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Consumer Protection
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October 28, 2024
Where's The Beef? Subway Customer Sues Over Meaty Ads
Subway was hit with a putative class action Monday in New York federal court claiming ads for the popular chain's Steak & Cheese sandwich show the product with at least 200% more meat than the subs that are handed to customers.
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October 28, 2024
9th Circ. Nixes Arbitration In Live Nation Ticket Sale Suit
The Ninth Circuit affirmed Monday that Live Nation and Ticketmaster can't force consumer litigation over allegedly exorbitant ticket prices into arbitration, ruling in a published opinion that the underlying arbitration agreement linking to "borderline unintelligible" arbitral rules is unenforceable.
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October 28, 2024
Hermes Wants Antitrust Suit Over Birkins Tossed For Good
Hermes again urged a California federal judge on Friday to toss a proposed class action accusing the French luxury design house of tying its exclusive Birkin and Kelly bags to the purchase of other items, saying the plaintiffs did not come close to proving antitrust law violations in a complaint now twice amended.
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October 28, 2024
Apple Says Section 230 Dooms ICloud Child Porn Claims
Apple urged a California federal judge to throw out a proposed class action Friday alleging it has engaged in "privacy-washing" by ignoring a problem with child sexual abuse material on its iCloud storage platform, arguing that the claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
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October 28, 2024
For-Profit College Says Colo. Can't Show Broad Public Harm
A defunct for-profit college told a Colorado judge Monday that the state hasn't shown enough students were directly impacted by its allegedly deceptive trade practices for consumer protection claims to survive, in a decade-old case that is now back before a trial judge after years of appeals.
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October 28, 2024
Philip Morris Nicotine Pouch Suit Not About Labels, Court Told
A lawsuit accusing Philip Morris International of misleading customers of its ZYN nicotine pouches asserts claims under business practices and false advertising statutes, but not the federal labeling law the tobacco giant is invoking in its dismissal bid, the suing consumer told a Connecticut federal court.
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October 28, 2024
Leader Of Bankers' Group Calls For Anti-Fraud Watchdogs
The head of the nation's largest banking trade group on Monday called on Congress and the White House to establish a federal office of scam and fraud prevention to counteract the rising tide of fraud costing the U.S. tens of billions annually.
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October 28, 2024
Fidelity Investments Sued Over Money Market Fund's Fees
Fidelity Investments has been hit with a class action suit in New York federal court alleging it charged high fees, mismanaged the administration of one of its money market funds, and failed to act in the best interests of the fund's shareholders.
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October 28, 2024
Flint Bellwether Delayed On Eve Of Trial, Again
A Michigan federal judge delayed Monday a bellwether trial set to determine if a water engineering firm was professionally negligent for its role in the Flint water crisis one day before jury selection was scheduled to begin and without explanation.
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October 28, 2024
FTC, DOJ Tell 9th Circ. Google Wrong On Play Store Fixes
Federal antitrust enforcers told the Ninth Circuit there should be consequences after a jury found Google monopolized the Android app distribution market, as Google pushes to keep a court order paused in the antitrust case being brought by Epic Games.
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October 28, 2024
Apple's $20M Watch Defect Deal Gets OK With More Details
A California federal judge gave his blessing Friday to Apple's $20 million settlement to resolve a proposed class action alleging certain Apple Watches have a battery defect that can cause serious injuries, after telling counsel earlier this month to submit additional information about the deal's value.
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October 28, 2024
Feds Defend DEI Monitor Provision In Boeing Plea Deal
The U.S. Department of Justice said it will consider diversity and inclusion when it picks an independent compliance monitor for The Boeing Co. under a proposed plea agreement in the company's criminal conspiracy case, reassuring a Texas federal judge that the selection process will be rigorous.
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October 28, 2024
FCC Looks To Build 'Single Network Future' Through Regs
The federal government envisions a "single network future" where smartphones can connect almost anywhere in the country thanks to regulations allowing signal coverage enhanced by satellites, the Federal Communications Commission's chief told academics.
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October 28, 2024
FCC Urged To Include Credit Unions In Broadband Fund Rules
Credit unions should be included along with banks under Federal Communications Commission requirements to secure letters of credit in order to receive funding for broadband networks, a national trade group told the FCC.
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October 28, 2024
Law Prof Calls Out Atty Fees, Workarounds In NAR Deal
A University at Buffalo Law School professor on Monday urged a federal judge to reject the National Association of Realtors' $1 billion settlement in an antitrust class action, arguing the deal only serves to enrich lawyers in the case while allowing an anticompetitive system to continue.
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October 28, 2024
FCC To Help Tribal Libraries Connect To E-Rate Funding
The Federal Communications Commission will help tribal libraries link up with funding through the E-Rate subsidy program for schools and libraries on a permanent basis.
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October 28, 2024
Tribe-Linked Lenders Flouted Interest Laws, Borrower Says
A Florida man and his purported data analytic companies face a proposed class action alleging they improperly touted a relationship with a small Native American tribe as they made consumer loans with triple-digit annual interest rates.
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October 28, 2024
Mass. Court's Wiretap Ruling May Be Bad Omen For Plaintiffs
A ruling by the Massachusetts high court rejecting wiretap claims over website operators' use of tracking software like Meta Pixel and Google Analytics shows the steep climb plaintiffs may continue to face as they try to apply older laws to modern technologies, experts told Law360.
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October 28, 2024
9th Circ. Says Amazon Auto-Renewal Suit Is Too Late
The Ninth Circuit said Monday that a proposed class action accusing Amazon of duping Prime subscribers into paying for memberships in its audiobook seller, Audible, was filed after a three-year statute of limitations under New York law had expired.
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October 28, 2024
7 Months, 11 Dissents: GOP Minority Flexes Muscles At FTC
The Federal Trade Commission's two relatively new Republican members are starting to show how they'll use their minority position to full advantage. Sometimes they've fully signed on to the Democratic majority, other times they've dissented emphatically. And the GOP members showed something new this month when approving a dramatic overhaul to the agency's merger filing rules: forcing their colleagues to compromise.
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October 28, 2024
Hotel Guests Ask 3rd Circ. To Look At Algorithm Price-Fix Suit
Three Atlantic City guests are taking their beef with hotel-casinos to the Third Circuit after a New Jersey federal court threw out their lawsuit that accused hotel owners in the town of using an algorithm to inflate the price of rooms.
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October 28, 2024
Osage Call Need For Okla. ETC Designation 'Critical'
The Osage Nation of Oklahoma is asking once again for the FCC to designate it as an eligible telecommunications carrier so that it can more easily bring internet — and federal subsidy programs — to the underserved citizens of its reservation, which is roughly the size of Delaware.
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October 28, 2024
NY Firm Sued Over Botched $5M Art Collector Ch. 7 Dispute
A family enmeshed in New York's art world is suing their former attorneys in relation to a dismissed bankruptcy proceeding with an art collector over a breach of contract, alleging the attorneys' incompetence lost them $5 million when they moved the case from state court to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
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October 28, 2024
CrowdStrike Fires Back At Delta In IT Outage Blame Game
CrowdStrike filed a federal lawsuit against Delta Air Lines on Friday, the same day the airline filed a $500 million complaint in Georgia state court blaming the cybersecurity firm for implementing "untested and faulty updates" to its software that knocked out computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide.
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October 28, 2024
Stellantis Must Face Door-Defect Claims In Mich. For Now
Car manufacturer Stellantis NV cannot escape a putative class action over allegedly weak interior panels in certain Dodge and Chrysler vehicles just yet, a Michigan federal judge determined on Monday, explaining he would defer judgment until the record is more fully developed.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union
As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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CFPB's Earned Wage Access Rule Marks Regulatory Shift
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's newly issued interpretive rule on earned wage access products, classifying them as extensions of credit, marks a significant shift in their regulatory landscape and raises some important questions regarding potential fringe cases and legal challenges, say Erin Bryan and Courina Yulisa at Dorsey & Whitney.
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What 7th Circ. Samsung Decision Means For Mass Arbitration
The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Wallrich v. Samsung highlights the dilemma faced by mass arbitration filers in the face of nonpayment of arbitration fees by the defending party — but also suggests that there are risks for defendants in pursuing such a strategy, says Daniel Campbell at McDermott.
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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FTC Drives Crackdown On Connected Cars' Data Privacy Risk
After the Federal Trade Commission's warning to automakers about data privacy, which continues to emerge as a national concern, automakers must carefully examine their data collection, use and retention practices, say Catherine Castaldo and Michael Rubayo at Reed Smith.
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Jarkesy May Thwart Consumer Agencies' Civil Penalty Power
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy not only implicates future SEC administrative adjudications, but those of other agencies that operate similarly — and may stymie regulators' efforts to levy civil monetary penalties in a range of consumer protection enforcement actions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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How Courts Split On Damages Analysis In Automotive Suits
As high-profile vehicle recalls and lawsuits alleging vehicle defects surge, many plaintiffs are turning to choice-based conjoint analysis to calculate damages, but a review of federal district court decisions reveals a range of views on the validity of this methodology, say Joshua Hochberg and Shireen Meer at Berkeley Research.
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Considerations As State AGs Step Up Privacy Enforcement
As new state privacy laws take effect, businesses are facing an increasingly complex patchwork of compliance obligations and risk of scrutiny by attorneys general, but companies can gain a competitive edge by building consumer trust and staying ahead of regulatory trends, say Ann-Marie Luciano and Meghan Stoppel at Cozen O’Connor.
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2 Vital Trial Principles Endure Amid Tech Advances
Progress in trial technologies in the last 10 years has been transformative for courtroom presentations, but two core communication axioms are still relevant in today's world of drone footage evidence and 3D animations, say Adam Bloomberg and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Lessons From Rising Fake Discount Consumer Class Actions
Ellen Robbins and Scott Allbright at Akerman discuss the rise of false reference price consumer class actions and outline key strategies to minimize legal risk and protect businesses.
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How Cos. With Chinese Suppliers Should Prep For Biotech Bill
A proposed bill to prohibit government-affiliated life sciences companies from contracting with Chinese biotech companies of concern may necessitate switching to other sources for research and supplies, meaning they should begin evaluating supply chains now due to the long lead times of drug development, say John O'Loughlin and Christina Carone at Weil Gotshal.
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Classwide Calculations May Get Price Premium Damages Wrong
In many consumer class actions, plaintiffs assert that they overpaid for a product because of a misrepresented or defective product feature, and that a single price premium estimate can be applied classwide — but failure to account for differences in price premiums across a putative class may lead to improper damage awards, say economists at Ankura Consulting.
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Opinion
Texas Judges Ignored ERISA's Core To Stall Fiduciary Rule
Two recent rulings from Texas federal courts, which rely on a plainly wrong reading of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to effectively strike a forthcoming rule that would impose functional fiduciary duties onto sellers of investment services, may expose financially unsophisticated 401(k) participants to peddlers of misleading advice, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Inside OCC's Retail Nondeposit Investment Products Refresh
In addition to clarifying safe and sound risk management practices generally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's revised booklet on retail nondeposit investment products updates its guidance around certain sales practices in light of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption of Regulation Best Interest, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.