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Consumer Protection
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April 16, 2024
Tai Sidesteps As GOP Reps Try To Pin Down Trade Timeline
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee castigated U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday for the administration's vague agenda regarding future trade deals and a long-awaited tariff review that she described as "optimistic" and "coming soon."
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April 16, 2024
White House Opposes Bill To Close Data 'Loophole'
The White House on Tuesday came out against a bipartisan bill that would prevent law enforcement and intelligence agencies from buying Americans' personal information, an issue critics say is a "loophole" to get around the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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April 16, 2024
Mercedes Rusty Subframe Suit Is Too Vague, Judge Is Told
Mercedes-Benz argued in court Tuesday that a proposed class action over a claimed subframe defect should be dismissed as an improper shotgun pleading as it directs allegations at "Mercedes" without specifying whether the German parent company or its Atlanta subsidiary are supposedly to blame.
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April 16, 2024
Broadband Subsidy Backers Seek To Force House Vote
Nearly 300 groups urged Congress to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program, but as a bill to do so picked up support from more than half of U.S. House lawmakers, a vote on replenishing the fund remains up in the air.
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April 16, 2024
NY Outdoor Stadium Can Host Concerts During Noise Row
A century-old outdoor stadium in New York where the Beatles once played can continue operating as it battles disgruntled neighbors after a state judge denied the residents' request for a preliminary injunction because they had not shown that noise from the stadium was unreasonable.
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April 16, 2024
CFPB Moves To 'Streamline' How It Tags Nonbanks For Exams
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday unveiled procedural adjustments to its process for singling out fintech firms and other nonbanks for examination, changes the agency attributed in part to plans for an internal reorganization of its supervision and enforcement unit.
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April 16, 2024
Feds, PPG Reach $22.8M Deal To Clean Up NJ Superfund Site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a settlement with PPG Industries Inc. on Tuesday under which the company has agreed to cough up more than $22.8 million to cover the estimated future cleanup costs and maintenance at the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site in Newark, New Jersey.
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April 16, 2024
Terraform Creditors Say All Clear To Hire Crypto Tracing Firm
The creditors committee for bankrupt cryptocurrency startup Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. said on Tuesday it had resolved the only issues the U.S. Trustee's Office had with the committee's request to hire an investment bank to advise it on tracing cryptocurrency in Terraform's Chapter 11 case.
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April 16, 2024
Buttigieg, State AGs To Probe Consumer Airline Complaints
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday announced a new partnership with Colorado and over a dozen other states to investigate consumer complaints about air travel, vowing to hold airlines and ticket agents accountable for excessive flight cancellations and unfair business practices.
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April 16, 2024
Flyers Challenge $1.9B Hawaiian-Alaska Airlines Merger
Alaska Airlines is facing an antitrust lawsuit from flyers alleging that its proposed $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines will reduce competition in the airline industry, raise prices and potentially cause layoffs.
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April 16, 2024
South State Bank Breach Exposed 1 Million People, Suit Says
South State Bank is facing a proposed class action accusing it of negligence following a February data breach that allegedly compromised the personal information of more than a million current and former customers.
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April 16, 2024
Public Advocates Say Surveillance Cams Could Disrupt Wi-Fi
Advocacy groups are banding together against Axon's bid for a Federal Communications Commission rule waiver to operate high-powered surveillance cameras, saying their signals could disrupt Wi-Fi use, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
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April 16, 2024
Court Urged Not To Quash Google's Agency Subpoenas
A special master has recommended that a Texas federal court allow Google to interview witnesses from three state agencies as the tech giant defends against a case from state-level enforcers accusing it of monopolizing key digital advertising technology.
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April 16, 2024
Zuckerberg Dodges Liability In Meta Addiction MDL, For Now
A California federal judge has tossed certain fraud-by-omission claims seeking to hold Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally liable in sprawling multidistrict litigation over social media platforms' allegedly addictive design, but she allowed the plaintiffs to amend their allegations to assert a new theory of corporate officer liability against Zuckerberg.
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April 16, 2024
FTC To Unveil, Vote On Final Noncompetes Ban April 23
The Federal Trade Commission gave a one-week heads up Tuesday of its impending unveiling of — and vote on — the final version of a rule that would ban essentially all noncompete agreements employers impose on their workers.
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April 16, 2024
Binance.US Adds Ex-NY Fed Compliance Chief To Board
Binance.US announced Tuesday that it had brought aboard a seasoned compliance and regulation expert to join its board of directors, three months after the cryptocurrency platform hired a new top compliance officer amid federal regulators' ongoing scrutiny of the platform.
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April 16, 2024
Capital One Escapes Customer Sign-Up Bonus Suit, For Now
A California federal judge dismissed a proposed class action brought by a Capital One customer who claimed he applied for a credit card but never got a promised sign-up bonus, saying that a social media advertisement about a bonus was not enough to allege traceability.
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April 16, 2024
Chancery Tosses Zelle Fraud Suit Against JPMorgan Directors
A JPMorgan Chase & Co. shareholder that sued the bank's board for allegedly ignoring fraud on the payment platform Zelle has not shown the bank failed to respond to the problem, a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled Tuesday, dismissing the shareholder's case.
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April 15, 2024
Mental Health Co. Cerebral To Pay $7M Over Data Failures
Mental health service provider Cerebral Inc. will pay more than $7 million to settle claims from the Federal Trade Commission, saying it failed to protect users' sensitive health data and made it difficult for patients to cancel services and stop recurring charges, according to a Monday court filing.
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April 15, 2024
Dems Grill Chamber Over 'Outrageous' CFPB Card Fee Suit
Two top Democratic senators are calling on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to explain why it sued to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule, a case they say is "outrageous" and puts the interests of big banks over the group's rank and file.
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April 15, 2024
SeaWorld's Sesame Park Visitors Can't Get Cert. In Bias Fight
A Pennsylvania federal judge refused Monday to certify a class of Hispanic and Black customers who allege performers at the SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc.-owned theme park Sesame Place discriminated against and ignored minority children, finding that the proposed 130 children class size is based on inadmissible speculation.
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April 15, 2024
EPA Says Legacy Asbestos Poses Unreasonable Risk
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released on Monday its long-awaited draft for the second part of its asbestos risk evaluation, which determined handling asbestos associated with legacy uses presents undue human health risks.
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April 15, 2024
Calif. Cannabis Co. Stiiizy Sued Over Delta-8 Products
California cannabis giant Stiiizy has been accused of selling products which were touted as federally compliant hemp wares but purportedly had high enough levels of psychoactive THC to qualify as marijuana products, according to a proposed class action in Illinois federal court.
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April 15, 2024
MGM Slams FTC Probe After Cyberattack During Khan Visit
MGM Resorts International on Monday accused the Federal Trade Commission of launching an "unconstitutional" investigation into its data protection practices after FTC Chair Lina Khan stayed at an MGM hotel in Las Vegas during a major cyberattack last year, according to a suit filed in D.C. federal court.
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April 15, 2024
Whistleblower Says Lab Co. Ran COVID-Testing Scheme
A California-based diagnostics firm and its CEO have been hit with a whistleblower suit in Washington federal court by an ex-lab director who claims an affiliated company flouted regulatory standards and fraudulently billed government healthcare programs for COVID-19 tests on patients with private insurance.
Expert Analysis
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Aviation Watch: 737 Max Blowout Raises Major Safety Issues
The sudden in-flight loss of a side panel on an Alaska Air 737-9 Max last month, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane's cabin, highlighted ongoing quality issues at Boeing, the jet's manufacturer — but the failure also arose from decisions made by the airline, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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Mass Arb. Rule Changes May Be A Hindrance For Consumers
The American Arbitration Association's recent changes to its mass arbitration supplementary rules and fee schedule, including a shift from filing fees to initiation and per-case fees, may reduce consumers' ability to counteract businesses' mandatory arbitration agreements, say Eduard Korsinsky and Alexander Krot at Levi & Korsinsky.
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3 Principles For Minimizing The Risk Of A Nuclear Verdict
In one of the latest examples of so-called nuclear verdicts, a single plaintiff was awarded $2.25 billion in a jury trial against Monsanto — revealing the need for defense attorneys to prioritize trust, connection and simplicity when communicating with modern juries, say Jenny Hergenrother and Mia Falzarano at Alston & Bird.
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Series
Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.
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Freight Forwarders And Common Carriers: Know Your Cargo
Freight forwarders and other nonprincipal parties involved in global cargo movement should follow the guidance in the multi-agency know-your-cargo compliance note to avoid enforcement actions should they fail to spot evasive tactics used in supply chains to circumvent U.S. sanctions and export controls, say attorneys at Venable.
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Debt Collector Compliance Takeaways From An FDCPA Appeal
A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amicus brief last month in an ongoing First Circuit appeal focusing on an interpretation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can serve as a reminder for debt collectors to understand how their technologies, like bankruptcy scrubs and letter logic, can prevent litigation, says Justin Bradley at Womble Bond.
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SG's Office Is Case Study To Help Close Legal Gender Gap
As women continue to be underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal profession, law firms could learn from the example set by the Office of the Solicitor General, where culture and workplace policies have helped foster greater gender equality, say attorneys at Ocean Tomo.
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Bitcoin ETF Approval Doesn't Mean SEC Approves Of Crypto
While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval last month of 11 applications for spot exchange-traded funds tracking bitcoin is a landmark moment for the crypto-asset industry, investors who are hopeful that the SEC will approve similar crypto-based ETFs may be disappointed, says attorneys at Mintz.
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Googling Prospective Jurors Is Usually A Fool's Errand
Though a Massachusetts federal court recently barred Google from Googling potential jurors in a patent infringement case, the company need not worry about missing evidence of bias, because internet research of jury pools usually doesn’t yield the most valuable information — voir dire and questionnaires do, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Opinion
CFPB Shouldn't Ditch Prior Earned Wage Access Precedent
Recent statements from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau general counsel Seth Frotman indicate the CFPB may be concluding that some or all earned wage access products are credit under federal law, but doing so would threaten the existence of the products and cause consumers to turn back to costly alternatives, says Eric Goldberg at Akerman.
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A Look Into How Jurors Reach High Damages Awards
In the wake of several large jury awards, Richard Gabriel and Emily Shaw at Decision Analysis shed light on challenges that jurors have in deciding them, the nonevidentiary and extra-legal methods they use to do so, and new research about the themes and jury characteristics of high-damages jurors.
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Aviation Back On Course, But Keep Seat Belts Fastened
While the airline industry finally returned to profitability last year for the first time since the onset of COVID-19, and is poised for historic levels of traffic in 2024, supply chain problems and economic and geopolitical uncertainty persist — so more turbulence may lie ahead, say Kevin Lewis and Bart Biggers at Sidley.
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What Brands Must Know For Calif. Recycle Label Compliance
A brand that stamps nonrecyclable packaging with the chasing arrows symbol could face liability under California's new law on labeling recyclable material, so brand owners should keep an eye on the state's pending survey process to identify which materials meet the criteria before requirements go into effect, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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FTC AI Inquiry Signals Intensified Focus On Emerging Tech
The Federal Trade Commission's recent inquiry into investments and partnerships between Big Tech companies and artificial intelligence startups appears to be directed at guiding future enforcement decisions in competition, privacy and consumer protection — and three principles discussed at a related tech summit give insight on the agency's approach, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Preparing For A New Wave Of Litigation Under Silicosis Rules
After the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of California issued an emergency temporary standard to combat noncompliance with assessments of workers' exposure to particles of crystalline silica, companies that manufacture, distribute or sell silica-containing products will need aggressive case-specific discovery to navigate a new wave of litigation, say attorneys at Dechert.