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Consumer Protection
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February 21, 2025
Veolia Ends One Of Few Remaining Flint Water Suits For $53M
A water engineering firm on Friday said it will pay $53 million to settle claims from the state of Michigan and thousands of Flint residents who allege the company failed to properly identify corrosion control treatment issues or alert officials to the dangers of the city's water, prolonging the water crisis.
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February 21, 2025
Coinbase Says SEC Will Drop Suit Amid Crypto Policy Shift
Coinbase said Friday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has committed to dropping its enforcement action against the crypto exchange, a move that would see the regulator walk away from one of its flagship crypto suits amid a wider policy shift under the Trump administration.
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February 21, 2025
High Court Finds FCC's E-Rate Subject To False Claims Act
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday that telecoms participating in the federal E-Rate program supporting school and library connectivity can be sued for excess payouts under the False Claims Act because the subsidy's funds are provided through the U.S. Treasury.
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February 20, 2025
DOJ Says Job Protections For ALJs Are Unconstitutional
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it no longer backs long-standing job protections for administrative law judges, saying it has determined that the "multiple layers of removal restrictions" shielding ALJs are unconstitutional because they violate the separation of powers doctrine.
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February 20, 2025
Calif. Privacy Agency Takes Regulatory Aim At 6th Data Broker
The California Privacy Protection Agency continued to keep the heat on data brokers Thursday, announcing that it's pursuing a monetary penalty against a Florida-based company that allegedly failed to comply with the registration requirements of a groundbreaking state data deletion law.
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February 20, 2025
New SEC Enforcement Unit Shows Drift From Crypto Focus
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continued its efforts to shift its approach to digital asset enforcement under the Trump administration when it announced Thursday that it replaced the unit responsible for many of its controversial crypto registration suits with a new fraud-focused iteration that will take a broader focus on "cyber and emerging technologies."
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February 20, 2025
FDIC Watchdog Will Review Agency Layoffs' Impact
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s inspector general has indicated that she will review how the agency and the larger banking industry will be impacted by the agency's acting Chairman Travis Hill's recent decision to rescind more than 200 job offers to bank examiners following a presidential executive order.
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February 20, 2025
Ex-CFPB Chief Chopra Raps 'Totally Weird' Trump Shutdown
Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra knocked the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the consumer agency as a bizarre and potentially self-owning policy choice, warning Thursday that it will only hurt businesses and consumers.
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February 20, 2025
Chinese App Temu Wants To Arbitrate Minors' Privacy Claims
Chinese bargain-shopping app Temu has asked a New York federal judge to send to arbitration a proposed class action claiming it misuses users' data, saying an arbitrator must decide any challenges to the terms of a user agreement even though some named class members are minors.
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February 20, 2025
Warby Parker Hit With $1.5M Fine After HHS Breach Probe
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it has imposed a $1.5 million fine on Warby Parker Inc. following a cyberattack on the eyewear manufacturer's website that exposed the protected health information of nearly 200,000 customers.
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February 20, 2025
Judge Narrows Data Breach Suit Against Ga. Logistics Co.
A group of employees and job applicants who sued a Georgia-based logistics and warehousing company over a 2023 data breach have had their suit trimmed by a Georgia federal judge, who said they failed to plausibly allege several of their claims.
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February 20, 2025
SafeMoon Exec Says He'll Cop To 2 Conspiracy Charges
The chief technology officer behind the alleged SafeMoon LLC crypto fraud was a step closer to changing his not guilty plea Thursday on two of three counts of the indictment — a move that came after a Brooklyn federal judge declined to delay his co-defendant's trial last week.
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February 20, 2025
Fed's Barr Defends Long-Term Debt Mandate For Big Banks
The Federal Reserve's chief bank regulator said Thursday that the country's financial system was "sound and resilient" but warned of increased risks if post-financial crisis reforms aren't maintained and finished, specifically arguing for the implementation of Basel III Endgame rules on liquidity standards and debt requirements.
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February 20, 2025
DOJ Keeps Focus In Agri Stats Case Off Specific Data
A Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused Wednesday to force the U.S. Department of Justice to provide Agri Stats a line-by-line recitation of particular problematic data fields in the company's protein industry reports, finding the agency's explanations about how those reports can facilitate price-fixing are "adequately responsive."
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February 20, 2025
Trump Admin Says CFPB Defunding Suit Guesses At Harms
The Trump administration on Thursday pushed back on a lawsuit alleging it seeks to "defund" the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that concerns about access to a consumer complaint database and other information are "baseless speculation" about the agency's future financial decisions that don't justify an injunction.
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February 20, 2025
Amazon Says FTC 'Stonewalled' Discovery In Antitrust Case
The Federal Trade Commission is relying on "boilerplate objections and untenable hyper-technicalities" to delay discovery in its antitrust suit against Amazon, the e-commerce giant said in a new motion in Seattle federal court, seeking to force the agency to hand over information about its case.
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February 20, 2025
Green Groups Ask 9th Circ. To Press EPA Again On Atrazine
Environmental groups are urging the Ninth Circuit to reopen a long-running case against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its regulation around the pesticide atrazine, arguing that the agency's yearslong delay in completing a court-ordered review of the chemical has allowed "serious harm to people, plants and wildlife."
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February 20, 2025
Publix Accused Of Overcharging Discounted Items In Fla. Suit
A customer has brought a proposed federal class-action lawsuit in Florida federal court against Publix Super Markets Inc. over alleged deceptive trade practices, saying the grocery store's point-of-sale system intentionally charged more for discounted items sold by weight.
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February 20, 2025
Texas Claims NCAA Flouting Order On Trans Athletes
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged Thursday that the NCAA's new policy for transgender athletes does not comport with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump designed to keep student athletes from participating in sports other than those designated for their sex assigned at birth.
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February 20, 2025
Wells Fargo, AAA Look To Nix Fraudulent Inducement Suit
Wells Fargo and the American Arbitration Association are urging a California federal judge to nix a proposed class action accusing them of colluding to fraudulently induce consumers into accepting a fundamentally unfair arbitration process, with the bank arguing that the claims must be arbitrated.
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February 20, 2025
FCC Dem Decries 'Partisan Investigations' Of Broadcast TV
A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday assailed "partisan investigations" of editorial decisions at major broadcast companies launched when the Trump administration took over.
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February 20, 2025
Kim Kardashian's Skims Hit With ADA Lawsuit
A proposed class action filed Thursday in Illinois federal court accuses Skims.com, a shapewear retailer founded by reality star Kim Kardashian, of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act with "significant access barriers" that make it "difficult if not impossible" for visually impaired customers to navigate the website.
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February 20, 2025
11th Circ. Asked To Reinstate FCC's One-To-One Consent Rule
A pro-consumer group urged the Eleventh Circuit to revisit a ruling last month that overturned the Federal Communications Commission's requirement that individual businesses obtain each consumer's consent to contact them through comparison shopping sites.
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February 20, 2025
Schwab Antitrust Settlement With Investors Gets Initial OK
A Texas federal judge has granted the first green light to a settlement calling for Charles Schwab Corp. to implement an antitrust compliance program designed by an independent consultant, resolving a class of retail investors' claims they had to pay increased transaction costs for trades following the Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger in 2020.
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February 20, 2025
Education Tech Firm Faces Class Action In NC Over Data Hack
A nationwide education technology platform got hit with a proposed class action in North Carolina on Thursday over a "massive and preventable cyberattack" which allegedly exposed personal information including health data for up to 18,000 of its users.
Expert Analysis
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The AI Consumer Class Action Threat Is Not A Hallucination
As regulators scrutinize whether businesses can deliver on claims about their artificial intelligence products and services, the industry faces a wave of consumer fraud class actions — but AI companies can protect themselves by prioritizing fundamental best practices that are often overlooked, say Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein and Richard Torrenzano at the Torrenzano Group.
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Presidential Campaign Errors Provide Lessons For Trial Attys
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign employed numerous strategies that evidently didn’t land, and trial attorneys should take note, because voters and jurors are both decision-makers who are listening for how one’s case presentation would affect them personally, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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The Do's And Don'ts Of Commercial Debt Under Calif. FDCPA
Lenders, servicers and attorneys collecting on their behalf should pay careful attention to the consumer protections under the newly expanded California Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that may apply going forward to some commercial debts, say attorneys at Womble Bond.
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Series
Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.
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Video Privacy Law Claims After 2nd Circ. NBA Ruling
The Second Circuit's recent ruling in Salazar v. National Basketball Association expanded the definition of what constitutes a consumer under the Video Privacy Protection Act, breathing new life into the law by making any newsletter subscriber to a platform that hosts video content a potential plaintiff, say attorneys at Clark Hill.
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Next Steps In The $2.8B Blue Cross Payout To Providers
Healthcare providers deciding whether to participate in Blue Cross Blue Shield network's recent $2.8 billion antitrust class action settlement must weigh key recovery factors, including provider type and litigation cost, say attorneys at Hall Render.
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OCC Recovery Guidance Can Help Banks Bounce Back Better
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recently finalized recovery guidelines add to the constellation of exercises that larger banks must undertake, while also aiding information-gathering and preparedness efforts that can help prevent — or better manage — bank failures, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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EPA's New Lead Pipe Rule Leaves Key Questions Unanswered
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recently released update to its Lead and Copper Rule is a major step forward in the elimination of lead from drinking water systems, but it lacks meaningful guidance on alternative materials, jurisdictional concerns, cost allocation and other topics, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.
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What To Expect From State AGs As Federal Control Changes
Under the next Trump administration, Democratic attorneys general are poised to strengthen enforcement in certain areas as Republican attorneys general continue their efforts with stronger federal support — resulting in a confusing patchwork of policies that create unintended liabilities for businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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3 Policyholder Lessons From NY Bad Faith Ruling
A New York appellate court's recent decision finding that Rockefeller University alleged viable bad faith claims against its insurers reinforces the principle that insurers may not elevate their own economic interests over those of their insureds, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six federal court decisions that touch on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and when individual inquiries are needed to prove economic loss.
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Trump's 2nd Term May Be A Boost To Banking Industry
President-elect Donald Trump's personnel appointments could be instrumental in reshaping the financial regulatory landscape during his second administration, likely allowing for greater merger activity and halting or undoing some of the Biden administration's more restrictive financial services policies, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Total loss valuation cases and labor depreciation cases dominated the past quarter of insurance class actions, with courts continuing to reject challenges to condition adjustments in the former, and a pro-insured trend persisting in the latter, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Unpacking CFPB's Unwieldy Buy Now, Pay Later Guidance
Both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent interpretive rule regarding buy now, pay later transactions, and its FAQ guidance, place providers in murky waters with the unenviable position of attempting to place a square, closed-end product in a round, regulatory framework meant for open-end products, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.