Consumer Protection

  • December 17, 2024

    NTIA Puts $450M More Toward Wireless Supply Chain

    The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is putting an additional $450 million toward helping the industry build open radio access networks, which many have pointed to as the solution for pivoting away from Chinese-made technology due to security concerns.

  • December 17, 2024

    SEC, CFTC Members Eye Crypto Coordination Under Trump

    Republican commissioners at the federal securities and futures regulators told crypto industry participants on Tuesday that they will urge their agencies to collaborate more closely on providing regulatory relief and clarity in the new year as they wait for lawmakers to get long-awaited crypto legislation across the finish line.

  • December 17, 2024

    Quinn Emanuel, Keller Postman Want To Lead Live Nation Suit

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Keller Postman LLC attorneys told a California federal court that they are best suited to represent proposed classes of consumers accusing Live Nation and Ticketmaster of monopolizing the ticketing services space, saying they "developed the heart" of the consumers' claims.

  • December 17, 2024

    Google-Apple Collusion Plaintiff Asks 9th Circ. To Revive Suit

    A California crane operator training school asked the Ninth Circuit on Monday to revive its case accusing Google of paying Apple to refrain from developing its own search engine in light of a recent Washington, D.C., federal judge's decision that Google monopolizes the search market.

  • December 17, 2024

    FTC, Meta Fight Over Monopolization Trial Limits

    Meta Platforms and the FTC are butting heads about how to structure the trial they are hurtling toward in April in D.C. federal court over the agency's monopolization claims, trading barbs Tuesday and trying to make their cases for how they think the multiweek trial should look.

  • December 17, 2024

    DOJ Antitrust Division Head Kanter Stepping Down Friday

    The head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter, announced his imminent departure Tuesday, leaving the agency after a little over three years and with a legacy of dramatically ramped-up monopolization enforcement, an extremely low tolerance for potentially problematic transactions and more aggressive criminal enforcement.

  • December 17, 2024

    Insurer Gets $29M Fatal Crash Judgment Thrown Out

    A North Carolina appeals court on Tuesday threw out a nearly $29 million judgment against an insurance company in a suit alleging it failed to defend and settle claims from a fatal car accident, saying the company had no duty to defend.

  • December 17, 2024

    T-Mobile-UScellular Link Will Help Consumers, Think Tank Says

    A free-market think tank is urging the federal government to clear the way for T-Mobile's $4.4 billion purchase of UScellular's wireless operations, saying in a new report that because the smaller UScellular poses no real competitive threat to T-Mobile, the deal could carry significant consumer benefits through increased competition.

  • December 17, 2024

    Visa Says 'Contradictory' Debit Card Market Dooms DOJ Suit

    Visa Inc. formally asked a New York federal judge Monday to nix the U.S. Department of Justice monopolization lawsuit accusing it of paying off would-be debit network rivals and penalizing the use of alternate payment systems, arguing the government cannot mix-and-match its way into claiming the company holds a dominant market share.

  • December 17, 2024

    AGs Can File Opposition To Clearview AI BIPA Deal

    An Illinois federal judge is allowing 22 states and the District of Columbia to challenge a deal to end multidistrict litigation over Clearview AI's practice of automatically collecting biometric facial data online, with attorneys general arguing the settlement would provide no meaningful injunctive relief and give plaintiffs an unknown financial stake in the company.

  • December 17, 2024

    House GOP Asks CVS How Its PBM Treats Smaller Pharmacies

    Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding documents from CVS on its pharmacy benefit manager's treatment of independent pharmacies, continuing to press the healthcare giant over potentially anticompetitive conduct.

  • December 17, 2024

    CFPB Finalizes Rule For PACE Loans

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule that applies standard mortgage protections to so-called Property Assessed Clean Energy loans, where homeowners pay for upgrades through property tax bills.

  • December 17, 2024

    Grubhub To Pay $25M To End FTC Suit Over Deceptive Tactics

    The Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois attorney general teamed up Tuesday to announce a settlement that requires Grubhub Inc. to pay $25 million to resolve claims that the food-delivery service charged customers hidden junk fees, listed restaurants on its app without their permission and misled drivers about how much money they could make.

  • December 17, 2024

    Roblox, Epic Games Accused Of Addicting Minors

    A suit filed in California state court has alleged that Epic Games and Roblox purposefully addict minors to playing their video games, knowing that the more time that they spend playing games, the more they will spend on in-game purchases.

  • December 17, 2024

    Rival Says In-Flight Internet Provider Gogo Foils Competitors

    SmartSky Networks LLC is seeking more than $1 billion in damages in a new lawsuit accusing Gogo Business Aviation LLC of blocking its entry in the market for internet service on business flights, building on an intellectual property dispute between the companies.

  • December 17, 2024

    Asset Manager Gets 2½ Years For Role In $1.2B PDVSA Scheme

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday sentenced an asset manager who pled guilty to participating in a $1.2 billion scheme to embezzle money from Venezuela's state-owned oil company to 2½ years in prison.

  • December 17, 2024

    Senate Dem's Bill Would Mandate New FCC Outage Reports

    Networks that receive funding to help them rebound from climate-related disasters would need to file new reports of outages to the Federal Communications Commission under a Democratic bill filed in the U.S. Senate.

  • December 17, 2024

    Apple Fights Epic's Atty Privilege Challenge Win Over Docs

    Apple has asked a California federal judge to overturn a magistrate judge and allow it to withhold documents in a discovery spat with Epic Games, arguing Monday the documents in the antitrust case aren't simply business analyses but rather, reflect "'legal advice on a business decision,' which is protected."

  • December 17, 2024

    Heartland Payment Settles Florida School Lunch Card Suit

    Parents from Florida and elsewhere have settled a proposed federal class action with a payment processor over alleged unfair surcharges collected after depositing lunch money onto school-sponsored reloadable cards used by their kids.

  • December 17, 2024

    Connecticut Gallery Wants To Erase Most Of 'Fake' Art Suit

    A Connecticut art gallery has asked for a judge's permission to seek summary judgment on most counts in a lawsuit alleging that it sold a fake Keith Haring chalk drawing for $165,000 after vouching for its authenticity, writing in a proposed memorandum that the plaintiff's remedies are limited to rescission of the purchase agreement and a refund.

  • December 16, 2024

    Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments

    One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.

  • December 16, 2024

    'Exploding' Crock-Pot Caused $56M In Damages, Jury Says

    A Colorado federal jury found Friday that an "exploding" Sunbeam pressure cooker caused $55.5 million in damages to a Denver woman, but also said the woman was 10% responsible.

  • December 16, 2024

    TikTok Brings Sale-Or-Ban Fight To High Court

    TikTok asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to stay a federal law that would force its owners to divest from the wildly popular social media app or shut its U.S. operation down just before Donald Trump's inauguration, saying his administration should get a say in the app's fate.

  • December 16, 2024

    'Plans Do Matter,' Tempur Sealy Says In Final Merger Hearing

    Tempur Sealy made its final push Monday in support of its $4 billion planned Mattress Firm purchase, telling a judge during closing arguments that the Federal Trade Commission hadn't shown that the company planned to deviate from its intent for Mattress Firm to remain autonomous. 

  • December 16, 2024

    Merger Enforcers End Year On Upswing

    The Biden administration's antitrust enforcers have boasted that one side effect of their aggressive approach to merger enforcement has been helping stop problematic deals from being cut in the first place, but the agencies also scored key court rulings blocking transactions in their final year that could have a more enduring effect.

Expert Analysis

  • 6 Tips For Cos. Facing Service Provider Cyber Incidents

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    When a third-party service provider experiences a cybersecurity incident, businesses may wonder if their information is compromised and if their systems are safe, but there are certain steps that can help businesses prepare for and respond to targeted attacks on vendors, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Unpacking State AG Approaches To Digital Asset Enforcement

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    Attorneys at Cozen O'Connor survey recent digital asset enforcement by attorneys general nationwide driven by concerns over regulatory gaps where technological developments and market changes have outpaced legislation.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • CFPB School Lunch Focus Could Expand E-Payment Scrutiny

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent spotlight on payment processing systems used to add funds to school lunch accounts shows its continued ambitions to further expand its supervisory power in the payments industry, all the way down to the school lunch market, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Opinion

    Rental Price-Fixing Suit Against RealPage Doesn't Add Up

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    Recent government antitrust litigation against RealPage, alleging that the software company's algorithm for setting rental prices amounts to price-fixing, has failed to allege an actual conspiracy, and is an example of regulatory overreach that should be reined in, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.

  • Compliance Pointers For Amended Pa. Data Breach Law

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    Recent updates to the Pennsylvania Breach of Personal Information Notification Act include a requirement that organizations alert the state's attorney general of certain consumer data breach notifications, and several incident response and cybersecurity considerations will be necessary to ensure compliance, say Matthew Meade and Laura Decker at Eckert Seamans.

  • Opinion

    FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos

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    A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Ga. Fintech Bank Charter Could Reshape Payments Industry

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    Georgia’s recent granting of a special banking charter to transaction processor Fiserv, allowing the fintech company to access major card payment networks without a traditional bank as intermediary, could spark a restructuring of the national payments infrastructure and open new possibilities for businesses and consumers, says Jessica Cino at Krevolin & Horst.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.

  • Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.

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