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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

December 06, 2023
9th Circuit Reverses, Remands $5.2M Settlement Of Tinder Age-Bias Class Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 5 reversed and remanded a $5.2 million settlement to resolve claims accusing a dating app of discriminatory age-based pricing in violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act and California’s unfair competition law (UCL), ruling in favor of objectors who contended that the class representative was inadequate.
December 06, 2023
Google, YouTube Subscriber Agree To Dismiss UCL Suit Over Automatic Renewals

SANTA CLARA, Calif — A California state court judge entered a stipulated order dismissing with prejudice a plaintiff’s putative class complaint accusing Google LLC and YouTube LLC of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and automatic renewal law (ARL) based on its renewals of YouTube Premium and YouTube music memberships after the court sustained a defense demurrer to the complaint.
December 06, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of UCL, Libel Claims For Anti-Qatar Disinformation

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district court’s order striking claims against several entities and individuals for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and committing trade libel by spreading disinformation online casting the state of Qatar in a negative light, while also affirming the dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims.
December 05, 2023
Supreme Court Vacates, Remands ADA Hotel Website Tester Suit As Moot

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Although a U.S. Supreme Court majority found today that the plaintiff in an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit against a hotel “singlehandedly generated a circuit split” with the many similar lawsuits she filed over hotels’ failure to provide information about their accommodations for disabled customers on their websites, it concluded that her dismissal of the suit, after certiorari was granted, mandated that the case be vacated as moot.
December 04, 2023
Flight Attendant Seeks Affirmance Of Jury Verdict In Protected Speech Case

NEW ORLEANS — A flight attendant in her principal and response brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals argues that a jury verdict and the trial court’s judgment finding that she was fired by Southwest Airlines Co. due to discrimination caused by the union representing flight attendants because of her religious beliefs, observances and practices must be upheld as her social media messages about abortion were protected.
December 01, 2023
Shareholders: Lending Platform Misconstrues Judge’s Order In Motion To Reconsider

CINCINNATI — A lending platform and certain related defendants, accused by shareholders of making inaccurate claims about the platform’s use of artificial intelligence to approve loans, indicated in a notice in an Ohio federal court no opposition to several investment funds’ motion to intervene in the suit, a day after the shareholders filed a memorandum in opposition to the lending platform’s motion to reconsider an order partially dismissing the suit.
December 01, 2023
Law Firm Tells 9th Circuit Rival’s Use Of Mark In Keyword Ad Was Infringing

SAN FRANCISCO — Asking the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court’s summary judgment finding that a competitor’s use of its trademark in a Google keyword advertisement did not infringe, an Arizona law firm in its appellant brief expressed its concern that if the judgment is permitted to stand, it will “severely erode the ability of trademark holders to protect against the misuse of their marks online.”
November 30, 2023
In GitHub AI Copyright Suit, Parties Told To Meet, Confer Not Move To Compel

SAN FRANCISCO — While a California federal court mulls a second round of motions from OpenAI Inc., GitHub Inc. and Microsoft Corp. seeking dismissal of claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) related to allegations of improper attribution in the development of an artificial intelligence tool, a magistrate judge denied the plaintiffs’ motion to compel discovery responses in favor of a directive for the parties to meet and confer about discovery disputes.
November 28, 2023
Mothers Say Section 230 Doesn’t Bar UCL Suit Against Roblox For ‘Illegal Gambling’

SAN FRANCISCO — Two mothers bringing putative class claims in California federal court against Roblox Corp., the operator of an online video game platform played by millions of children, filed a brief opposing its motion to dismiss, urging the court to reject its defense that federal law bars their claims or that it provided only “neutral tools” to third-party companies that allegedly operated gambling games on Roblox.
November 28, 2023
Terror-Aiding Plaintiffs Defend Remand Requests In 9th Circuit Briefs

SAN FRANCISCO — Countering briefs in which X Corp Inc. (formerly Twitter Inc.), Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) and Google LLC ask the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm dismissal of two lawsuits seeking to hold them liable for terrorist attacks under the Antiterrorism Act (ATA), the plaintiffs argue that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in two other ATA cases does not foreclose them from seeking remand in the present cases.
November 15, 2023
COMMENTARY: Developments In The Use Of AI In Financial Investigations

By Keith Williamson and Robert Cruse
November 22, 2023
As High Court Mulls Tester’s Suit, 4th Circuit Vacates Sanction Of Her Ex-Counsel

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A self-appointed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) tester filed a letter with the U.S. Supreme Court in a recently argued appeal focusing on testers’ standing in such suits, informing the high court that a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel had recently vacated a disciplinary ruling against her former attorney, whom she had described as a “distraction” and one of her reasons for unsuccessfully seeking to dismiss the case as moot prior to argument.
November 21, 2023
Google, Consumers, States Reach Final Settlement Of Play Store Antitrust Suits

SAN FRANCISCO — More than two months after announcing a tentative settlement of monopolization and unfair competition claims centering on Google Inc.’s Play Store, a group of consumers and a coalition of U.S. states, comprising the plaintiffs from two of the antitrust suits consolidated with one filed by Epic Games Inc., teamed up with Google on a notice of executed settlement, informing a California federal court that the parties had finalized the settlement.
November 21, 2023
Judge Dismisses ‘Nonsensical’ Copyright Claims For Meta’s Use Of Books To Train AI

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Nov. 20 granted a motion to dismiss the bulk of claims brought by authors in two related putative class actions against Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement based on its use of their written works to train its artificial intelligence software, calling the plaintiffs’ “derivative works” argument “nonsensical.”
November 20, 2023
Dismissal, Protective Order Denied In WhatsApp, NSO Spyware Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — An Israeli spyware firm saw two of its motions denied by a California federal judge in a computer fraud suit brought against it by WhatsApp Inc., as she denied a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens and declined to issue a protective order barring much of the discovery sought by the plaintiff.
November 20, 2023
Judge Certifies Class Of Child Victims In Trafficking Suit Against Pornhub Owners

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge on Nov. 17 certified a class and subclass of victims who were in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) distributed through pornography websites, including Pornhub, that are owned by several Canadian and U.S. entities, writing that a class proceeding would lead to greater “efficiency” in the litigation of the victims’ claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), child trafficking laws and other statutes, and denied defense motions to exclude two experts.
November 17, 2023
Real Estate Law Firm Sues Cyber Security Insurer For Breach Of Contract

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A real estate law firm sued its insurer and a third-party administrator in a North Carolina court, seeking cyber security coverage for gross negligence and obstruction of justice cross-claims arising from a “cyber incident” in 2021 that resulted in the misdirection of funds.
November 17, 2023
Man Allegedly Defamed By ChatGPT Appeals Attorney Fee Ruling

ATLANTA — A man said in a Nov. 16 notice that he is appealing to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a decision by a federal judge in Georgia not to award him attorney fees after OpenAI LLC conceded that it could not defend removal of a defamation case alleging that ChatGPT incorrectly named him as a defendant in a financial misconduct suit.
November 17, 2023
Teens’ Social Media Addiction Claims Partly Dismissed In Products Liability MDL

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a lengthy and detailed ruling, the California federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation alleging products liability claims against the operators of the major social networks partly granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss assertions that they intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive for adolescent users.
November 17, 2023
Record Labels To 2nd Circuit: Vimeo’s Cite Of ‘Stale’ Ruling Doesn’t Show Fair Use

NEW YORK — A 13-year-old “stale, unpublished” magistrate recommendation does not support the fair use defense of Vimeo Inc. in a copyright infringement dispute over the website operator’s hosting of infringing videos, a group of record labels tell the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, responding to Vimeo’s post-trial letter brief, which it filed at the appeals court’s direction.
November 15, 2023
3 Damages Classes Certified In Student Athletes’ Likeness Case

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted a motion to certify three damages classes in a consolidated case by college athletes who allege that they are injured by certain National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules that restrict the compensation they may receive for the commercial use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL) by the schools they attend.
November 14, 2023
Commentator Seeks Certiorari, Argument With Social Media Government Coercion Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a supplemental letter brief supporting his bid for certiorari, a conservative political commentator tells the U.S. Supreme Court that his appeal of the dismissal of his free speech claims against California’s secretary of state and Twitter Inc. is irreconcilable with, and would make an excellent companion piece to, another case pertaining to governmental coercion of social media platforms that was recently granted certiorari.
November 14, 2023
Certiorari Sought For 1st, 4th Amendment Issues Over Livestreaming Traffic Stops

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A North Carolina man who was prevented by police from livestreaming a traffic stop asks the U.S. Supreme Court to confirm that his rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution were violated, arguing in a reply brief supporting his bid for certiorari that a police department’s attempts to distinguish between recording and livestreaming “are immaterial” to the matters of free speech and qualified immunity at issue in the parties’ competing certiorari petitions.
November 13, 2023
9th Circuit Upholds Scope Of Relief In Row Over ‘Northpointe’ Mark

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in Arizona had “an ample basis for finding” that a defaulting defendant’s use of “NorthPointe” would likely cause confusion with a plaintiff’s “Northpointe at Vistancia” trademark, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded.
November 13, 2023
11th Circuit Upholds Jury Instructions, Sanctions Ruling In Bitcoin Ownership Row

ATLANTA — Deferring to a trial court’s ruling, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found no error or abuse of discretion in the lower court’s jury instructions, vacating of a sanctions ruling or denial of a new trial motion in finding that a Florida man and his deceased colleague did not have a bitcoin mining partnership that would have entitled the decedent’s estate to half of the value of the voluminous cache of mined bitcoin.