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Consumer Protection
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December 11, 2024
Albertsons Sues Kroger In Chancery After Blocked Megadeal
Grocery giant Albertsons, in a Wednesday lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery, said Kroger did not put forth its "best efforts" into getting their planned $24.6 billion megamerger cleared while also announcing official plans to nix the deal, moves that came just one day after two judges blocked the proposed acquisition.
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December 10, 2024
Major Food Cos. Push 'Addictive' Foods On Kids, Suit Says
The Kraft Heinz Co., Nestle USA, General Mills and other major food companies are putting profits above all else by making highly addictive ultra-processed foods and aggressively marketing the products to children, leading to skyrocketing levels of chronic disease, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Philadelphia court.
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December 10, 2024
Feds Tell Justices To Stay Out Of Climate Change Tort Fights
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar on Tuesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to weigh in on climate change torts filed against fossil fuel companies, arguing in a pair of briefs that the state court cases aren't the correct vehicles for resolving the issues, at least not yet.
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December 10, 2024
Robinhood Seeks Arb. For Remaining Meme Stock MDL Suits
Stock trading platform Robinhood urged a Florida federal court to send to arbitration the seven remaining individual suits brought against it as part of a multidistrict litigation over the platform's decision to freeze trading in certain so-called meme stocks amid a social-media fueled run on shares of those issuers.
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December 10, 2024
SEC Says Ex-Rep Defrauded Investors With Short-Term Bets
A former registered representative of broker-dealer Western International Securities Inc. has agreed to pay over $2.1 million to end U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations he orchestrated a scheme to defraud retail clients by recommending costly investment strategies, and then covered up their "substantial" losses with phony financial statements.
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December 10, 2024
Trader Joe's Seller Fumbled Burger Deal, Poultry Co. Says
Pilgrim's Pride told a federal jury Tuesday it was not ultimately responsible when a grocery supplier used its bony chicken shipments to make burgers, arguing the vendor failed to inspect the meat for excessive bones, leading to eventual recalls and the end of its Trader Joe's deal.
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December 10, 2024
7th Circ. Questions Reviving Harley-Davidson Warranty MDL
The Seventh Circuit on Tuesday flagged issues with not only Harley-Davidson's motorcycle warranty but also its customers' antitrust claims against it as the court considered reviving multidistrict litigation claiming the contract constitutes illegal tying.
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December 10, 2024
Property Manager At Center Of Gang Claims Sues Colo. AG
A property management company caught up in a national controversy following allegations a Venezuelan gang had taken over some of its buildings in Aurora, Colorado, is suing the state to block probes by the state's attorney general into the company's management of its properties.
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December 10, 2024
Pastor Targeted Churchgoers In $6M Crypto Fraud, CFTC Says
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Tuesday that it has sued a Washington state pastor in federal court for allegedly targeting Spanish-speaking individuals, including members of his congregation, with a cryptocurrency multilevel marketing scheme worth at least $5.9 million.
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December 10, 2024
FCC Gives Church, Not University, Ill. Low Power FM Station
A Pentecostal church has won a face-off with a Christian university over which one of them would get to build and run a new low power FM station in the northern Chicago suburbs after the Federal Communications Commission compared their applications and heard a complaint.
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December 10, 2024
Google Takes Aim At Ad Tech Antitrust Claims In States' Suit
Google has blasted the lawsuit accusing it of illegally manipulating the advertising market, saying that Texas and the roughly dozen other states behind the litigation are "playing a shell game" in which they serially amend their complaints to "avoid the weaknesses of their antitrust claims."
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December 10, 2024
NC Law Firm, Insurer Drop Phishing Coverage Row
A law firm specializing in real estate transactions and its cyber insurer told a North Carolina federal court Tuesday they've agreed to settle their dispute over coverage for a phishing scam the firm said caused it to unwittingly wire roughly $647,000 to the hacker's bank account.
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December 10, 2024
Trump Taps Ferguson As FTC Chief, Kressin Atty To GOP Seat
President-elect Donald Trump named current Federal Trade Commission member Andrew N. Ferguson to be its next chair Tuesday night while also picking Kressin Meador Powers LLC partner Mark Meador, a former deputy chief counsel to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to round out the FTC as its third Republican member.
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December 10, 2024
FTC's Holyoak Says Chair OK With Some Cartels
Federal Trade Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said Lina Khan, the agency's current chair, is suggesting enforcers ignore anticompetitive activity if it's not being committed by what she considers "dominant firms."
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December 10, 2024
FCC Cracks Down Again On Failures To Block Robocalls
The Federal Communications Commission will consider tougher compliance rules to ensure voice service providers take part in efforts to cut robocalls, also saying Tuesday that more than 2,400 providers could face enforcement action for failing to meet existing filing requirements.
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December 10, 2024
AGs Urge FCC To Remove 'Pain' From Customer Service Calls
A coalition of state attorneys general called Tuesday for the Federal Communications Commission to take some of the "pain" out of customer service calls in FCC-regulated industries from internet and voice calls to broadcast satellite.
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December 10, 2024
Crypto Groups Rally Against Reappointing SEC's Crenshaw
Cryptocurrency industry groups are pushing back on a potential second term for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw with an online ad campaign and letters to lawmakers ahead of a Senate Banking Committee vote Wednesday on the Democrat's confirmation.
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December 10, 2024
ESPN, Fox Blast DOJ 'Formalistic Distinction' In Fubo Case
ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery pressed the Second Circuit to upend a lower court injunction against their sports-only streaming service, taking particular aim at U.S. Department of Justice arguments asserting the sports giants can't claim they have a right to refuse dealing with rivals after joining forces.
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December 10, 2024
Utah Man Gets 9 Mos. For $7M Fraud With 'Housewives' Star
A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a Utah resident to nine months in prison Tuesday, after the man admitted he worked with onetime reality TV star Jen Shah to build a fraudulent telemarketing empire that preyed on the elderly over a decade.
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December 10, 2024
Keller Postman Seeks To DQ Jenner & Block In Tubi Fight
Keller Postman LLC wants Jenner & Block LLP sanctioned and disqualified for a "shocking pattern of unethical conduct" — which allegedly includes hiring a private investigator to interrogate the firm's clients — in a lawsuit accusing Keller Postman of filing thousands of "fraudulent" arbitration claims against streaming service Tubi Inc.
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December 10, 2024
$24.6B Kroger-Albertsons Merger Blocked By 2 Judges
Kroger's planned $24.6 billion purchase of Albertsons suffered double whammy blows Tuesday, first from an Oregon federal judge who temporarily blocked the deal in a Federal Trade Commission challenge, and then from a Washington state judge who sided with the state's attorney general and issued a permanent, national block.
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December 10, 2024
NY Appealing Judge's Dismissal Of Plastic Pollution Suit
New York Attorney General Letitia James is appealing a harshly worded ruling that dismissed her suit against PepsiCo Inc. and its Frito-Lay subsidiary over plastic pollution on the Buffalo River.
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December 10, 2024
Ky. Rep. Guthrie To Chair House Energy And Commerce Panel
Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., has won the race for chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a key congressional post that includes jurisdiction over telecom issues and oversight of the Federal Communications Commission.
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December 10, 2024
Eversource Charges 'Junk Fee' To Restore Service, Suit Says
Utility company Eversource's $102 charge to restore service after a shutoff for nonpayment is a "junk fee" that exploits customers who can least afford it, a proposed class action filed in Massachusetts says.
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December 09, 2024
Calif. Floats Requiring Social Media Warning Labels
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday introduced a bill that would require a "black box warning" to be displayed on social media platforms to remind users of the risks of prolonged social media use, citing research linking children's and teens' use to health harms like depression.
Expert Analysis
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A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President
For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.
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Opinion
Big Oil Climate Ruling Sets Dangerous Liability Precedent
The recent Maryland court dismissal of Baltimore's case seeking to hold BP responsible for climate damage mischaracterized the city's injuries as divorced from the conduct that caused them, and could allow companies that conceal the dangers of their products to escape liability, says Randall Abate at George Washington University Law School.
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DOJ Must Overcome Hurdles In RealPage Antitrust Case
The U.S. Department of Justice's recent claims that RealPage's pricing software violates the Sherman Act mark a creative, and apparently contradictory, shift in the agency's approach to algorithmic price-fixing that will face several key challenges, say attorneys at Clifford Chance.
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What To Know About CFPB Stance On Confidentiality Terms
A recent circular from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau represents a growing effort across government agencies to address overbroad confidentiality agreements, and gives employers insight into the bureau's perspective on the issue as it relates to the Consumer Financial Protection Act, say Holly Williamson and Elizabeth King at Hunton.
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Opinion
3rd. Circ. Got It Right On Cancer Warning Claims Preemption
The Third Circuit's recent, eminently sensible ruling in a failure-to-warn case against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, holding that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts state law claims, provides a road map that other courts should adopt, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
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Finding Coverage For Online Retail Privacy Class Actions
Following recent court rulings interpreting state invasion of privacy and electronic surveillance statutes triggering a surge in the filing of privacy class actions against online retailers, companies should examine their various insurance policies, including E&O and D&O, for defense coverage of these claims, says Alison Gaske at Gilbert LLP.
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5 Ways To Confront Courtroom Technology Challenges
Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of our reliance on digital infrastructure, meaning attorneys must be prepared to navigate technological obstacles inside the courtroom, including those related to data security, presentation hardware, video playback and more, says Adam Bloomberg at IMS Legal Strategies.
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The State Law Landscape After Justices' Social Media Ruling
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent NetChoice ruling on social media platforms’ First Amendment rights, it’s still unclear if state content moderation laws are constitutional, leaving online operators to face a patchwork of regulation, and the potential for the issue to return to the high court, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Navigating New Enforcement Scrutiny Of 'AI Washing'
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent lawsuit against Joonko Diversity, its first public AI-focused enforcement action against a private company, underscores the importance of applying the same internal legal and compliance rigor to AI-related claims as other market-facing statements, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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What's Next For Federal Preemption In Financial Services
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's review of its preemption interpretations and growing pressure from state regulators signal potential changes ahead for preemption in U.S. financial services, and the path forward will likely involve a reevaluation of the entire framework, say attorneys at Clark Hill.
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Employer Arbitration Lessons From Calif. Consumer Ruling
Although a California state appeals court’s recent arbitration ruling in Mahram v. Kroger involved a consumer transaction, the finding that the arbitration agreement at issue did not apply to a third-party beneficiary could influence how employment arbitration agreements are interpreted, says Sander van der Heide at CDF Labor Law.
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Unpacking Jurisdiction Issues In 3rd Circ. Arbitration Ruling
The Third Circuit's recent ruling in George v. Rushmore Service Center could be interpreted to establish three principles regarding district courts' jurisdiction to enter arbitration-related orders under the Federal Arbitration Act, two of which may lead to confusion, says David Cinotti at Pashman Stein.
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Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
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'Pig Butchering': The Scam That Exploits Crypto Confusion
Certain red flags can tip off banks to possible "pig-butchering," and with the scam's increasing popularity, financial institutions need to take action to monitor entry points into the crypto space, detect suspicious activity and provide a necessary backstop to protect customers, say Brandon Essig and Mary Parrish McCracken at Lightfoot Franklin.