Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

June 14, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Apple’s Bid To Appeal Class Certification In IPhone Antitrust Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A pair of Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judges denied a petition by Apple Inc. to pursue an interlocutory appeal of a district court’s certification of a class of users of iPhones and other devices in a suit alleging anticompetitive practices by the tech giant related to apps and in-app purchases (IAPs).
June 12, 2024
5th Circuit Grants Airline Stay Of ‘Religious-Liberty Training’ Pending Appeal

NEW ORLEANS — An order that Southwest Airlines Co. lawyers attend “religious-liberty training” as a sanction in a flight attendant’s case over her firing for online speech “likely exceeded the district court’s civil contempt authority,” a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, granting Southwest’s motion for a stay pending appeal.
June 11, 2024
Judge Dismisses Washington Post Subscribers’ ‘False Reference Pricing’ Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on June 10 dismissed two Washington Post subscribers’ putative class action claims that the newspaper’s publisher violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by allegedly deceptively marketing its prices for subscriptions and denied the publisher’s motion to transfer to the District of Columbia.
June 11, 2024
United States Denied Jury Trial In Antitrust Suit Over Google Ad Tech

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After arguing that civil antitrust claims brought by the government are usually resolved of via a bench trial, Google LLC saw its motion to strike a jury trial request by the U.S. government and 17 states granted by a Virginia federal judge who also set a date for a bench trial in the lawsuit in which the tech giant is accused of monopolizing the online digital advertising market.
June 11, 2024
X Takes Nondisclosure Order 1st Amendment Fight Over Trump Warrant To High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Citing constitutional issues that it calls “critically important and recurring,” X Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.) filed a petition for certiorari in which it asks the U.S. Supreme Court to offer guidance on when a nondisclosure order (NDO) served on an electronic communications service provider along with a warrant seeking private communications violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
June 10, 2024
Librarian-Promulgated DMCA Rules Reviewable Under APA, Panel Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Librarian of Congress must face a legal challenge to a 2021 final rule that exempts repairers of medical equipment from allegations of circumventing technological protection measures (TPMs) for copyrighted works, with a divided District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on June 7 deeming sovereign immunity waived.
June 06, 2024
Couple Defends ‘Child Exploitation’ Claims Against Roblox In Class Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Parents who bought their minor children in-game currency for use in Roblox Corp.’s online gaming platform filed briefs in California federal court opposing Roblox’s motions to dismiss or compel arbitration of their suit accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, arguing that their claims that it designed its game to addict kids are not arbitrable.
June 04, 2024
Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Animal Rights Activist’s UCL Suit Against Google

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California appellate panel on June 3 affirmed a state court’s dismissal of an animal rights organization’s lawsuit against Google LLC, finding Google immune from the organization’s claims that Google violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and breached a user contract by enticing the nonprofit into joining Google’s YouTube video platform while hosting videos depicting animal abuse.
June 04, 2024
No Cybersecurity Coverage Owed For Phishing Scam Losses, California Panel Affirms

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California appeals panel on June 3 affirmed a lower court’s ruling that an insurer owes no coverage for an insured’s losses arising from a phishing scam, determining that the insured failed to assert a “direct financial loss” to trigger coverage under the cybersecurity insurance policy.
June 04, 2024
Trump, Author Tell 9th Circuit High Court Ruling Boosts Government Coercion Claims

PASADENA, Calif. — In a June 3 filing, in which he was joined by a group of other Twitter users also alleging censorship of their accounts in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, former President Donald J. Trump informed the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that he joined in a notice of supplemental authority by a co-appellant who asserts that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the National Rifle Association (NRA) supports the present appellants’ contention that governmental coercion improperly led to the suspension of their social media accounts.
June 04, 2024
Judge Won’t Compel Class Member To Arbitrate New Gambling Claims

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on June 3 denied a motion by gambling game makers to compel arbitration of claims brought against them by a consumer who was a member of a class that previously settled claims relating to one of the games at issue, finding that the consumer made clear her intent to opt out of an arbitration agreement, but the judge dismissed her illegal gambling claim as precluded by the previous settlement.
May 30, 2024
COMMENTARY: Generative AI, Cybersecurity And Cybercrime For Lawyers: Myths, Risks And Benefits

By Dr. Ilia Kolochenko and Michael P. Heiskell
May 31, 2024
Adult Entertainers Denied Motion To Drop Their Claims Against Meta, OnlyFans

SAN FRANCISCO — Citing the “time and effort” expended in a putative class action alleging tortious interference and unfair competition by Meta Platforms Inc. in blacklisting social media posts by most adult entertainment (AE) providers in favor of the OnlyFans AE platform, a California federal judge denied a motion by the three lead AE performer plaintiffs to dismiss their suit due to an inability to achieve class certification under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
May 30, 2024
Judge Certifies Privacy, Publicity Rights Class Action Against Data Aggregator

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on May 29 granted a group of plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class action against a personal information data-aggregator website on behalf of two statewide classes accusing the company of violating plaintiffs’ rights of publicity and against misappropriation of name and likeness and denied the parties’ competing motions to exclude each other’s experts.
May 28, 2024
ISP Tells 4th Circuit Labels’ Misconduct Merits Relief, Discovery In Copyright Row

RICHMOND, Va. — An internet service provider (ISP), which was found liable for its subscribers’ infringing behavior in downloading copyrighted songs, entreaties the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to find that it was wrongly deprived of the opportunity to conduct additional discovery and seek relief from the infringement judgment after it was discovered that the plaintiff record labels engaged in discovery misconduct by withholding and misrepresenting evidence from their investigation firm that was used against the ISP at trial.
May 23, 2024
High Court: Courts Decide Which Competing Contracts, Arbitration Clauses Govern

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a situation where parties have agreed to competing contracts or arbitration clauses regarding how to resolve claims in a dispute, it is a court’s job to decide which contract governs, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 23 in a suit between a cryptocurrency exchange and a group of its users.
May 22, 2024
Bankruptcy Judge OKs Crypto Company’s $2B Settlement With New York AG

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A federal bankruptcy judge in New York approved a settlement between bankrupt cryptocurrency platforms and the New York Attorney General’s Office (NYAG) that will resolve claims that the platforms defrauded investors out of billions of dollars; the settlement creates a victim’s fund that will receive up to $2 billion of the platforms’ remaining assets.
May 20, 2024
High Court Won’t Consider Copyright Discovery Rule In Online Photo Use Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hearst Newspapers LLC’s plea that the U.S. Supreme Court settle the application of the atextual discovery rule to the Copyright Act fell on deaf ears, as the high court in its May 20 order list denied the media company’s petition for certiorari in a dispute over its use of a photographer’s copyrighted photographs on the websites of several of its publications.
May 16, 2024
Record Companies Beat Motion To Dismiss; Copyright Claims Over Digitization Proceed

SAN FRANCISCO — Entities at the helm of the “Great 78 Project” — an initiative dedicated to converting 78 rpm records into digital format and then making the recordings available online for free — were denied dismissal of copyright infringement allegations leveled against them by various recording companies by a federal judge in California on May 15.
May 16, 2024
D.C. Circuit Merges TikTok’s, Creators’ 1st Amendment Suits Over Nationwide Ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after a group of TikTok creators filed a petition for review of the newly passed federal law that promises to ban the popular social network absent a corporate ownership change, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 15 consolidated the suit with a similar suit filed a week earlier by TikTok Inc., which also challenges the statute’s validity under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
May 15, 2024
Federal Judge Narrowly Vacates Securities Claims Dismissal After Reconsideration

PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona on May 14 vacated portions of a previous order dismissing a putative securities class complaint brought by retirement funds alleging that an online home-selling company made false statements about its artificial-intelligence-powered pricing algorithm, finding that the retirement funds adequately showed that an allegedly misleading statement about the algorithm relates to the funds’ alleged losses.
May 15, 2024
Chamber Of Commerce Backs 9th Circuit Rehearing In Meta Advertising Fraud Row

SAN FRANCISCO — In affirming the certification of a damages class in a suit alleging fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment by Meta Platforms Inc. related to its online advertising services, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority weakened the requirements for class certification in fraud cases, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says in an amicus curiae brief supporting Meta’s bid for rehearing on this “issue of exceptional importance.”
May 14, 2024
11th Circuit Vacates Class Settlement, Attorney Fees In GoDaddy TCPA Suit

ATLANTA — A trial court abused its discretion when it approved a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) settlement between a class and GoDaddy.com LLC providing cash or vouchers as it failed to consider amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(e)(2), overlooked evidence that the agreement was reached through collusion, failed to properly inform absent class members and miscalculated attorney fees, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 13.
May 14, 2024
Insurer Has No Duty To Defend, Indemnify Bitcoin Theft Suit, 5th Circuit Affirms

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 13 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in its lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying lawsuit alleging that insureds conspired to steal bitcoin through a malware attack, finding that the underlying action alleges only intentional acts that are not covered.
May 14, 2024
ACLU, NetChoice, Tribes File Briefs Opposing Montana TikTok Ban

SAN FRANCISCO — Nonprofit civil liberties organizations, an online business trade association and a Native American tribe are among those that filed nine amicus curiae briefs in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opposing a presently enjoined Montana law that would ban the TikTok social network within the state, raising arguments of federal jurisdiction, free speech rights and tribal sovereignty.