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Consumer Protection
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April 18, 2024
Citi Can Arbitrate Anti-Armenian Bias Suit, Judge Rules
Citibank has won its bid to arbitrate proposed class claims that it discriminated against customers with Armenian surnames, as a Los Angeles federal judge found Wednesday that the plaintiff agreed to arbitrate allegations like these when she became a party to her Citibank card agreement.
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April 18, 2024
EU Antitrust Chief Says Merger Tool Not A 'Power Grab'
The European Commission's top competition enforcer said Thursday the agency has taken a measured approach to using its newly asserted power to review mergers that fall short of local thresholds, as the European trading bloc's high court mulls a challenge of that authority from DNA sequencing company Illumina.
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April 18, 2024
Senate Dems Question 4 Biggest Banks Over Fraud Controls
Two Democratic senators have asked the nation's four largest banks to share their systems to combat wire fraud and protect consumers from the fallout of unauthorized transfers.
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April 18, 2024
Google Judge Notes Broad Reach Of Texas Ad Tech Claims
A Texas federal judge pressed Google during oral arguments Thursday to explain why a coalition of state attorneys general can't sue over its dominance in advertising placement auction technology when they're representing not just companies suing separately, but consumers as well.
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April 18, 2024
School, Library Supporters Call FCC Wi-Fi Plan Cost Effective
A trio of school and library groups defended a Federal Communications Commission plan to fund Wi-Fi hot spots in education, saying the conservative Heritage Foundation mischaracterized the initiative as wasteful.
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April 18, 2024
SEC Exams Division Flags Misleading Claims In Adviser Ads
Investment advisers are publishing various misrepresentations and omissions in marketing materials, according to a recent risk alert from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's examinations division that flagged a litany of compliance issues with the agency's marketing rule.
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April 18, 2024
AGs, Google Defend $700M Play Store Deal Ripped By Judge
A group of state attorneys general and Google defended the proposed $700 million settlement both sides brokered in the states' antitrust suit against the company in December, telling a San Francisco federal judge that the deal is consistent with Ninth Circuit precedent and releases only a limited set of claims against Google for a seven-year period.
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April 18, 2024
Missouri AG Launches Probe Into Delta-8 Products
Missouri's Republican attorney general has launched an investigation into four companies purportedly manufacturing or selling vapes and other products containing hemp and marijuana derivatives such as CBD, delta-8 THC and delta-9 THC.
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April 18, 2024
Pharma Co. Wants Tribe's Opioid Suit To Stay In Federal Court
A pharmaceuticals distributor has asked an Oklahoma federal court to reject a magistrate judge's recommendation to move to state court a suit accusing it of flooding the Cherokee Nation's communities with opioids, saying the tribe's complaint raises a substantial question of federal law.
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April 18, 2024
Coffee Bean Hit With ADA Suit Over Costly Milk Alternatives
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf customers hit the coffee chain with a proposed class action Wednesday in California federal court, alleging it discriminates against people with lactose intolerance by requiring consumers to pay a surcharge for dairy-free alternatives.
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April 18, 2024
FCC Probing Causes Of 911 Outage Across Four States
The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it will investigate what caused widespread 911 outages in Nevada, Texas, South Dakota and Nebraska.
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April 18, 2024
Endo Pleads Guilty To Marketing Opioids As 'Crush Proof'
Endo Health Solutions Inc. pled guilty Thursday in Michigan federal court to putting out a drug it falsely advertised as being "crush proof" and "abuse deterrent," part of its larger agreement with the government to resolve nearly $2 billion in civil and criminal claims against the company.
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April 18, 2024
3rd Circ. Unclear If 'Session Replay' Web Code Directed At Pa.
A Third Circuit panel seemed torn Thursday over whether websites like those of Papa John's or Mattress Firm "directed conduct" at Pennsylvania when they ran "session replay" software to track users' visits and whether that gave courts in the Keystone State jurisdiction over users' claims that such tracking violated laws against wiretapping.
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April 18, 2024
Would-Be Whistleblowers Drop ER Service Overbilling Claims
A North Carolina federal judge has granted two whistleblowers' request to drop their suit accusing a pair of healthcare companies and their affiliates of overcharging both state and federal Medicare and Medicaid programs for emergency services provided at multiple regional hospitals, dismissing the case without prejudice.
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April 18, 2024
Bank Regulators Appeal Texas Judge's Halt Of New CRA Rules
Federal regulators said Thursday that they are appealing a Texas federal judge's decision to block their rollout of new community lending rules amid a legal challenge from the banking industry.
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April 18, 2024
Bank Wants To Exit Suit Over $100M Of Special Needs Trusts
American Momentum Bank has for the second time asked a Florida federal judge to let it get out of a lawsuit from the parents of a disabled child claiming it abetted a predatory scheme to misappropriate more than $100 million of special needs trust assets, saying the parents failed to show what role the bank played in the alleged misdeeds.
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April 18, 2024
Patient Data Breach Suit Should Be Tossed, Colo. Judge Says
A judge has recommended that CommonSpirit Health be allowed to escape a proposed class action in Colorado federal court accusing it of failing to secure healthcare data leading to a breach affecting more than 600,000 patients, saying the complaint fails to "allege an injury-in-fact."
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April 18, 2024
Admiral Balks At Covering Menendez Ally In Pollution Suit
Admiral Insurance Co. is asking a New Jersey federal court for a declaration that it owes no coverage to a businessman who is a co-defendant in U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial in a decade-long suit by Edgewater Borough over contamination at a construction site.
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April 18, 2024
Wife Of Alleged $3B TelexFree Scammer 'Hounded' In MDL
The estranged wife of alleged TelexFree Ponzi schemer Carlos Wanzeler said Thursday that plaintiffs in a decade-old civil suit are needlessly "hounding" her for information they already have and urged a Massachusetts federal court to free her from the "litigation purgatory."
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April 17, 2024
Ethics Panel Douses Judge DQ Talk In 5th Circ. CFPB Case
A judicial ethics panel has concluded that recusal isn't automatically required for the Fifth Circuit judge whose financial disclosures have fueled calls for his disqualification from litigation challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule.
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April 17, 2024
House Sends Bill To Close Data Warrant 'Loophole' To Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly advanced bipartisan legislation that would ban federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies from purchasing from data brokers personal information about Americans that they would otherwise need a warrant to obtain, despite the White House voicing opposition to the measure.
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April 17, 2024
New TikTok Bill Gives More Time For Divestment
A bill requiring ByteDance Ltd. to divest TikTok or face a ban in the U.S. was included in the package of national security bills House Republicans introduced on Wednesday, which gives a longer runway to sell the app than the one the House previously passed in March.
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April 17, 2024
Walgreens Investors' $36M Deal In Opioid Suit Gets First OK
An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday granted his initial approval of a $36 million settlement to end a stockholder's derivative suit accusing Walgreens and its leadership of failing to limit retail pharmacies from dispensing unreasonable amounts of opioids.
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April 17, 2024
'Fired Up': House Leaders Say Data Privacy Law Top Priority
House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders said Wednesday that they are "fired up" to finally push long-running efforts to enact a federal data privacy framework across the finish line, although concerns about the scope of the proposal and desires to enhance digital safeguards for children threaten to derail this momentum.
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April 17, 2024
NY Settles With Payroll, Prepaid Card Bank For $700K
Pathward, formerly MetaBank, has reached a $700,000 agreement with New York Attorney General Letitia James to resolve allegations the bank broke the law by freezing certain customer accounts and illegally handing over customer money to debt collectors.
Expert Analysis
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The Multifaceted State AG Response To New Technologies
In response to the growth of technologies like artificial intelligence, biometric data collection and cryptocurrencies across consumer-facing industries, state attorneys general are proactively launching enforcement and regulatory initiatives — including bipartisan investigations and new state AI legislation, say Ketan Bhirud and Emily Yu at Cozen O'Connor.
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5th Circ. Clarifies What Is And Isn't A 'New Use' Of PFAS
The Fifth Circuit's March 21 decision in Inhance Technologies v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, preventing the EPA from regulating existing uses of PFAS under "significant new use" provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act, provides industry with much-needed clarity, say Joseph Schaeffer and Sloane Wildman at Babst Calland.
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Handling Customer Complaints In Bank-Fintech Partnerships
As regulators mine consumer complaint databases for their next investigative targets, it is critical that fintech and bank partners adopt a well-defined and monitored process for ensuring proper complaint handling, including by demonstrating proficiency and following interagency guidance, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law
A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.
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What NAR Settlement Means For Agent Commission Rates
If approved, a joint settlement agreement between the National Association of Realtors and a class of home sellers will likely take the onus off home sellers to compensate buyers' agents, affecting considerations for all parties to real estate transactions, say attorneys at Jones Foster.
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Opinion
New Mexico Fire Victims Deserve Justice From Federal Gov't
Two years after the largest fire in New Mexico's history — a disaster caused by the U.S. government's mismanagement of prescribed burns — the Federal Emergency Management Agency must remedy its grossly inadequate relief efforts and flawed legal interpretations that have left victims of the fire still waiting for justice, says former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas.
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Opinion
Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea
A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.
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4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best
As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.
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Decoding The FTC's Latest Location Data Crackdown
Following the Federal Trade Commission's groundbreaking settlements in its recent enforcement actions against X-Mode Social and InMarket Media for deceptive and unfair practices with regards to consumer location data, companies should implement policies with three crucial elements for regulatory compliance and maintaining consumer trust, says Hannah Ji-Otto at Baker Donelson.
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Series
Illinois Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
In the first quarter of 2024, Illinois lawmakers proposed a stack of bills aimed at modernizing money transmission, digital assets and banking laws, with a particular focus on improving consumer protections and better defining the state’s authority to regulate digital services, say James Morrissey and Mark Svalina at Vedder Price.
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Series
Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
The first quarter of the year brought the usual onslaught of new regulatory developments in California — including a crackdown on junk fees imposed by small business lenders, a big step forward for online notarizations and a ban on predatory listing agreements, says Alex Grigorians at Hanson Bridgett.
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Tipsters May Be Key To Financial Regulators' ESG Efforts
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking to whistleblowers to assist their climate and ESG task forces, suggesting insider information could be central to the agencies' enforcement efforts against corporate greenwashing, false investment claims and climate disclosure violations, says John Crutchlow at Youman & Caputo.
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Series
Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer
Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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Opinion
The SEC Is Engaging In Regulation By Destruction
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent use of regulation by enforcement against digital assets indicates it's more interested in causing harm to crypto companies than providing guidance to the markets or protecting investors, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.
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Series
NJ Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
Early 2024 developments in New Jersey financial regulations include new bills that propose regulating some cryptocurrency as securities and protecting banks that serve the cannabis industry, as well as the signing of a data privacy law that could change banks’ responsibility to vet vendors and borrowers, say attorneys at Chiesa Shahinian.