023 bank failures, banks can gain insight into changing expectations by monitoring how the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are coordinating and updating their exam policies, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Follow The Iron Rule Of Trial Logic

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    Many diligent and eager attorneys include every good fact, point and rule in their trial narratives — spurred by the gnawing fear they’ll be second-guessed for leaving something out — but this approach ignores a fundamental principle of successful trial lawyering, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Breaking Down EPA's Rule On PFAS In Drinking Water

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    Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized the first enforceable federal drinking water regulation for PFAS, which, along with reporting and compliance requirements for regulated entities, will have a number of indirect effects, including increased cleanup costs and the possible expansion of existing Superfund sites, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • The Art Of Asking: Leveraging Your Contacts For Referrals

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    Though attorneys may hesitate to ask for referral recommendations to generate new business, research shows that people want to help others they know, like and trust, so consider who in your network you should approach and how to make the ask, says Rebecca Hnatowski at Edwards Advisory.

  • The Drawbacks Of Banking Regulators' Merger Review Plans

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    Recent proposals for bank merger review criteria by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. share common pitfalls: increased likelihood of delays, uncertainties, and new hurdles to transactions that could impede the long-term safety and soundness of the banks involved, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Opinion

    The FTC's Noncompete Rule Is Likely Dead On Arrival

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    The Federal Trade Commission's April 23 noncompete ban ignores the consequences to the employees it claims to help — but the rule is unlikely to go into effect provided the ideological makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court remains the same, say Erik Weibust and Stuart Gerson at Epstein Becker.

  • 'Beauty From Within' Trend Poses Regulatory Risks For Cos.

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    Companies capitalizing on the current trend in oral supplements touting cosmetic benefits must note that a product claim that would be acceptable for an externally applied cosmetic may draw much stronger scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when applied to a supplement, say Natalie Rainer and Katherine Staba at K&L Gates.

  • How Cos. Can Prep For New Calif. Privacy Regulations

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    The California Privacy Protection Agency has been very active in the first quarter of 2024 and continues to exercise its rulemaking authority with proposed draft regulations, so retailers should prepare for California Consumer Privacy Act enforcement and figure out how best to comply, say attorneys at Dentons.

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