Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Consumer Protection
-
August 30, 2024
Harris Admin Would Stay Course On Tough Antitrust Policy
Just two days after food and candy giant Mars announced its blockbuster $35.9 billion Kellanova purchase, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign indicated plans to “crack down” on mergers between large food companies. That would differ significantly from another Trump presidency, which could see a generally more relaxed antitrust environment. Here, Law360 explores anticipated policy differences between the two.
-
August 30, 2024
Monthly Merger Review Snapshot
The Federal Trade Commission went to court against Kroger's $25 billion purchase of Albertsons and geared up for its looming handbags merger case, the Justice Department added to its case against Live Nation, and the sports-streaming juggernaut partnering ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery hit a significant roadblock.
-
August 30, 2024
Gaming Co. Exec Gets 6 Years For Fake IPO Claims, Theft
An executive of Carlyle Entertainment Ltd. has been sentenced to 72 months in prison for advertising a phony initial public offering and fraudulently misappropriating $3 million in investor funds for his personal use in a scheme that spanned six years.
-
August 30, 2024
NY Hemp Shops Seek Halt Of 'Military Style' Raids
A quintet of hemp product retailers have alleged that New York state and city officials unlawfully targeted their businesses as part of an effort to crack down on unregulated marijuana sellers.
-
August 30, 2024
Philips Accuses SoClean Of Discovery Delay In CPAP Recall
Koninklijke Philips NV says SoClean Inc. is unduly delaying claims that the company should contribute to Philips' $1 billion settlement over breathing machine foam by insisting on a wall between discovery materials in two related multidistrict litigations.
-
August 30, 2024
Paxton Follows Through On Suit Over State Fair Firearms Ban
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has followed through on his threat to sue the State Fair of Texas if it didn't retract its no firearms policy, telling a Dallas County court that the exclusion of handguns from the annual event is illegal.
-
August 30, 2024
FINRA Dings Raymond James $2M Over Customer Complaints
Two Raymond James units will pay nearly $2 million to settle allegations from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that they didn't properly handle customer complaints or supervise mutual fund purchases.
-
August 30, 2024
Staples Latest To Face Suit Over Job-Seeker Polygraph Notice
A Massachusetts man applying for jobs with Staples Inc. filed a proposed class action alleging the company violated a state law that requires companies to notify candidates that the use of lie detectors is banned for hiring decisions, the latest such case targeting a major Bay State employer.
-
August 30, 2024
Crypto Exchanges Illegally Took Facial Scans, Suits Say
Two cryptocurrency exchanges have been hit with proposed class actions in Illinois federal court alleging they unlawfully collected, stored, and disclosed users' facial geometry scans by making new customers go through a mandatory verification process in violation of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act.
-
August 30, 2024
Firm Accused Of Botching Arbitration In Tribal Lending Row
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and one of its former attorneys have been hit with a California federal court suit accusing them of negligence in their representation of a consulting business and its president in a 2018 arbitration they say caused them at least $17.5 million in damages.
-
August 30, 2024
Inaccurate TransUnion Report Ended Job Chances, Suit Says
A TransUnion unit that sells background checks was hit with a federal lawsuit in Texas accusing it of wrecking an applicant's employment prospects at Chick-fil-A by incorrectly reporting he had misdemeanor convictions for cannabis possession.
-
August 30, 2024
Medical Tech Co. Exits MOVEit Hack MDL For $2.8M
Medical billing software firm Arietis Health LLC has agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle out of a multidistrict litigation brought by a class of victims of a 2023 data breach involving Progress Software's MOVEit file transfer tool.
-
August 29, 2024
Ga. Health System Shakes Facebook Data Sharing Row
A Georgia federal judge has tossed a putative class action accusing Piedmont Healthcare Inc. of unlawfully sharing confidential health information with Facebook, finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege actual damages and that the "weight of authority" in similar online tracking cases supported the provider's contention that there was no privacy intrusion.
-
August 29, 2024
PNC Asks 4th Circ. To Reconsider HELOC 'Offset' Ban Ruling
PNC Bank has asked the Fourth Circuit to take another look at its ruling that extended the "offset" provision of the Truth in Lending Act, which prevents banks from using funds held in deposit accounts to offset credit card debt without the consumer's consent, to home equity lines of credit.
-
August 29, 2024
Ancestry.com Beats Claims It Used Yearbook Photos In Ads
Ancestry.com has snagged a quick win from an Ohio federal judge in a proposed class action claiming the genealogy website uses people's yearbook records without their consent to market its services with three unlawful advertising techniques.
-
August 29, 2024
Starbucks Overpromised On 'Reinvention' Plan, Investor Says
Coffee chain Starbucks faces a proposed investor class action alleging it misled the markets about prospects for its so-called Triple Shot Reinvention strategy, hurting investors after trading prices for its shares slid when it announced disappointing quarterly results in April 2024.
-
August 29, 2024
Amazon Sheds Whole Foods 'Bait-And-Switch' Case For Good
A Washington federal court on Thursday dismissed a proposed class action accusing Amazon.com of misleading Prime members by advertising free Whole Foods grocery deliveries and later canceling the perk, in an order that said the lead plaintiff failed to fix deficiencies in the complaint that a judge previously flagged.
-
August 29, 2024
Judge Narrows Claims In Mercedes Sunroof Class Action
A Georgia federal judge has trimmed some claims from a proposed class action accusing Mercedes-Benz of offering vehicles with panoramic sunroofs prone to randomly shattering under normal conditions but allowed several state consumer protection claims, breach of implied warranty and fraudulent concealment claims to continue.
-
August 29, 2024
FCC's New Rules For Rural 5G Fund Stir Controversy
The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it had adopted a framework for the 5G Fund for Rural America to auction up to $9 billion in its first phase to fill gaps in mobile broadband, but not all stakeholders are pleased with the rules.
-
August 29, 2024
Mars Wrigley Must Face False Ad Suit Over 'Real Cheese'
Snack maker Mars Wrigley could not escape claims it falsely advertised its Cheddar Cheese Combos as being made with "real cheese," after a New York federal judge ruled that consumers' adequately showed they paid a premium for inferior "cheese substitute."
-
August 29, 2024
Auto Tech Org. Pushes FCC To Speed Up Smart Car 5G Rules
The 5G Automotive Association is asking the Federal Communications Commission to push the gas and schedule a vote on rules that would bring advanced vehicle communications technology to the 5.9 gigahertz band.
-
August 29, 2024
Schwab's 'Cash Sweep' Paid For TD Ameritrade Buy, Suit Says
The Charles Schwab Corp. has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court by three customers alleging that the investment bank obtains "outsized benefits" from its cash sweep programs and used a significant amount of the cash to finance its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. several years ago.
-
August 29, 2024
Nigerian Fintech Ex-CEO Hit With $32M Fine In SEC Fraud Suit
A New York federal judge has levied a nearly $32 million penalty against a Nigerian businessman whom the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused of fraudulently inflating the value of his food and agriculture technology businesses, while also ordering him and various affiliated businesses to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.
-
August 29, 2024
CFPB Fines NewDay $2.25M Over VA Home Loan Practices
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau levied a $2.25 million fine against NewDay Financial LLC on Thursday for allegedly deceiving active-duty service members and veterans seeking cash-out refinance loans on their home mortgages.
-
August 29, 2024
FCC Rolls Out Rules For Drones' Use Of 5 GHz Band
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday announced it had adopted initial rules for the use of drones in the 5 gigahertz band by allowing operators to obtain frequency assignments.
Expert Analysis
-
Calif. Web Tracking Cases Show Courts' Indecision Over CIPA
Several hundred cases filed to date, and two recent conflicting rulings, underscore California courts' uncertainty over whether the use of web analytics tools to track users' website interactions can give rise to a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, says Patricia Brum at Snell & Wilmer.
-
To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
-
Takeaways From SEC's New Data Breach Amendments
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent amendment of its consumer privacy rules to require investment advisers and broker-dealers to put procedures in place to uncover data breaches and report them to customers evidences that protecting client records and information remains an SEC priority, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
-
What Junk Fee Law Means For Biz In California And Beyond
Come July 1, companies doing business in California must ensure that the price of any good or service as offered, displayed or advertised is inclusive of all mandatory fees and other charges in compliance with S.B. 478, which may have a far-reaching impact across the country due to wide applicability, say Alexandria Ruiz and Amy Lally at Sidley Austin.
-
Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
-
A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod
The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.
-
'Food As Health' Serves Up Fresh Legal Considerations
The growth of food as medicine presents a significant opportunity for healthcare organizations and nontraditional healthcare players to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, though these innovative programs also bring compliance considerations that must be carefully navigated, say attorneys at McDermott.
-
Aviation Watch: Mostly Smooth Landing For New FAA Law
The recently signed Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act enhances air safety in several key ways, including strengthened passenger rights and cockpit voice recorder requirements, but an expansion of slot exemptions at Reagan National Airport is a notable misstep, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
-
Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
-
FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling
As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.
-
FTC Hearing On Fake Review Rule Stressed Compliance Costs
The Federal Trade Commission is likely to finalize its proposed rule to prohibit marketers from using deceptive practices in their product reviews after an informal hearing covered arguments over whether costs of implementing the rule, such as review moderation and software maintenance, would be minimal, says Jeffrey Edelstein at Manatt.
-
FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.
-
3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
-
12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews
Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.
-
How Employers, Attorneys Can Respond To Noncompete Ban
As the Federal Trade Commission's recently issued noncompete ban faces ongoing legal challenges, now is a good time for employers to consider whether they want to take a wait-and-see approach before halting use of noncompetes and for practitioners to gain insight into other tools available to protect their clients' business interests, says Jennifer Platzkere Snyder at Dilworth Paxson.