Consumer Protection

  • February 21, 2025

    Coinbase Says SEC Will Drop Suit Amid Crypto Policy Shift

    Coinbase said Friday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has committed to dropping its enforcement action against the crypto exchange, a move that would see the regulator walk away from one of its flagship crypto suits amid a wider policy shift under the Trump administration.

  • February 21, 2025

    High Court Finds FCC's E-Rate Subject To False Claims Act

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday that telecoms participating in the federal E-Rate program supporting school and library connectivity can be sued for excess payouts under the False Claims Act because the subsidy's funds are provided through the U.S. Treasury.

  • February 20, 2025

    DOJ Says Job Protections For ALJs Are Unconstitutional

    The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it no longer backs long-standing job protections for administrative law judges, saying it has determined that the "multiple layers of removal restrictions" shielding ALJs are unconstitutional because they violate the separation of powers doctrine.

  • February 20, 2025

    Calif. Privacy Agency Takes Regulatory Aim At 6th Data Broker

    The California Privacy Protection Agency continued to keep the heat on data brokers Thursday, announcing that it's pursuing a monetary penalty against a Florida-based company that allegedly failed to comply with the registration requirements of a groundbreaking state data deletion law. 

  • February 20, 2025

    New SEC Enforcement Unit Shows Drift From Crypto Focus

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continued its efforts to shift its approach to digital asset enforcement under the Trump administration when it announced Thursday that it replaced the unit responsible for many of its controversial crypto registration suits with a new fraud-focused iteration that will take a broader focus on "cyber and emerging technologies."

  • February 20, 2025

    FDIC Watchdog Will Review Agency Layoffs' Impact

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s inspector general has indicated that she will review how the agency and the larger banking industry will be impacted by the agency's acting Chairman Travis Hill's recent decision to rescind more than 200 job offers to bank examiners following a presidential executive order.

  • February 20, 2025

    Ex-CFPB Chief Chopra Raps 'Totally Weird' Trump Shutdown

    Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra knocked the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the consumer agency as a bizarre and potentially self-owning policy choice, warning Thursday that it will only hurt businesses and consumers.

  • February 20, 2025

    Chinese App Temu Wants To Arbitrate Minors' Privacy Claims

    Chinese bargain-shopping app Temu has asked a New York federal judge to send to arbitration a proposed class action claiming it misuses users' data, saying an arbitrator must decide any challenges to the terms of a user agreement even though some named class members are minors.

  • February 20, 2025

    Warby Parker Hit With $1.5M Fine After HHS Breach Probe

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it has imposed a $1.5 million fine on Warby Parker Inc. following a cyberattack on the eyewear manufacturer's website that exposed the protected health information of nearly 200,000 customers.

  • February 20, 2025

    Judge Narrows Data Breach Suit Against Ga. Logistics Co.

    A group of employees and job applicants who sued a Georgia-based logistics and warehousing company over a 2023 data breach have had their suit trimmed by a Georgia federal judge, who said they failed to plausibly allege several of their claims.

  • February 20, 2025

    SafeMoon Exec Says He'll Cop To 2 Conspiracy Charges

    The chief technology officer behind the alleged SafeMoon LLC crypto fraud was a step closer to changing his not guilty plea Thursday on two of three counts of the indictment — a move that came after a Brooklyn federal judge declined to delay his co-defendant's trial last week.

  • February 20, 2025

    Fed's Barr Defends Long-Term Debt Mandate For Big Banks

    The Federal Reserve's chief bank regulator said Thursday that the country's financial system was "sound and resilient" but warned of increased risks if post-financial crisis reforms aren't maintained and finished, specifically arguing for the implementation of Basel III Endgame rules on liquidity standards and debt requirements.

  • February 20, 2025

    DOJ Keeps Focus In Agri Stats Case Off Specific Data

    A Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused Wednesday to force the U.S. Department of Justice to provide Agri Stats a line-by-line recitation of particular problematic data fields in the company's protein industry reports, finding the agency's explanations about how those reports can facilitate price-fixing are "adequately responsive."

  • February 20, 2025

    Trump Admin Says CFPB Defunding Suit Guesses At Harms

    The Trump administration on Thursday pushed back on a lawsuit alleging it seeks to "defund" the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that concerns about access to a consumer complaint database and other information are "baseless speculation" about the agency's future financial decisions that don't justify an injunction.

  • February 20, 2025

    Amazon Says FTC 'Stonewalled' Discovery In Antitrust Case

    The Federal Trade Commission is relying on "boilerplate objections and untenable hyper-technicalities" to delay discovery in its antitrust suit against Amazon, the e-commerce giant said in a new motion in Seattle federal court, seeking to force the agency to hand over information about its case.

  • February 20, 2025

    Green Groups Ask 9th Circ. To Press EPA Again On Atrazine

    Environmental groups are urging the Ninth Circuit to reopen a long-running case against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its regulation around the pesticide atrazine, arguing that the agency's yearslong delay in completing a court-ordered review of the chemical has allowed "serious harm to people, plants and wildlife."

  • February 20, 2025

    Publix Accused Of Overcharging Discounted Items In Fla. Suit

    A customer has brought a proposed federal class-action lawsuit in Florida federal court against Publix Super Markets Inc. over alleged deceptive trade practices, saying the grocery store's point-of-sale system intentionally charged more for discounted items sold by weight.

  • February 20, 2025

    Texas Claims NCAA Flouting Order On Trans Athletes

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged Thursday that the NCAA's new policy for transgender athletes does not comport with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump designed to keep student athletes from participating in sports other than those designated for their sex assigned at birth.

  • February 20, 2025

    Wells Fargo, AAA Look To Nix Fraudulent Inducement Suit

    Wells Fargo and the American Arbitration Association are urging a California federal judge to nix a proposed class action accusing them of colluding to fraudulently induce consumers into accepting a fundamentally unfair arbitration process, with the bank arguing that the claims must be arbitrated.

  • February 20, 2025

    FCC Dem Decries 'Partisan Investigations' Of Broadcast TV

    A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday assailed "partisan investigations" of editorial decisions at major broadcast companies launched when the Trump administration took over.

  • February 20, 2025

    Kim Kardashian's Skims Hit With ADA Lawsuit

    A proposed class action filed Thursday in Illinois federal court accuses Skims.com, a shapewear retailer founded by reality star Kim Kardashian, of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act with "significant access barriers" that make it "difficult if not impossible" for visually impaired customers to navigate the website. 

  • February 20, 2025

    11th Circ. Asked To Reinstate FCC's One-To-One Consent Rule

    A pro-consumer group urged the Eleventh Circuit to revisit a ruling last month that overturned the Federal Communications Commission's requirement that individual businesses obtain each consumer's consent to contact them through comparison shopping sites.

  • February 20, 2025

    Schwab Antitrust Settlement With Investors Gets Initial OK

    A Texas federal judge has granted the first green light to a settlement calling for Charles Schwab Corp. to implement an antitrust compliance program designed by an independent consultant, resolving a class of retail investors' claims they had to pay increased transaction costs for trades following the Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger in 2020.

  • February 20, 2025

    Education Tech Firm Faces Class Action In NC Over Data Hack

    A nationwide education technology platform got hit with a proposed class action in North Carolina on Thursday over a "massive and preventable cyberattack" which allegedly exposed personal information including health data for up to 18,000 of its users.

  • February 20, 2025

    Drug Buyers Get OK On $275M Sandoz Antitrust Settlement

    Swiss drugmaker Sandoz and its subsidiaries will pay consumers, insurers and other "end payer plaintiffs" $275 million to settle class action claims that it conspired with other companies to fix the price of certain generic drugs, under a deal that got preliminary approval from a Pennsylvania federal court Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Virginia AI Bills Could Serve As Nationwide Model

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    If signed into law, two Virginia bills focused on regulating the use of high-risk AI systems in the private and public sectors have the potential to influence similar legislation in other states, as well as the compliance strategies of companies operating in the commonwealth and across the U.S., say attorneys at Woods Rogers.

  • In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege

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    Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.

  • What Banks Need To Know About Trump's Executive Orders

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    While the numerous executive orders and memos from the last few weeks don't touch on many of the issues the banking industry expected the Trump administration to address, banks still need to pay attention to the flurry of orders from strategic, compliance and operational perspectives, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • 6 Tips For Cos. To Comply With Influencer Gifting Rules

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    A January decision in a National Advertising Division case concerning Revolve Group provides new insights on how the NAD expects companies to manage certain influencer campaigns, including preapproving posts before they go live and considering how they present the disclosure instructions to influencers, says Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye.

  • 4 Potential Effects Of 3rd Circ.'s Coinbase Ruling

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    The Third Circuit's recent landmark decision in Coinbase v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the SEC's refusal to engage in rulemaking to clarify its stance on crypto enforcement was "insufficiently reasoned" could have wide-ranging impacts, including on other cases, legislation and even the SEC's reputation itself, says Daniel Payne at Cole-Frieman.

  • Improving Comms Between Trial Attys And Tech Witnesses

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    In major litigation involving complex technology, attorneys should employ certain strategies to collaborate with companies' technical personnel more effectively to enhance both the attorney's understanding of the subject matter and the expert's ability to provide effective testimony in court, say attorneys at Buchalter.

  • CFPB's Message To States Takes On New Weight Under Trump

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's January guidance to state enforcers has fresh significance as the Trump administration moves to freeze the bureau's work, and industry should expect states to use this series of recommendations as an enforcement road map, say attorneys at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • National Bank Act Rulings Facilitate More Preemption Analysis

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    Two recent National Bank Act preemption decisions from an Illinois federal court and the Ninth Circuit provide the first applications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s May ruling in Cantero v. Bank of America, opening the potential for several circuit courts to address the issue this year, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.

  • What NHTSA's Autonomous Vehicle Proposal Means For Cos.

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    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recently proposed framework for review and oversight of vehicles equipped with automated driving systems offers companies a more flexible, streamlined approach to regulatory approvals for AVs, including new exemption pathways, assessments by independent experts and other innovations, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Tips For Pharma-Biotech Overlap Reporting In New HSR Form

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    While there’s no secret recipe for reporting overlaps to the Federal Trade Commission in the new Hart-Scott-Rodino Act form, there are several layers of considerations for all pharma-biotech companies and counsel to reflect on internally before reporting on any deal, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • Complying With Calif. Price-Gouging Law After LA Fires

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    The recent tragic Los Angeles fires have brought attention to the state's sometimes controversial price-gouging protections, and every California business should keep the law's requirements in mind, despite the debate over whether these statutes help consumers, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Opinion

    Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

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    Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

  • Aviation Watch: Litigation Liabilities After DC Air Tragedy

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    While it will likely take at least a year before the National Transportation Safety Board determines a probable cause for the Jan. 29 collision between a helicopter and a jet over Washington, D.C., the facts so far suggest the government could face litigation claims, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • How Cos. Can Use Data Clean Rooms To Address Privacy

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    Implementing comprehensive administrative controls, security processes and vendor management systems are vital steps for businesses leveraging data clean rooms for privacy compliance, especially given the Federal Trade Commission's warnings of complicated user privacy implications, say attorneys at Troutman.

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