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Consumer Protection
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August 12, 2024
DC Circ. Revives Businessman's Suit Over Mueller Report
A Georgian-American businessman discussed in special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election can pursue claims that inaccuracies in the report harmed his reputation and business dealings, the D.C. Circuit said Friday.
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August 12, 2024
Ally Bank Latest Auto Lender To Challenge Mass. Towing Law
Ally Bank has told a Massachusetts federal judge that a towing company should be on the hook for the value of a Lexus it sold despite the bank's lien, marking the latest challenge to what the lender calls an "outdated and unconstitutional" state law.
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August 12, 2024
Big Tobacco To Pay $600M In 'Historic' Mass. Deal
Philip Morris Inc. and RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. will pay nine-figure sums as part of a $600 million settlement between Massachusetts and major tobacco companies that resolves yearslong disputes about how much the cigarette makers owe, the state attorney general announced Monday.
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August 09, 2024
Ex-Twitter Board Member Says X Owes Him $23M From Stock
A former member of Twitter's board of directors who helped oversee the sale of the social media company to Elon Musk in 2022 claimed X Corp. owes him more than $23 million worth of vested and unvested shares, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in California state court.
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August 09, 2024
Google Beats Users' Challenge To Apple Pact, For Now
A California federal judge on Friday dismissed, for now, consumers' suit alleging that Google made an illegal pact with Apple to serve as the iPhone's default search engine, a decision that comes days after a D.C. federal court held that Google is a monopolist in a separate antitrust case.
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August 09, 2024
Ripple Claims Victory In SEC Suit But Paid A Price
Ripple Labs Inc. celebrated the end of its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a "clear victory" that cut through the regulator's bid for $2 billion over the exchange's unregistered institutional sales of its XRP token, but experts told Law360 the $125 million fine and injunction Ripple faces is much more than a speeding ticket to end a costly four-year battle.
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August 09, 2024
Split 9th Circ. Affirms Ax Of Meta Anti-Vax Censorship Suit
A split Ninth Circuit panel Friday affirmed the dismissal of Children's Health Defense's lawsuit challenging Meta's policy of censoring its anti-vaccine Facebook posts, with the majority concluding that the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-founded nonprofit failed to show Meta was acting on the government's behalf to state viable constitutional claims.
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August 09, 2024
X Halts Training AI On EU Users' Posts After Irish Backlash
X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, has agreed to suspend its efforts to train its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok on personal data lifted from public posts made by its users in the European Union, on the heels of Ireland's data protection commission making an urgent appeal to an Irish court to shut down the practice.
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August 09, 2024
Gemini Seeks Quick 2nd Circ. Appeal In CFTC Fight
Gemini Trust Co. has asked a New York federal judge for permission to quickly appeal to the Second Circuit a June ruling denying the Winklevoss-led crypto exchange a win in the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's lawsuit alleging Gemini illegally downplayed known risks of its proposed bitcoin futures contract.
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August 09, 2024
Lowe's Arbitration Clause For Online Buyers Found 'Illusory'
Lowe's Home Centers LLP must go to court to face a proposed class action accusing the store of deceptively slipping unneeded items into shoppers' online carts, a Virginia federal judge ruled Thursday, rejecting the home improvement giant's bid for arbitration.
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August 09, 2024
Conn. AG Knocks Altice's Bid To Rewrite Consumer Fee Case
The state of Connecticut says it should not be forced to redraft a lawsuit accusing Altice USA of improperly charging consumers a $6 "network enhancement fee" and pushing misleading internet speed advertisements, saying the telecommunications provider has gone so far as to seek "clarification" of "commonly understood words of phrases."
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August 09, 2024
Wash. Hospital Patients Can't Certify 'Fail Safe' Classes
A Washington federal judge on Friday rejected a certification attempt in a proposed class action accusing a hospital system of incentivizing two of its doctors to perform medically unnecessary surgeries, but said the plaintiffs would have the chance to address the litany of defects by amending their suit.
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August 09, 2024
Royal Match Game App Fosters Gambling Addiction, Suit Says
A Washington state woman has filed a proposed class action against a Turkish developer, saying it violates state gambling laws with its allegedly addictive Royal Match mobile game that requires players to purchase virtual gold coins for continuous play.
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August 09, 2024
Rugby League's US Subscribers Say Private Info Was Stolen
The international streaming service for Australian professional rugby disclosed personal information to Meta and other parties without the subscribers' knowledge or consent, according to a proposed class action from subscribers filed on Friday in California federal court.
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August 09, 2024
Biz Groups Urge Keeping CFPB's $8 Late Fee Cap On Ice
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Association and other trade group plaintiffs have urged a Texas federal judge to leave in place an injunction staying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's rule capping most credit card late fees at $8, saying the lowered fee would not serve as a sufficient deterrent for consumers.
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August 09, 2024
Home Sellers Get Approved For $250M HomeServices Deal
A Missouri federal judge granted preliminary approval for a $250 million class action settlement to end an antitrust suit filed by home sellers who accused the National Association of Realtors, HomeServices of America Inc. and other companies of conspiring to artificially inflate broker commission fees.
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August 09, 2024
Rural Broadband Cos. Worry FCC Deadlines Are Too Tight
The Federal Communications Commission should seriously consider pushing back deadlines for certain federally funded rural broadband projects so that they mesh with those of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, a group of broadband service providers have told the agency.
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August 09, 2024
Dem Lawmakers Ask OpenAI To Disclose Safety Processes
Two members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation are calling on OpenAI to provide information about its safety processes and how it handles whistleblowers and conflicts of interest, in a letter to the company.
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August 09, 2024
Colony Ridge Mortgage Co. Says It Was 'Office Geek' For Site
A Texas mortgage company pushed Friday to be released from a lawsuit accusing a Houston-area real estate developer and lender of predatory lending practices, telling a federal judge that it never met with the Hispanic consumers allegedly preyed on through the scheme and that the company was "just doing paperwork."
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August 09, 2024
DC Circ. Says Animal Group Can't File Perdue False Ad Suit
The Animal Legal Defense Fund doesn't have standing to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture over labels the agency approved for Perdue poultry products that the advocacy group says mislead customers into believing the animals have access to the outdoors, the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday.
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August 09, 2024
Meta Urges Justices To Ax Investors' Risk Disclosure Suit
Meta Platforms Inc. filed its opening brief Friday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that kept alive a class action stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data abuse scandal, arguing that decision would create unnecessary disclosure obligations and encourage "fraud by hindsight" lawsuits.
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August 09, 2024
'Outrageous': Dems Grill JPMorgan Over Potential New Fees
Two Senate Banking Committee Democrats have ripped into JPMorgan Chase & Co. over an executive's recent warning that it may hike some costs for customers in response to pending fee rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calling it an "outrageous" threat and demanding more details from the megabank.
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August 09, 2024
Congress Pushed To Revamp FCC Programs After Court Loss
Free market advocates want lawmakers to overhaul the Federal Communications Commission's array of telecom subsidies to turn them into a much smaller, "voucher-like" program after the Fifth Circuit found the existing system unconstitutional.
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August 09, 2024
Marketer Seeking Dismissal Of Mass. Data Privacy Suit
Texas-based online marketing company InMarket Media LLC is asking a Massachusetts federal judge to toss a proposed class action by two women who say the company secretly collected and sold location data through its apps, arguing in a motion to dismiss that the court lacks jurisdiction over the company.
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August 09, 2024
Cubs Fan Continues Fight Over Wrigley's ADA Compliance
Hoping to resuscitate his lawsuit, a Chicago Cubs fan has told the Seventh Circuit that even though a district court ruled that Wrigley Field has the designated amount of Americans With Disabilities Act seating, those seats are not appropriate or properly situated throughout the field.
Expert Analysis
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3 Areas Of Enforcement Risk Facing The EV Industry
Companies in the EV manufacturing ecosystem are experiencing a boom in business, but with this boom comes increased regulatory and enforcement risks, from the corruption issues that have historically pervaded the extractive sector to newer risks posed by artificial intelligence, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Nat'l Security Considerations For Telecom Products Counsel
An increase in federal national security measures in the telecommunications space, particularly from the Federal Communications Commission, means that products counsel need to broaden their considerations as they advise on new products and services, says Laura Stefani at Venable.
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Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule
A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.
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Boeing Plea Deal Is A Mixed Bag, Providing Lessons For Cos.
The plea deal for conspiracy to defraud regulators that Boeing has tentatively agreed to will, on the one hand, probably help the company avoid further reputational damage, but also demonstrates to companies that deferred prosecution agreements have real teeth, and that noncompliance with DPA terms can be costly, says Edmund Vickers at Red Lion Chambers.
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Unpacking The Increasingly Popular Fair Credit Billing Act
The Fair Credit Billing Act is receiving increased attention from regulators and consumers disputing credit card charges, so creditors should understand its procedural requirements — including the law's focus on the mechanics of a dispute and its potential to create civil liability, say David Gettings and Courtney Hitchcock at Troutman Pepper.
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Takeaways From EU's Initial Findings On Apple's App Store
A deep dive into the European Commission's recent preliminary findings that Apple's App Store rules are in breach of the Digital Markets Act reveal that enforcement of the EU's Big Tech law might go beyond the literal text of the regulation and more toward the spirit of compliance, say William Dolan and Pratik Agarwal at Rule Garza.
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2 Rulings Serve As Conversion Fee Warnings For Banks
A comparison of the different outcomes in Wright v. Capital One in a Virginia federal court, and in Guerrero v. Bank of America in a North Carolina federal court, highlights how banks must be careful in describing how currency exchange fees and charges are determined in their customer agreements, say attorneys at Weiner Brodsky.
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Expect CFPB To Enforce Warning Against 'Coercive' Fine Print
The recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warning against unenforceable terms "deceptively" slipped into the fine print of contracts will likely be challenged in court, but until then, companies should expect the agency to treat its guidance as law and must carefully scrutinize their consumer contracts, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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Loss Causation Ruling Departs From Usual Securities Cases
A California federal court recently dismissed Ramos v. Comerica, finding that the allegations failed to establish loss causation, but the reasoning is in tension with the pleading-stage approaches generally followed by both courts and economists in securities fraud litigation, say Jesse Jensen and Aasiya Glover at Bernstein Litowitz.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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Series
After Chevron: Impact On CFPB May Be Limited
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is likely to have a limited impact on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's regulatory activities, and for those who value due process, consistency and predictability in consumer financial services regulation, this may be a good thing, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.