Consumer Protection

  • June 25, 2024

    CFPB Delays Start Of Small-Biz Loan Rule Deadlines Until '25

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday formally pushed back the compliance deadlines for its contested rule that establishes reporting requirements for the small-business lending market, putting nearly 10 more months on the clock for banks and other lenders after a court-ordered stay.

  • June 25, 2024

    USDA Tackles 'Inconsistent' Court Handling Of Packers Suits

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture sought Tuesday to empower itself, and perhaps individual farmers, in lawsuits against allegedly unfair practices in the livestock, meat and poultry industries, by proposing a new rule that would replace the current case-by-case adjudication of what counts as a violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act.

  • June 25, 2024

    Norfolk Southern Torched In NTSB Final Derailment Findings

    Norfolk Southern used "reprehensible" tactics to interfere with the investigation into last year's derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and pushed for an "unnecessary" controlled vent and burn of highly flammable vinyl chloride during the accident's chaotic aftermath, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Judge Tosses Skiers' Last Bid For COVID Shutdown Damages

    A final attempt by ski pass holders to receive damages after resort giant Vail Corp. shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 ended Tuesday when a Colorado federal judge dismissed the putative class action and its breach-of-contract claim.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ralph Lauren Sued Over Fake Discount Prices On Outlet Items

    Ralph Lauren advertises sham reference prices for merchandise sold at its Polo Factory outlets that purport to provide customers with significant discounts, which misleads them into believing the merchandise was initially sold at much higher prices, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in New York federal court.

  • June 25, 2024

    Verizon To Pay $1M For Southeast 911 Outage, FCC Says

    Verizon has agreed to pay just more than $1 million and follow a compliance plan after a December 2022 breakdown of 911 connectivity throughout the Southeast, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Broker's Lax ACH Monitoring Led To $330K Theft, FINRA Says

    A broker-dealer that was once a unit of Oregon-headquartered Umpqua Bank has agreed to pay $225,000 to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority after self-reporting supervisory oversights that enabled unauthorized parties to siphon over $330,000 out of a customer's account.

  • June 25, 2024

    Amazon Says It Shares 'Cookies,' But Not Prime Viewers' ID

    Amazon.com Inc. on Tuesday urged a federal judge to toss a proposed class action filed by Prime movie subscribers, calling the privacy complaint a "smokescreen" attempting to get around the terms of a use agreement that allows advertisers to access cookies that don't identify specific customers.

  • June 25, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says Smith & Wesson Can't Sidestep NJ Subpoena

    The gunmaker Smith & Wesson must comply with a subpoena from New Jersey to produce advertising materials requested in a consumer fraud case brought by the state, a divided Third Circuit panel ruled Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    No Need To Ship Net Neutrality Appeals To DC, 6th Circ. Told

    The Sixth Circuit should stand up to the "concerted effort" to push administrative law matters out of other appellate courts and into the D.C. Circuit by refusing to transfer a bundled set of challenges to the FCC's new net neutrality rules, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said.

  • June 25, 2024

    FCC Says Anti-Redlining Rule 'Dutifully' Carries Out Law

    The Federal Communications Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit to toss multiple industry challenges to its rules against discrimination in broadband deployment, saying its use of a wide-reaching standard for prohibited bias fits the law's requirements.

  • June 25, 2024

    FTC Suit Merely 'Publicity Stunt,' Seattle Bill Pay Biz Says

    A Seattle-based online bill pay platform has accused the Federal Trade Commission of filing a baseless consumer protection suit against it, telling a Washington federal court the company has already gone above and beyond its legal obligations to satisfy regulators' concerns about misleading ads and hidden fees.

  • June 25, 2024

    $3M Broker Commission Deal Stayed To Await NAR Settlement

    A Massachusetts federal court will not consider a $3 million settlement reached between home sellers and a multiple listing service over broker commission rules until after a decision on a much larger settlement in the separate sprawling case against the National Association of Realtors.

  • June 25, 2024

    FTC Looks To Ax MGM Suit Over Cybersecurity Probe

    The Federal Trade Commission rebuffed claims from MGM Resorts International that the agency improperly declined to recuse chair Lina Khan from investigating the hospitality giant's data security practices, urging a D.C. federal judge to toss MGM's lawsuit that seeks to stop the probe.

  • June 25, 2024

    Oil Co. Accused Of Duping Consumers With Biodiesel Product

    A Massachusetts home heating oil dealer falsely told consumers they were purchasing an environmentally friendly biodiesel product, a proposed class action filed in state court on Monday alleges.

  • June 25, 2024

    Exxon Bid For Avangrid Docs In Greenwash Case Faces Doubt

    A Massachusetts judge on Tuesday questioned the relevance of potentially millions of wind energy company Avangrid's documents being sought by ExxonMobil in its defense of a greenwashing case brought by the state.

  • June 25, 2024

    American Airlines Can't Move Frequent Flyers' Suit To Texas

    American Airlines lost its bid to transfer to Texas a proposed class action alleging it improperly terminated frequent flyer accounts and erased accrued airline miles, as a California federal judge ruled Monday the airline hadn't shown convenience and justice required moving it from the Golden State.

  • June 25, 2024

    Calif. Pot Co. Accused Of 'Lab Shopping' To Skirt Safety Rules

    A California marijuana cultivator has been accused of selling cannabis products with unacceptable levels of contaminants, getting around state requirements by seeking out laboratories that turned a "blind eye" to its crops' impurities, according to a proposed class action.

  • June 25, 2024

    Schouest Bamdas Opens Dallas Office With 6-Partner Hire

    Schouest Bamdas Soshea BenMaier & Eastham PLLC has expanded its footprint in Texas by launching a new office in Dallas with six new partners from Hartline Barger LLP, it said in an official announcement Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    EU Opens Microsoft Case, Unappeased By Teams Unbundling

    European Union antitrust authorities opened a formal complaint against Microsoft on Tuesday over the company's bundling of its Teams communications program with its Office 365 suites, calling out as insufficient the disconnection of the services Microsoft initiated last year to appease enforcers.

  • June 25, 2024

    Int'l Paper Gets US Clearance On $7.2B DS Smith Buy

    International Paper Co. and its U.K. competitor DS Smith PLC said Tuesday that the waiting period for U.S. antitrust authorities to try and block their planned roughly $7.2 billion merger has expired. 

  • June 25, 2024

    Advance Auto Parts Hit With 4 Data Breach Suits

    Advance Auto Parts Inc. has been hit with four proposed class action complaints over a recent data breach that one suit says exposed more than 1 million people's private information, some of which has purportedly already gone up for sale on the dark web.

  • June 25, 2024

    Cooley Adds Ex-CPSC Chair To Product Safety Group

    The former chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has joined Cooley LLP, a return to private practice he told Law360 came about after a health crisis, trips to war-torn Ukraine for his prior nonprofit job, and a personal "sabbatical" that led him to refocus his life.

  • June 24, 2024

    Bill Pay Co. Tricks Consumers With 'Dark Patterns,' Suit Says

    Third-party bill payment company Doxo Inc. and two of its co-founders have been hit with a proposed class action alleging the company uses so-called dark patterns to trick consumers into using its website to pay other companies' bills online.

  • June 24, 2024

    Localities Redouble Effort To Block House Broadband Bill

    The U.S. Conference of Mayors is leaning on Congress to abandon the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023, saying the bill is trying to cut red tape for broadband permitting at the expense of local governments' control over their own territories.

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Litigation Strategies To Combat 'Safetyism'

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    Amid the rise of safetyism — the idea that every person should be free from the risk of harm or discomfort — among jurors and even judges, defense counsel can mount several tactics from the very start of litigation to counteract these views and blunt the potential for jackpot damages, says Ann Marie Duffy at Hollingsworth.

  • How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection

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    Recent enforcement actions in the fintech and finance industries show that the government is increasingly pursuing fraud enabled by artificial intelligence — at the same time it’s using AI innovations to enforce regulations and investigate fraud, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Takeaways From Groundbreaking Data Transfer Order

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    A recent first-of-its-kind executive order and related proposed rulemaking lay the groundwork for important outbound U.S. data protections, but they may have unintended consequences related to the types of data and the subjects within their scope, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • Innodata Suit Highlights 'AI Washing' Liability Risk For Cos.

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    A class action against software company Innodata over so-called AI washing, one of the first of its kind, underscores the litigation and enforcement risks that can arise from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's novel theory about misleading artificial intelligence capabilities, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • The Epic Antitrust Cases And Challenges Of Injunctive Relief

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    The Epic cases against Apple and Google offer a window into the courts' considerable challenges in Big Tech litigation and establishing injunctive relief that enhances competition and benefits consumers, say Kelly Lear Nordby and Jon Tomlin at Ankura Consulting.

  • Banks Should Continue To Prep For CFPB Data Rule Rollout

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    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-supervised banks should not expect industry pressure to delay the rollout of proposed Section 1033 open banking rules, which regulate how consumer financial information flows between financial institutions, and prepare their required data access portals and compliance procedures now, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • How Calif. Video Recording Ruling May Affect Insured Exams

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    A recent California appellate decision, Myasnyankin v. Nationwide, allowing policyholders to video record all parties to an insurance examination under oath, has changed the rules of the road for EUOs and potentially opened Pandora's box for future disputes, say John Edson and Preston Bennett at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 5 Things Trial Attorneys Can Learn From Good Teachers

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    Jennifer Cuculich at IMS Legal Strategies recounts lessons she learned during her time as a math teacher that can help trial attorneys connect with jurors, from the importance of framing core issues to the incorporation of different learning styles.

  • Fintech 'Prenups': Planning For A Card Program Breakup

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    After a year of economic downturns, some banks and their fintech partners are realizing they may have rushed to the altar without a good prenup, but planning ahead can curb both foreseeable and unexpected issues in the event of a termination of a bank-fintech card-issuing agreement, say Andrew Grant at Ketsal and Richard Malish at Community Federal Savings Bank.

  • Legal Considerations For Circular Economy Strategies

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    As circular economy goals — generating revenue at multiple points in a product's life cycle — become nearly ubiquitous in corporate sustainability practices, companies should reassess existing strategies by focusing on government incentives, regulations, and reporting and disclosure requirements, say Rachel Saltzman and Erin Grisby at Hunton.

  • 3 Notification Pitfalls To Avoid With Arbitration Provisions

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    In Lipsett v. Popular Bank, the Second Circuit found that a bank's arbitration provision was unenforceable due to insufficient notice to a customer that he was bound by the agreement, highlighting the importance of adequate communication of arbitration provisions, and customers' options for opting out, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Tips For Orgs Facing AI Data Privacy Compliance Challenges

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    Regulators around the world are actively seeking to enforce data privacy and consumer protection laws against companies providing artificial intelligence-related services, raising complex compliance questions in areas like transparency, data minimization, lawfulness of processing, data subject rights and higher risk activities, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

  • What's At Play In Rising Lanham Act Cases At The ITC

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    Amid an uptick in Lanham Act claims involving false advertising related to medical devices at the U.S. International Trade Commission, Brian Busey and Maryrose McLaughlin at MoFo discuss recent ITC complaints from Eli Lilly and R.J. Reynolds, Lanham Act claim limits under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the issues practitioners face in this realm.

  • Preempting Bottled Water Microplastics Fraud Claims

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    Food products like bottled water are increasingly likely to be targets of consumer fraud complaints due to alleged microplastics contamination — but depending on the labeling or advertising at issue, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act can provide a powerful preemption defense, say Tariq Naeem and Brenda Sweet at Tucker Ellis.

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