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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • February 05, 2025

    9th Circuit Hears Oral Argument In Antitrust Dispute Over Google Play App Monopoly

    SAN FRANCISCO —  The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral argument in an antitrust dispute over a lower court’s entry of judgment in favor of Epic Games Inc. and issuance of an injunction, which among other things prohibits Google from requiring the use of Google Play Billing in apps distributed on Google Play Store.

  • February 04, 2025

    High Court Ruling Sought On Grievance, Tolling In Social Media, Suspension Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A police officer filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking consideration of tolling and grievance questions after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the officer’s claims that his suspension over Facebook posts constituted First Amendment violations under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983 failed to show that the clock on his claims was stalled while he challenged his suspension or that the applicable one-year prescriptive period was interrupted by two state court petitions.

  • February 03, 2025

    Trade Association Seeks Reversal In Calif. Social Media Parental Consent Law Row

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A nationwide trade association for internet companies filed an opening brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asking the court to reverse the portions of a lower court ruling denying a preliminary injunction to prevent the enforcement of a California law requiring parental consent for minors to access personalized feeds on social media after the trial court held that certain portions of the law do not violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • February 03, 2025

    User Dismisses Class Suit Claiming LinkedIn Trained AI On Users’ Private Messages

    SAN FRANCISCO — Less than two weeks after filing a putative class action in California federal court accusing LinkedIn of violating federal law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by accessing its premium users’ private messages to train artificial intelligence models without their consent, the plaintiff, a premium user of LinkedIn’s professional networking and social media site, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice.

  • February 03, 2025

    Meta’s Mandamus Petition Denied By Nev. High Court In Social Media Addiction Suit

    CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Nevada Supreme Court issued an order denying petitions for writs of mandamus and prohibition filed by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) after a lower court partially dismissed the state’s three similar suits asserting claims for violation of common-law tort and anticompetition law related to allegations of Meta’s services Messenger, Facebook and Instagram publishing third-party content and causing teenagers to purportedly become addicted to those services, holding that the court is “not persuaded that our extraordinary intervention is warranted.”

  • January 31, 2025

    Meta Settles Trump 1st Amendment ‘De-Platform’ Suit Against It For $25 Million

    SAN FRANCISCO — A notice of settlement was filed, and a spokesperson for Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) on Jan. 30 confirmed reporting that Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a putative class action filed in 2021 against it and CEO Mark Zuckerberg by President Donald J. Trump and putative class members alleging that they were “de-platformed or censored” from Facebook.

  • January 30, 2025

    Spotify’s Subscription Is A ‘Bundle’ For Royalty Purposes, Judge Finds

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Jan. 29 dismissed with prejudice a government-appointed music license administrator’s copyright lawsuit brought against music streamer Spotify USA Inc., holding that the license administrator failed to show how Spotify violated copyright law by reporting its “Premium” subscription product as a “bundled subscription offering” instead of simply a “subscription offering.”

  • January 30, 2025

    Judge Confirms Hong Kong Award Worth More Than $800K For Unpaid Loan

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge granted a Cypriot company’s motion for default judgment confirming a Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) worth more than $800,000 against a Delaware entity that did not appear in court or participate in arbitration after failing to make required payments under a convertible loan agreement.

  • January 29, 2025

    Texas Federal Judge Denies Google’s Dismissal Motion In Ad Monopolization Suit

    SHERMAN, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Jan. 28 denied a dismissal motion by Google LLC asserting that the plaintiff states lack standing in a suit accusing Google of antitrust and deceptive practices related to digital advertising, finding that the states sufficiently alleged facts to show parens patriae standing.

  • January 28, 2025

    Motion To Strike Denied In Defamation Suit Over YouTube Russian Spy Allegations

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge denied a motion to strike the complaint in a Russian émigré’s defamation suit against administrators of a YouTube channel that offers assistance to Russians who want to move to the United States, finding that the émigré sufficiently stated a defamation claim regarding allegations that the administrators “falsely” accused her on their YouTube channel of being a Russian spy.

  • January 27, 2025

    Judge Grants Preliminary Approval To $7.5M ‘Virtual Diamonds’ Refund Settlement

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted preliminary approval to a settlement of putative class claims brought against a mobile casino games developer by two players who accused the developer of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and state gambling laws under which “Virtual Diamonds” worth a total of $7.5 million will be distributed to an estimated 1.2 million customers.

  • January 24, 2025

    Trump Issues Executive Order Prohibiting Issuing Central Bank Digital Currencies

    WASHINGTON, D.C.  — President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 23 issued an executive order protecting the ability of people and entities to access “public blockchain networks without persecution” and prohibiting agencies from issuing or promoting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in the United States “or abroad.”

  • January 24, 2025

    Judge Says First Sale Doctrine Doesn’t Apply To Software Keys

    SEATTLE — The first sale doctrine does not apply to software product keys, a federal judge in Washington held Jan. 23, because those keys are not themselves copyrightable works, granting partial summary judgment as to a single affirmative defense in favor of the Microsoft Corp. against a Canadian entity and several individuals Microsoft called “prolific distributors of black market access devices to Microsoft software that they unlawfully advertise to consumers as genuine software.”

  • January 23, 2025

    LinkedIn Used Private Messages To Train Generative AI, User Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — A user of the professional networking and social media site LinkedIn filed a putative class action lawsuit in California federal court accusing the company that operates the site of violating federal law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by accessing Premium users’ private messages to train artificial intelligence models without their consent.

  • January 23, 2025

    Former Meta COO Sanctioned Over Lost E-Mails In Fiduciary Breach Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware Court of Chancery vice chancellor granted in part a motion for sanctions filed by plaintiffs in a breach of fiduciary suit against Facebook Inc. (now known as Meta Platforms Inc.) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg and specified board members and related parties over Meta’s alleged “deceptive” privacy settings resulting in sharing users information without their consent, finding that because Sandberg failed to preserve emails resulting in prejudice to the plaintiffs, the court will increase the burden of proof against her on any relevant issue.

  • January 22, 2025

    Solar-Cell Module Patent Claims Invalid, Federal Circuit Agrees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was right to find that the claims of a solar energy company’s patent on a type of solar-cell module were unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 21.

  • January 22, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review Case Challenging Web-Based Alleged Defamatory Statements

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by a physician seeking review of the California Supreme Court’s ruling declining review of a lower court decision that denied a motion to strike filed by a physician pursuant to the California Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) in a defamation suit filed against the physician by an attorney alleging that she and another physician defamed him by calling him a “vexatious” litigant on a public website.

  • January 21, 2025

    President Trump Pauses Enforcement Of Act Banning TikTok For 75 Days

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 20 issued an executive order requiring the U.S. attorney general not to enforce for 75 days the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which, if enforced on its effective date of Jan. 19, would have resulted in a ban on popular social network TikTok absent a corporate ownership change.

  • January 17, 2025

    Supreme Court Says Law Banning TikTok Does Not Violate 1st Amendment Rights

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 17 held that provisions of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act do not violate the First Amendment rights of petitioners TikTok Inc. and Tik Tok creators and a nonprofit seeking to stop the enforcement of the law that promises to ban the social network on Jan. 19 absent a corporate ownership change, finding that the act’s challenged provisions “further an important Government interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression and do not burden substantially more speech than necessary to further that interest.”

  • January 17, 2025

    Judge Tentatively OKs $7.5M ‘Virtual Diamonds’ Refund In Gambling App Settlement

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge at a Jan. 16 hearing presented his tentative ruling granting a motion for preliminary approval of a settlement between a mobile casino games developer and a putative class represented by two players who accused the developer of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and state gambling laws, deeming “fair” the settlement, which is projected to require an in-game currency refund to players worth a total of $7.5 million, injunctive relief purportedly worth $163.2 million and attorney fees greater than $1.4 million.

  • January 16, 2025

    Microsoft Browser Extension ‘Steals’ Affiliate Links For Profit, App Operator Says

    SEATTLE — An app operator and online content creator that earns funds from online marketing filed a putative class action complaint in Washington federal court against Microsoft Corp. contending that its in-browser shopping extension “systematically steals commission payments from their rightful owners,” writing that Microsoft knowingly takes affiliate links posted by marketers and redirects their expected profits to itself in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • January 16, 2025

    Gaming Company Urges 9th Circuit To Enforce Arbitration Agreement With Players

    SAN FRANCISCO — A gaming company and its co-founders on Jan. 15 filed an appellant brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals urging it to reverse a judge’s refusal to enforce its arbitration agreement with players who in a putative class suit say they were deceived into playing games advertised as offering live competition but which in fact involved gameplay against bots, writing that the judge misapplied standards of unconscionability and severability.

  • January 15, 2025

    High Court Hears Arguments In Dispute Over Age-Based Online Texas Porn Law

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 15 heard oral arguments in a case in which  Free Speech Coalition Inc. (FSC), a nonprofit adult industry trade association, and other adult entertainment industry petitioners urge reversal of a ruling by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that vacated an injunction for a Texas law requiring the operators of pornographic websites to verify that their visitors are adults.

  • January 15, 2025

    RFK Jr.-Founded Group Seeks High Court Review Of Ruling Upholding 'Censored' Speech

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a nonprofit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming a district court’s dismissal of a suit alleging that Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by censoring what CHD says are accurate posts challenging the government’s “orthodoxy” as to the safety of vaccines.

  • January 15, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Pro Se X User’s UCL Suit Over Account Suspension

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a pro se plaintiff’s lawsuit against X Corp. asserting that his account was suspended in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after he criticized and messaged an adult content creator.