Consumer Protection

  • August 18, 2025

    Meta Faces Senate Probe Over AI Chatbots' Talks With Kids

    Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has launched an investigation into how artificial intelligence-fueled chatbots being deployed by Meta interact with children, following reports that the social media giant internally approved rules that would enable these products to engage "romantic" and "sensual" exchanges with minors. 

  • August 18, 2025

    Williams-Sonoma Loses Bid To Narrow Thread-Count Class

    A California federal judge on Monday denied Williams-Sonoma's bid to exclude certain class members from a suit alleging it misled consumers about the thread count of its bedding, finding the company did not meet its burden to establish the consumers agreed to arbitrate their claims.

  • August 18, 2025

    NetChoice Expert Cut From La. Suit Amid AI Fabrication Claims

    Tech trade group NetChoice confirmed Monday it's dropping an expert witness who filed a "misattributed" report in its lawsuit challenging a new Louisiana law that would restrict minors' access to social media, after the state's attorney general alleged the declaration contained "AI-fabricated quotations and citations."

  • August 18, 2025

    PepsiCo Lied About Disabling Website Cookies, Suit Says

    PepsiCo Inc. and its Frito-Lay North America Inc. unit are letting third parties like Google and Facebook track browsing activities and collect the information of consumers who visit the food companies' websites, despite consumers selecting "no" to unnecessary cookies, a proposed class action in California federal court alleges.

  • August 18, 2025

    Monsanto Reaches Terms To Settle Wash. School PCB Torts

    Monsanto has come to tentative settlement terms to end claims from roughly 200 people who say they developed various health problems from chemical contamination at a Washington state school site, parent company Bayer AG said Monday.

  • August 18, 2025

    Crypto Game Co. Accuses Jump Trading Of Pump-And-Dump

    A crypto video game developer has accused high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading of engaging in a pump-and-dump of its token after striking a deal to provide market making services.

  • August 18, 2025

    FTC Targets Ticket Resellers Over Eras Tour Sales Meltdown

    The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued ticket brokers in Maryland federal court for allegedly snatching up hundreds of thousands of Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets and selling them at high markups after bypassing Ticketmaster's purchase limit rules and verification processes by using fake accounts and spoofed IP addresses.

  • August 18, 2025

    4th Circ. Revives Ethylene Oxide Suit Against Union Carbide

    A split Fourth Circuit on Monday revived a West Virginia woman's lawsuit alleging that a Union Carbide Corp.- and Covestro LLC-owned plant exposed nearby residents to ethylene oxide, finding that a lower court erred in siding with the companies.

  • August 18, 2025

    Colo. AG Blasts FCC's T-Mobile, Skydance Approvals

    Colorado's top law enforcer has said he's unhappy with the way the federal government has ushered through major telecom and media mergers after only locking down concessions on diversity, hiring and news coverage.

  • August 18, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Executives and board members of Cencora Corp. tentatively settled a stockholder derivative suit for $111.25 million, VectoIQ board members reached a $6.3 million deal on stockholder claims over electric carmaker Nikola's prospects, and class attorneys who secured a $50 million derivative suit settlement saw their proposed 25% attorney fee cut by almost half. Here's the latest from the Delaware Chancery Court.

  • August 18, 2025

    NC Sheriff's Office Must Hand Over Officer Names In Raid Suit

    A North Carolina federal judge has ordered a county sheriff's office to turn over the names of officers involved in a midnight raid on a home they incorrectly believed was harboring a suspected carjacker.

  • August 18, 2025

    Fired DOJ Antitrust Deputy Warns Of Lobbyist Influence

    The former top deputy for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Roger P. Alford, defended the agency's leadership Monday while calling out a pair of senior officials and warning of the influence that lobbyists are wielding over merger reviews and other issues.

  • August 18, 2025

    Akero Investor Suit Over Liver Drug Trials Permanently Tossed

    A California federal judge has permanently ended Akero Therapeutics investors' proposed class action alleging they were misled about the patient population in the company's liver disease treatment clinical trial, ruling the investors did not "fill-in the logical gaps" she previously identified when dismissing their earlier pleading for failing to plead scienter. 

  • August 18, 2025

    Texas Investigates Meta Over AI Mental Health Services

    The Texas attorney general said his office will investigate Meta AI Studio and Character.AI on allegations they are misleading consumers into thinking their chatbots are mental health tools, according to an announcement issued Monday, which also suggested the companies' activities may violate the state's privacy laws.

  • August 18, 2025

    Insurer, Kennel Settle Coverage Dispute Over Nuisance Claims

    A Hanover unit and a dog kennel have resolved a dispute over coverage for an underlying suit alleging that the kennel's expansion interfered with a Golden State community's rights of possession, according to a California federal court filing.

  • August 18, 2025

    Investors Can't Yet Tie Logan Paul To CryptoZoo Claims

    A Texas magistrate judge recommended that a proposed class action over Logan Paul's CryptoZoo project should be dismissed, writing that the group hadn't adequately connected the influencer to their claims that they were ripped off when the project failed.

  • August 18, 2025

    Amazon Settles Suit Over Child's Button Battery Burn Injuries

    A Washington federal judge has approved a settlement in a suit seeking to hold Amazon liable for severe injuries suffered by a toddler who ingested a small lithium-ion battery sold by a third-party company on Amazon, saying the terms of the deal are fair and reasonable.

  • August 18, 2025

    Vt. Says It Has The Authority To Enact Climate Superfund Law

    Vermont has urged a federal judge to dismiss lawsuits challenging its recently enacted climate change Superfund law, saying it's a valid exercise of the state's authority to raise revenue and protect its citizens against environmental harms.

  • August 18, 2025

    Treasury Seeks Input On Tech To Combat Crypto Crimes

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday asked the public to share feedback on how novel technologies might be used to detect and thwart illicit crypto activity, fulfilling a directive under a recently signed bill to regulate stable value tokens.

  • August 18, 2025

    Ohio State Court Finds Google Is Not A Common Carrier

    An Ohio state court has ruled that Google's search engine does not qualify as a common carrier that would be subject to heightened oversight, finding that Google does not transport products for others or claim that its search results are "indifferent."

  • August 18, 2025

    Founder Of 'Modest Needs' Charity Admits Stealing Millions

    A New York City man who operated a crowdsourcing charity for the poor copped to fraud and tax evasion charges Monday, telling a Manhattan federal judge that he stole millions and spent the money on a lavish lifestyle.

  • August 18, 2025

    Electronics-Makers Urge FCC To Extend Hearing Aid Standards

    The wireless industry and its device manufacturers are once again defending their request that the Federal Communications Commission delay the expiration of interim hearing aid compatibility standards for wireless handsets, saying a lack of device testing capacity could create a major bottleneck and disrupt the "vibrant market for new wireless handsets."

  • August 15, 2025

    'Alarm Should Ring': Judge Blocks FTC's Media Matters Probe

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge Friday preliminarily blocked the Federal Trade Commission from moving forward with its investigation into the left-leaning Media Matters for America, saying the investigation is likely a retaliatory response to an article reporting that ads on Twitter appeared next to antisemitic posts following Elon Musk's acquisition.

  • August 15, 2025

    Feds Say $2.8M In Seized Crypto Linked To Ransomware Ploy

    Federal prosecutors say they've seized $2.8 million in crypto from accounts controlled by an alleged ransomware attacker.

  • August 15, 2025

    Lee Subscribers Get Final OK For $9.5M Video Privacy Deal

    An Iowa federal judge has given final approval to a $9.5 million deal to resolve a proposed class action accusing media company Lee Enterprises of illegally disclosing subscribers' video-viewing information to Meta, finding the agreement adequately addresses risks that both sides would have if litigation were to continue.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices' Age Verification Ruling May Lead To More State Laws

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton ruling, permitting a Texas law requiring certain websites to verify users’ ages, significantly expands states' ability to regulate minors’ social media access, further complicating the patchwork of internet privacy laws, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions

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    In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently effective data security requirements carry profound implications for how healthcare providers collect, store, share and use data — and approach vendor oversight — that go far beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Now Is The Time To Prep For SEC's New Data Breach Regs

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    Recent remarks from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s acting director of the Division of Examinations suggest that the commission will support exams for compliance with its new data breach detection and reporting regulations, and a looming deadline means investment advisers and broker-dealers must act now to update their processes, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • How Banks Can Harness New Customer ID Rule's Flexibility

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    Banking regulators' update to the customer identification process, allowing banks to collect some information from third parties rather than directly from customers, helps modernize anti-money laundering compliance and carries advantages for financial institutions that embrace the new approach, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • What To Know About NCAA Deal's Arbitration Provisions

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    Kathryn Hester at Jones Walker discusses the key dispute resolution provisions of the NCAA's recently approved class action settlement that allows for complex revenue sharing with college athletes, breaking down the arbitration stipulations and explaining how the Northern District of California will handle certain enforcement, administration, implementation and interpretation disputes.

  • Opinion

    Premerger Settlements Don't Meet Standard For Bribery

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    Claims that Paramount’s decision to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump while it was undergoing a premerger regulatory review amounts to a quid pro quo misconstrue bribery law and ignore how modern legal departments operate, says Ediberto Román at the Florida International University College of Law.

  • Texas Med Spas Must Prepare For 2 New State Laws

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    Two new laws in Texas — regulating elective intravenous therapy and reforming healthcare noncompetes — mark a pivotal shift in the regulatory framework for medical spas in the state, which must proactively adapt their operations and contractual practices, says Brad Cook at Munsch Hardt.

  • What EPA Chemical Data Deadline Extension Means For Cos.

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's extension for manufacturers and importers of 16 chemical substances to report unpublished health and safety studies under the Toxic Substances Control Act could lead to state regulators stepping into the breach, while creating compliance risks and uncertainty for companies, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • Compliance Changes On Deck For Banks Under Texas AI Law

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    Financial services companies, including banks and fintechs, should evaluate their artificial intelligence usage to prepare for Texas' newly passed law regulating AI governance, noting that the enforcement provisions provide for an affirmative defense to liability, say attorneys at Mitchell Sandler.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • 23andMe Fine Signals ICO's New GDPR Enforcement Focus

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    Many of the cybersecurity failures identified by the Information Commissioner’s Office in its investigation of 23andMe, recently resulting in a £2.3 million fine, were basic lapses, but the ICO's focus on several new U.K. General Data Protection Regulation considerations will likely carry into the future, say lawyers at Womble Bond.

  • How Courts Are Addressing The Use Of AI In Discovery

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    In recent months, several courts have issued opinions on handling discovery issues involving artificial intelligence, which collectively offer useful insights on integrating AI into discovery and protecting work product in connection with AI prompts and outputs, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

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