Consumer Protection

  • August 30, 2024

    Hotel Chains, Software Co. Fight Algorithmic Pricing Suit

    Major hotel chains and software provider SAS Institute Inc. have asked a California federal court to toss a proposed class action from hotel guests alleging the companies used a shared pricing algorithm to fix and raise room rates nationwide.

  • August 30, 2024

    New York Magazine Reader Drops Suit Over Data Disclosures

    A subscriber to New York magazine has voluntarily dropped a potential class action accusing the periodical's publisher of violating a Michigan consumer privacy law by wrongfully disclosing readers' data to third parties.

  • August 30, 2024

    Period Tracker App Users Seek Class Cert. In Data-Selling Suit

    Users of the menstrual cycle tracking app Flo Health Inc. are seeking class certification in their suit against Flo, Google and Meta, telling a California federal judge the proposed class would include millions of users whose personal health information was sold to the ad giants without consent.

  • August 30, 2024

    Harris Admin Would Stay Course On Tough Antitrust Policy

    Just two days after food and candy giant Mars announced its blockbuster $35.9 billion Kellanova purchase, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign indicated plans to “crack down” on mergers between large food companies. That would differ significantly from another Trump presidency, which could see a generally more relaxed antitrust environment. Here, Law360 explores anticipated policy differences between the two.

  • August 30, 2024

    Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

    The Federal Trade Commission went to court against Kroger's $25 billion purchase of Albertsons and geared up for its looming handbags merger case, the Justice Department added to its case against Live Nation, and the sports-streaming juggernaut partnering ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery hit a significant roadblock.

  • August 30, 2024

    Gaming Co. Exec Gets 6 Years For Fake IPO Claims, Theft

    An executive of Carlyle Entertainment Ltd. has been sentenced to 72 months in prison for advertising a phony initial public offering and fraudulently misappropriating $3 million in investor funds for his personal use in a scheme that spanned six years.

  • August 30, 2024

    NY Hemp Shops Seek Halt Of 'Military Style' Raids

    A quintet of hemp product retailers have alleged that New York state and city officials unlawfully targeted their businesses as part of an effort to crack down on unregulated marijuana sellers.

  • August 30, 2024

    Philips Accuses SoClean Of Discovery Delay In CPAP Recall

    Koninklijke Philips NV says SoClean Inc. is unduly delaying claims that the company should contribute to Philips' $1 billion settlement over breathing machine foam by insisting on a wall between discovery materials in two related multidistrict litigations.

  • August 30, 2024

    Paxton Follows Through On Suit Over State Fair Firearms Ban

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has followed through on his threat to sue the State Fair of Texas if it didn't retract its no firearms policy, telling a Dallas County court that the exclusion of handguns from the annual event is illegal.

  • August 30, 2024

    FINRA Dings Raymond James $2M Over Customer Complaints

    Two Raymond James units will pay nearly $2 million to settle allegations from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that they didn't properly handle customer complaints or supervise mutual fund purchases.

  • August 30, 2024

    Staples Latest To Face Suit Over Job-Seeker Polygraph Notice

    A Massachusetts man applying for jobs with Staples Inc. filed a proposed class action alleging the company violated a state law that requires companies to notify candidates that the use of lie detectors is banned for hiring decisions, the latest such case targeting a major Bay State employer.

  • August 30, 2024

    Crypto Exchanges Illegally Took Facial Scans, Suits Say

    Two cryptocurrency exchanges have been hit with proposed class actions in Illinois federal court alleging they unlawfully collected, stored, and disclosed users' facial geometry scans by making new customers go through a mandatory verification process in violation of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act.

  • August 30, 2024

    Firm Accused Of Botching Arbitration In Tribal Lending Row

    Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and one of its former attorneys have been hit with a California federal court suit accusing them of negligence in their representation of a consulting business and its president in a 2018 arbitration they say caused them at least $17.5 million in damages.

  • August 30, 2024

    Inaccurate TransUnion Report Ended Job Chances, Suit Says

    A TransUnion unit that sells background checks was hit with a federal lawsuit in Texas accusing it of wrecking an applicant's employment prospects at Chick-fil-A by incorrectly reporting he had misdemeanor convictions for cannabis possession.

  • August 30, 2024

    Medical Tech Co. Exits MOVEit Hack MDL For $2.8M

    Medical billing software firm Arietis Health LLC has agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle out of a multidistrict litigation brought by a class of victims of a 2023 data breach involving Progress Software's MOVEit file transfer tool.

  • August 29, 2024

    Ga. Health System Shakes Facebook Data Sharing Row

    A Georgia federal judge has tossed a putative class action accusing Piedmont Healthcare Inc. of unlawfully sharing confidential health information with Facebook, finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege actual damages and that the "weight of authority" in similar online tracking cases supported the provider's contention that there was no privacy intrusion. 

  • August 29, 2024

    PNC Asks 4th Circ. To Reconsider HELOC 'Offset' Ban Ruling

    PNC Bank has asked the Fourth Circuit to take another look at its ruling that extended the "offset" provision of the Truth in Lending Act, which prevents banks from using funds held in deposit accounts to offset credit card debt without the consumer's consent, to home equity lines of credit.

  • August 29, 2024

    Ancestry.com Beats Claims It Used Yearbook Photos In Ads

    Ancestry.com has snagged a quick win from an Ohio federal judge in a proposed class action claiming the genealogy website uses people's yearbook records without their consent to market its services with three unlawful advertising techniques.

  • August 29, 2024

    Starbucks Overpromised On 'Reinvention' Plan, Investor Says

    Coffee chain Starbucks faces a proposed investor class action alleging it misled the markets about prospects for its so-called Triple Shot Reinvention strategy, hurting investors after trading prices for its shares slid when it announced disappointing quarterly results in April 2024.

  • August 29, 2024

    Amazon Sheds Whole Foods 'Bait-And-Switch' Case For Good

    A Washington federal court on Thursday dismissed a proposed class action accusing Amazon.com of misleading Prime members by advertising free Whole Foods grocery deliveries and later canceling the perk, in an order that said the lead plaintiff failed to fix deficiencies in the complaint that a judge previously flagged.

  • August 29, 2024

    Judge Narrows Claims In Mercedes Sunroof Class Action

    A Georgia federal judge has trimmed some claims from a proposed class action accusing Mercedes-Benz of offering vehicles with panoramic sunroofs prone to randomly shattering under normal conditions but allowed several state consumer protection claims, breach of implied warranty and fraudulent concealment claims to continue.

  • August 29, 2024

    FCC's New Rules For Rural 5G Fund Stir Controversy

    The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it had adopted a framework for the 5G Fund for Rural America to auction up to $9 billion in its first phase to fill gaps in mobile broadband, but not all stakeholders are pleased with the rules.

  • August 29, 2024

    Mars Wrigley Must Face False Ad Suit Over 'Real Cheese'

    Snack maker Mars Wrigley could not escape claims it falsely advertised its Cheddar Cheese Combos as being made with "real cheese," after a New York federal judge ruled that consumers' adequately showed they paid a premium for inferior "cheese substitute."

  • August 29, 2024

    Auto Tech Org. Pushes FCC To Speed Up Smart Car 5G Rules

    The 5G Automotive Association is asking the Federal Communications Commission to push the gas and schedule a vote on rules that would bring advanced vehicle communications technology to the 5.9 gigahertz band.

  • August 29, 2024

    Schwab's 'Cash Sweep' Paid For TD Ameritrade Buy, Suit Says

    The Charles Schwab Corp. has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court by three customers alleging that the investment bank obtains "outsized benefits" from its cash sweep programs and used a significant amount of the cash to finance its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. several years ago.

Expert Analysis

  • FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

  • 3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up

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    Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews

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    Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.

  • How Employers, Attorneys Can Respond To Noncompete Ban

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    As the Federal Trade Commission's recently issued noncompete ban faces ongoing legal challenges, now is a good time for employers to consider whether they want to take a wait-and-see approach before halting use of noncompetes and for practitioners to gain insight into other tools available to protect their clients' business interests, says Jennifer Platzkere Snyder at Dilworth Paxson.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: May Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from automobile insurance to securities — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including circuit-specific ascertainability requirements and how to conduct a Daubert analysis prior to class certification.

  • New TSCA Risk Rule Gives EPA Broad Discretion On Science

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final amendments to its framework for evaluating the risks of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act give it vast discretion over consideration of scientific information, without objective criteria to guide that discretion, say John McGahren and Debra Carfora at Morgan Lewis.

  • Perspectives

    Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

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    As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

  • CFPB's Expanding Scope Evident In Coding Bootcamp Fine

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent penalty against a for-profit coding bootcamp that misrepresented its tuition financing plans is a sign that the bureau is seeking to wield its supervisory and enforcement powers in more industries that offer consumer financing, say Jason McElroy and Brandon Sherman at Saul Ewing.

  • Fintech Compliance Amid Regulatory Focus On Sensitive Data

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent, expansive pursuit of financial services companies using sensitive personal information signals a move into the Federal Trade Commission's territory, and the path forward for fintech and financial service providers involves a balance between innovation and compliance, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.

  • 4 Arbitration Takeaways From High Court Coinbase Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's May 23 decision in Coinbase v. Suski, which provides clarity to parties faced with successive contracts containing conflicting dispute resolution provisions, has four practical impacts for contracting parties to consider, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.

  • Series

    Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.

  • Lessons In High-Profile Jury Selection Amid NY Trump Trial

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    Richard Gabriel and Michelle Rey LaRocca at Decision Analysis consider how media exposure can affect a prospective juror in a high-profile case, the misunderstood nature of bias, and recommendations for jury selection in these unique situations as the Trump hush money trial continues in New York.

  • How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case

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    The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.

  • The Effects Of New 10-Year Limitation On Key Sanctions Laws

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    Recently enacted emergency appropriations legislation, doubling the statute of limitations for civil and criminal economic sanctions violations, has significant implications for internal records retention, corporate transaction due diligence and government investigations, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • What 11th Circ. FCRA Ruling Means For Credit Furnishers

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    Credit furnishers should revisit their internal investigation and verification procedures after the Eleventh Circuit declined last month in Holden v. Holiday to impose a bright-line rule that only purely factual or transcription errors are actionable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, say Diana Eng and Michael Esposito at Blank Rome.

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