Consumer Protection

  • October 17, 2024

    FCA Blames Supplier For Defective Parts Leading To Recalls

    FCA US LLC is suing one of its parts suppliers in Michigan federal court, alleging that it sold the automaker air heater grid relays for its Ram pickup trucks with a defect that can cause fires even when the vehicles are turned off and caused multiple recalls.

  • October 17, 2024

    Sen. Report Slams Insurers For Medicare Advantage Denials

    A trio of major Medicare Advantage insurers are driving profits by denying coverage for patient stays at "costly but critical" facilities for those recovering from injuries and illnesses, according to a report issued Thursday by a Congressional committee.

  • October 17, 2024

    Google Asks 9th Circ. To Immediately Pause Epic Injunction

    Google filed an emergency motion late Wednesday in its antitrust battle with Epic Games Inc. asking the Ninth Circuit to stay a lower court's injunction that's set to take effect Nov. 1 requiring Google to open up its Play Store to competing app stores, slamming the injunction as harmful and "unworkable."

  • October 17, 2024

    DQ'd Atty Says It Was Wrong To Boot Her From Dominion Suit

    An attorney barred from defending former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne in a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems implored a D.C. federal judge during a Thursday hearing to allow her back on the case, insisting that a magistrate judge was wrong to disqualify her.

  • October 17, 2024

    FTX Insider Cites 'Limited' Fraud Role In Bid To Avoid Prison

    The former head of engineering at FTX asked a Manhattan federal judge to spare him prison time in light of his cooperation with prosecutors and what he said was a relatively "limited" role in the crypto exchange's billion-dollar fraud.

  • October 17, 2024

    Pa. AG Can't Get State Claims Restored In FTC Amazon Suit

    A federal judge tersely denied a request from Pennsylvania's attorney general, who had sought to reinstate her state's consumer protection claims against Amazon in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust suit.

  • October 16, 2024

    TD Bank's $3B AML Deal Sparks Scrutiny Of Its Oversight

    The long-standing, widespread compliance failures at the root of TD Bank's blockbuster $3 billion U.S. anti-money laundering settlement last week have stunned experts and brought tough punishment for the Canadian bank — but they're also raising questions about why regulators didn't act sooner.

  • October 16, 2024

    BetterHelp Can't Ax Suit Over Sharing Data With Advertisers

    A California federal judge has trimmed but refused to completely toss a consolidated putative class action accusing online counseling platform BetterHelp Inc. of unlawfully disclosing consumers' confidential information to third parties for advertising purposes, finding that newly added details boosted several of the plaintiffs' claims. 

  • October 16, 2024

    NY's Financial Regulator Releases AI Cybersecurity Guidance

    New York's Department of Financial Services issued new guidance Wednesday intended to give state-regulated financial institutions an outline for protecting against cybersecurity risks posed by artificial intelligence.

  • October 16, 2024

    Chinese AI Co. Hit With Investor Suit Over Nasdaq Compliance

    China-based artificial intelligence company Xiao-I Corp. was hit with a proposed investor class action in New York federal court alleging it downplayed increasing research and development costs that it was incurring, increasing the likelihood that it would fail to comply with the Nasdaq Stock Market's minimum price requirement after going public.

  • October 16, 2024

    SD Power Co. Agrees To Stormwater Protections At Facilities

    A California federal judge has signed off on a consent decree between two conservation groups and the San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to close out a lawsuit over the utility's management of chemically treated wood waste.

  • October 16, 2024

    Feds Deny That West Bank Sanctions Hamper Free Speech

    The Biden administration rebuffed claims by a group of U.S. and Israeli citizens that a sanctions program covering extremist actors in the Israeli-occupied West Bank restricts their free speech rights, saying that merely opposing U.S. foreign policy goals isn't a sanctionable offense.

  • October 16, 2024

    CenturyLink Seeks Erasure Of $140M Class Verdict

    CenturyLink is asking for a new trial after a jury ordered it to pay more than $140 million for illegally running credit reports on customers looking for internet service on its website, telling an Arizona federal judge that no evidence from the case suggested that the company willfully violated the law.

  • October 16, 2024

    Monsanto's Appellate Bid To Stop Seattle PCB Trial Flops

    A Washington appellate commissioner won't overrule a lower court's decision to forge ahead with a pending Monsanto PCB poisoning trial, rejecting the company's request to pause until the state Supreme Court decides a similar case, concluding that she would be improperly "substituting" her judgment for the trial court's by pausing the case.

  • October 16, 2024

    FTC Says Customers Must Be Able To 'Click To Cancel'

    Companies will now be required to allow customers to ditch their subscriptions with a single click after the Federal Trade Commission finalized its new "click to cancel" rule, which has been years in the making.

  • October 16, 2024

    Fla. Sued Over Threats To TV Stations For Airing Abortion Ad

    The sponsor of a ballot initiative that would enshrine the right to abortion in the Florida Constitution sued the state Wednesday over letters threatening television stations with criminal prosecution if they did not pull a campaign ad promoting the initiative.

  • October 16, 2024

    State Farm, Homeowners End Adjuster Delay Suit

    A trio of Washington homeowners have settled for $225,000 after alleging that State Farm dragged out a fallen tree damage claim for several months while shuffling through seven field adjusters.

  • October 16, 2024

    Caremark, Optum Say FTC Insulin Case Gets PBMs All Wrong

    Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx continue to attack the Federal Trade Commission's in-house case accusing the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices by relying on unfair rebate schemes, arguing the agency's case lacks authority, facts and the right targets.

  • October 16, 2024

    Bitfinex Hacker Deserves 5 Years For Crypto Heist, Feds Say

    The hacker who stole bitcoin now worth billions of dollars from crypto exchange Bitfinex should serve just 60 months for the exploit and subsequent laundering of the funds because his post-arrest cooperation "benefitted numerous investigations" and merits a below-guidelines sentence, prosecutors told a federal judge.

  • October 16, 2024

    NY Urges Sotomayor Not To Block Broadband Price Cap Law

    New York is fighting the telecommunications industry's effort to halt its new law capping broadband prices for low-income residents, telling U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to reject a petition that would stay the law's implementation pending a forthcoming certiorari bid challenging the law.

  • October 16, 2024

    Pa. AG Wants State Claims Restored In FTC Amazon Suit

    Pennsylvania's attorney general wants to get back into a joint state and federal antitrust case against Amazon, asking a Washington federal judge to reconsider tossing claims under Pennsylvania's consumer protection law because Amazon allegedly concealed its unfair trade practices from Pennsylvania customers.

  • October 16, 2024

    Lender To Pay $10M To Settle Birmingham Redlining Claims

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Justice said a mortgage lender the agencies accused of redlining in Birmingham, Alabama, will pay nearly $10 million and open a loan office in a majority-Black neighborhood to resolve the claims.

  • October 16, 2024

    Key Bank Blocking Hunt For Apt. Co-Op's $1.3M, Towns Say

    Key Bank NA should be held in contempt of court because four insurance checks totaling $1.3 million seem to have vanished from a troubled housing co-op's accounts, and the bank is preventing a receiver in charge of the 924-unit Success Village Apartments from figuring out what happened, two Connecticut municipalities have said.

  • October 16, 2024

    Railroad Holding Locomotive 'Hostage,' G&W Unit Says

    A Connecticut railroad has held a locomotive "hostage" since it derailed in August and is trying to "extort" its rightful owner for more than $100,000, according to a federal lawsuit that brings claims including larceny and unfair trade practices against Housatonic Railroad Co. Inc.

  • October 16, 2024

    Kia Drivers Say Automatic Van Doors Have Dangerous Defect

    A proposed class of drivers is suing Kia Corp. and Kia America Inc. in Maryland federal court, alleging Kia sold minivans with automatic sliding doors that don't stop or reverse when blocked like they are supposed to.

Expert Analysis

  • 6th Circ. Preemption Ruling Adds Uncertainty For Car Cos.

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    Automakers and their suppliers need uniformity under the law to create sufficient scale and viable markets — but the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Fenner v. General Motors creates more uncertainty around the question of when state law consumer claims related to violations of federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards are preempted, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • How Biden Admin Has Used Antitrust Tools, And What's Next

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    The last four years have been marked by an aggressive whole-of-government approach to antitrust enforcement using a broad range of tools, and may result in lasting change regardless of the upcoming presidential election result, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • Cos. Face Increasing Risk From Environmental Citizen Suits

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    Environmental citizen suits stepping in to fill the regulatory vacuum concerning consumer goods waste may soon become more common, and the evolving procedural landscape and changes to environmental law may contribute to companies' increased exposure, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How BIS' Rule Seeks To Encourage More Voluntary Disclosure

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    Updated incentives, penalties and enforcement resources in the Bureau of Industry and Security's recently published final rule revising the Export Administration Regulations should help companies decide how to implement export control compliance programs and whether to disclose possible violations, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Navigating Complex Regulatory Terrain Amid State AG Races

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    This year's 10 attorney general elections could usher in a wave of new enforcement priorities and regulatory uncertainty, but companies can stay ahead of the shifts by building strong relationships with AG offices, participating in industry coalitions and more, say Ketan Bhirud and Dustin McDaniel at Cozen O’Connor.

  • Challenge To Ill. Card Fee Law Explores Compliance Hurdles

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    A recent federal lawsuit challenging an Illinois law that will soon forbid electronic payment networks from charging fees for processing the tax and tip portions of card transactions, fleshes out the glaring compliance challenges and exposure risks financial institutions must be ready to face next summer, says Martin Kiernan at Amundsen Davis.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

  • Harris Unlikely To Shelve Biden Admin's Food Antitrust Stance

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    A look at Vice President Kamala Harris' past record, including her actions as California attorney general, shows why practitioners should prepare for continued aggressive antitrust enforcement, particularly in the food and grocery industries, if Harris wins the presidential election, says Steve Vieux at Bartko.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.

  • A Look At 5 States' New Data Privacy Laws

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    With new data privacy laws in Utah, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Montana recently in effect or coming into force this year, state-level enforcement of data privacy creates significant challenges and risks for how businesses interact with employees and consumers, and for companies that provide and use technologies in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Antitrust In Retail: Why FTC Is Studying 'Surveillance Pricing'

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    The Federal Trade Commission's decision to study targeted "surveillance pricing" should provide greater clarity into the nature of the data aggregation industry, but also raises several issues, including whether these practices are in fact illegal under any established interpretations of U.S. antitrust law, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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