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Consumer Protection
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July 24, 2024
Exxon Loses Bid To Ditch Conn. Climate Change Fraud Suit
Exxon Mobil Corp. cannot escape Connecticut's lawsuit accusing it of deceiving consumers about the negative impact of fossil fuels on the earth's climate, a state judge ruled Tuesday in rejecting the oil and gas giant's contention that it can't be sued in the Nutmeg State.
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July 24, 2024
Eggland's Best Accused Of Lying About Hens' 'Pleasant' Digs
Egg brand Eggland's Best was hit with a lawsuit accusing it of misleading consumers by describing living conditions for certain laying hens as "pleasant" when in reality those chickens allegedly "live in typical factory farming conditions."
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July 24, 2024
Clinic Drops Case Against Maker Of Body-Sculpting Devices
BTL Industries Inc., a Massachusetts company that sells body-sculpting equipment, and a Connecticut aesthetic clinic have mutually agreed to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the Bay State company of using misleading profit projections and illegal trade restraints that unfairly penalized equipment buyers and caused hefty investments to wither.
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July 24, 2024
Judge Sets Up 2-Tier Counsel Access In DOJ Live Nation Suit
A New York federal judge on Tuesday set up a two-tiered system for document access in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, limiting sensitive information from other market participants from Live Nation in-house counsel.
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July 24, 2024
Meme Stock Investor Opposes Robinhood Settlement For Now
A meme stock investor on Wednesday urged a Florida federal judge to deny a settlement between Robinhood and other traders who say they sustained losses when the exchange restricted trading of certain stocks during a social media fueled run, since he says he hasn't received any details on the deal.
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July 24, 2024
IPhone Users Push For Apple Docs On Korea, EU App Stores
Plaintiffs in the ongoing App Store antitrust suit are accusing Apple of stonewalling their effort to obtain documents detailing procompetitive changes the company made to the online marketplace in South Korea and Europe, saying the tech giant won't turn over the information because it'd undermine Apple's core defense.
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July 24, 2024
Boulder Wants Suncor Back In Colorado Climate Suit
The city of Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder County have asked a Colorado state judge to certify part of his judgment dismissing Canadian oil and gas company Suncor Energy from the municipalities' climate change lawsuit so they can appeal that decision and bring Suncor back in.
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July 24, 2024
GM Drops 6th Circ. Faulty Fuel Pump Appeal
The Sixth Circuit won't hear an appeal by General Motors, which initially sought to decertify seven state classes of diesel truck drivers who claimed GM sold them faulty fuel pumps, after the automaker voluntarily pulled back its bid as the parties inch closer to a $50 million deal.
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July 24, 2024
Senate Dems Demand Scrutiny Of T-Mobile, UScellular Deal
T-Mobile's plan to buy the wireless operations of yet another mobile network operator — this time, United States Cellular Corp. — several years after it was allowed to merge with Sprint to become the third biggest carrier in the country is a bad idea, a handful of Democratic senators have told the U.S. Department of Justice and FCC.
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July 24, 2024
LG Unit Seeks Exit From Georgia Exploding Battery Suit
Atlanta-based LG Chem America Inc., a subsidiary of Korean company LG Chem Ltd., is asking a Georgia state judge to end its involvement in litigation by a man who claims he was injured when a lithium-ion battery cell exploded in his pocket.
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July 24, 2024
Pawnshop Co. Says Military Law Doesn't Back CFPB's Suit
National pawnshop company FirstCash says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should drop certain claims in a suit accusing it of subjecting military families to predatory lending, arguing that the bureau has admitted it has no authority to bring certain claims under the law undergirding the allegations.
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July 24, 2024
Connecticut Justices Won't Certify 'Slum' Tenant Class
A Connecticut state court judge was under no obligation to redefine a proposed class of low-income tenants in order to help them meet the certification requirements in a fraud and unfair trade practices lawsuit against their corporate landlord and property manager, the state Supreme Court hs ruled.
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July 24, 2024
CFPB Warns Of Anti-Whistleblower Risk In NDAs That 'Muzzle'
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cautioned Wednesday that banks and other financial firms risk violating federal law if they require their employees to sign broad nondisclosure agreements that don't clearly allow them to talk freely with regulators or law enforcement.
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July 24, 2024
Last Holdouts Avoid Trial With Deal Over Chicken Price-Fixing
Chicken buyer plaintiffs say they've reached a settlement with Mountaire Farms and Koch Foods in their suit against the country's biggest broiler chicken producers for allegedly conspiring to raise prices, telling an Illinois federal judge to call off the trial that had been scheduled for September.
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July 24, 2024
Legal Tech Co.'s $1.3M Data Privacy Deal Gets OK'd
A Kansas federal judge granted preliminary approval to a proposed $1.3 million settlement between a data and professional services company catering to law firms and a class of thousands of its customers and employees, who said their personal information was stolen in a March 2023 data breach that exposed 200 gigabytes of sensitive information.
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July 24, 2024
Teachers Say Loan Servicer's 'Abuses' Thwarted Forgiveness
The Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri has been hit with a suit from a powerful teachers' union alleging it "deliberately ignores" its responsibilities to millions of borrowers, forcing them to forgo the savings or forgiveness to which they are entitled.
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July 24, 2024
Insurers Get Hyundai, Kia Engine Claim Suits Remanded
A California federal court has remanded to state court four suits by insurers claiming that Hyundai and Kia are on the hook for 829 engine failure and engine fire claims totaling over $7.7 million in damages, saying the automakers' snap removals violated the forum defendant rule.
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July 24, 2024
EPA Moving Toward New Regulations For 5 Chemicals
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday kicked off the process to fast-track new health risk evaluations for five chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a substance that raised alarm after the Norfolk Southern train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, last year.
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July 24, 2024
5th Circ. Strikes Down FCC's Universal Service Fund
The full Fifth Circuit struck down the Federal Communications Commission's system for subsidizing telecommunications service for rural and low-income users as unconstitutional Wednesday, reversing a panel decision and triggering a circuit split with three other appeals courts that upheld the fee regime.
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July 24, 2024
Hemp Cos. Get Stay Of DEA Subpoenas Seeking Records
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday stayed enforcement of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration subpoenas seeking financial and other records from a group of hemp and vape sellers, who had argued earlier this week that the subpoenas were overbroad and unlinked to any federal investigation.
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July 23, 2024
Knives Out For Another Pro-Agency Landmark After Chevron
Only weeks after U.S. Supreme Court conservatives took a hatchet to the judicial deference shown to federal agencies, right-leaning lawyers are imploring the justices to rock the administrative law realm again by gutting a New Deal-era precedent at the heart of the modern regulatory system.
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July 23, 2024
Kroger And Colo. Talks To Avoid Merger Hearing Stall Out
Negotiations between Kroger Co. and Colorado enforcers to avoid an injunction hearing in the state's challenge to a $24 billion merger with Albertsons appeared to have stalled, prompting the grocers Tuesday to pitch a state judge on other options to avoid the fast-approaching proceeding.
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July 23, 2024
'Not Doing Enough': Banks Grilled Over Zelle Fraud, Scams
Senate Democrats on Tuesday confronted bank executives over a new staff report that found three of the nation's largest banks have declined to reimburse customers in recent years for close to $900 million in payments reported as fraudulent or scam-related that were sent on Zelle, the largest U.S. peer-to-peer payment platform.
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July 23, 2024
FTC Won't Delay Challenge To Handbag Merger Either
The Federal Trade Commission has declined to pause its administrative challenge to the $8.5 billion handbag merger between the owners of Coach and Michael Koors, saying that even a district court refusal to temporarily enjoin the merger might not end the FTC's in-house case.
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July 23, 2024
Cannabis Industry Stakeholders Weigh In On Rescheduling
As the period for public comment on the Biden administration's proposal to reclassify marijuana came to a close Monday, anti-legalization activists, marijuana industry advocates and state cannabis regulators each submitted their thoughts on the potential policy shift.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Synapse Bankruptcy Has Ripple Effects For Fintech Industry
Synapse Financial Technologies’ recent bankruptcy filing marks a significant moment in the fintech industry's evolution, highlighting that stringent compliance and risk management in fintech partnerships are essential to mitigate risk and protect consumers, say Joann Needleman and Ryan Blumberg at Clark Hill.
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Opinion
Discount Window Reform Needed To Curb Modern Bank Runs
We learned during the spring 2023 failures that bank runs can happen extraordinarily fast in light of modern technology, especially when banks have a greater concentration of large deposits, demonstrating that the antiquated but effective discount window needs to be overhauled before the next crisis, says Cris Cicala at Stinson.
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Mitigating Risks Amid 10-Year Sanctions Enforcement Window
In response to recent legislation, which doubles the statute of limitations for actions related to certain U.S. sanctions and provides regulators greater opportunity to investigate possible violations, companies should take specific steps to account for the increased civil and criminal enforcement risk, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Making Good On Bold Promises
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure in the second quarter cleared the way for the bureau to resume a number of high-priority initiatives, and it appears poised to charge ahead in working toward its aggressive preelection agenda, say Andrew Arculin and Paula Vigo Marqués at Blank Rome.
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Series
After Chevron: Creating New Hurdles For ESG Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, limiting court deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, could have significant impacts on the future of ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions, says Leah Malone at Simpson Thacher.
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California Adds A Novel Twist To State Suits Against Big Oil
California’s suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., one of several state suits that seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms, is unique both in the magnitude of the alleged claims and its use of a consumer protection statute to seek disgorgement of industry profits, says Julia Stein at UCLA School of Law.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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How Attorneys Can Reduce Bad Behavior At Deposition
To minimize unprofessional behavior by opposing counsel and witnesses, and take charge of the room at deposition, attorneys should lay out some key ground rules at the outset — and be sure to model good behavior themselves, says John Farrell at Fish & Richardson.
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Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal
Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.