Consumer Protection

  • September 11, 2025

    FCC Focuses On 'Friendly' Space Regulatory Environment

    Federal Communications Commission leaders said this week one of their top goals is to make the U.S. the world's most hospitable regulatory turf for commercial space activity as "Space Race 2.0" accelerates with China.

  • September 11, 2025

    Audible Credit Suit Raises Question On Wash. Gift Card Law

    A federal judge in Seattle has floated asking Washington's high court to clarify the scope of the Evergreen State's gift card law, suggesting on Thursday that a consumer suit over expiring Audible credits hinges on whether the statute only covers instruments with monetary value.  

  • September 11, 2025

    FCC Warns Cable, Prime Customers Of Scam Offering 50% Off

    Comcast and Amazon won't offer customers discounts on their subscription if they pay in gift cards, the Federal Communications Commission is warning after noticing the proliferation of a new scam claiming that a "50% discount on your monthly bill is set to expire."

  • September 11, 2025

    Mich. Judge Greenlights Fiat Chrysler Engine Fire Settlement

    A Michigan federal judge on Thursday granted preliminary approval to a settlement between drivers and FCA US LLC to resolve claims that the automaker sold trucks with an engine defect that could cause fires.

  • September 11, 2025

    Disney Flouts Privacy Law By Exploiting User Data, Suit Says

    The Walt Disney Co. is flouting privacy laws by illegally gathering and sharing with Google personal information of individuals who visit its website for data monetization and advertising purposes, without their knowledge or consent, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court.

  • September 11, 2025

    Google, Apple Fight Proposed UK App Ranking, Pay Mandates

    Apple and Google both pushed back on proposals by United Kingdom antitrust authorities to stop the companies from boosting their own apps and using commission-based payment systems but took slightly different approaches, according to separate responses made public Thursday.

  • September 11, 2025

    Execs Seek Exit From Predatory Loan Suit Naming Tribal Biz

    Company executives accused of operating a predatory lending scheme involving the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe have asked a California federal judge to strike class allegations against them and send the suit to arbitration, saying the lead plaintiff waived his right to bring class actions in his loan agreement.

  • September 11, 2025

    Roblox, Discord Again Accused Of Ignoring Teen Exploitation

    The mother of a 14-year-old girl allegedly groomed by a predator on Roblox and Discord recently joined the slew of parents suing the online platforms for failing to safeguard children from being sexually exploited, saying in a suit filed in California federal court that she wrongly believed Roblox in particular was safe for children.

  • September 11, 2025

    23 States Back High Court Stay Of FTC Dem's Reinstatement

    Florida and 22 other states have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to grant the Trump administration's request to block a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission from serving on the commission while she challenges her firing.

  • September 11, 2025

    Vet's Wells Fargo Credit Ding Didn't Break Law, Jury Finds

    Wells Fargo didn't violate the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to recognize fraud affecting the account of a customer who described himself as a veteran of the U.S. military's special forces, a federal jury in Washington state has concluded.

  • September 10, 2025

    Uber Balanced Safety With Need For Growth, Jurors Told

    Uber's former head of global safety testified Wednesday in a bellwether trial over sexual assault allegations against the ride-hailing giant, telling jurors that during his tenure, Uber worked to balance safety priorities with its corporate growth.

  • September 10, 2025

    FTC Urged To Probe Microsoft Over Ascension Data Breach

    U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into Microsoft's "gross cybersecurity negligence" that has allegedly contributed to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure providers, including a 2024 ransomware hack that targeted hospital system Ascension.

  • September 10, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revisit Double-Patenting, Soda TM Appeals

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday declined to revisit its decisions in a trio of intellectual property cases, including one where it upheld an Acadia Pharmaceuticals Parkinson's disease drug patent and addressed double-patenting, and another deeming "Kist" and "Sunkist" soft drink marks confusingly similar.

  • September 10, 2025

    2nd Circ. OKs Verizon's $47M FCC Fine, Splitting With 5th Circ.

    The Second Circuit upheld Wednesday the Federal Communications Commission's $46.9 million fine against Verizon Communications Inc. for misuse of device-location data, rejecting Verizon's arguments that the data falls outside federal privacy protections and that such a penalty without a jury trial was unconstitutional, creating a split with the Fifth Circuit.

  • September 10, 2025

    NC Justice Probes 'Scalia-Style' View Of Waste Fee Law

    A North Carolina Supreme Court justice probed the expansiveness of counsel's argument over a county's solid waste ordinance Wednesday, wondering if channeling a "Justice Scalia"-style reading of the text suggests that a property owner could hire a private waste collector just once a year to sidestep an annual fee.

  • September 10, 2025

    FCC's Carr Says Agency Clawbacks Save More Than $9M

    The Federal Communications Commission will be clawing back more than $9 million in overpayments that it says it mistakenly made to telecoms and discovered as part of an audit of the "antiquated high-cost program."

  • September 10, 2025

    SEC Says Adviser Startup Broke Investor Data Privacy Rule

    An investment adviser representative and his firm were hit with a suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday over claims that the adviser, among other things, emailed himself confidential client information from his former employer as a step in creating his own investment firm.

  • September 10, 2025

    FCC Sticks With Nearly $1M Pirate Radio Fine

    A New York City area man was slapped with a nearly $1 million Federal Communications Commission fine Wednesday for operating an illegal radio station, after the agency says he ignored the notice warning that they intended to fine him for nearly a year.

  • September 10, 2025

    Texas Gov. Issues Executive Order On Hemp Products For Kids

    Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday issued an executive order requiring state agencies to implement rules restricting the sale of hemp-derived psychoactive products to anyone under the age of 21.

  • September 10, 2025

    Md. Appeals Court Says Psychoactive Hemp Wares Illegal

    A Maryland appeals court on Tuesday ruled that products containing psychoactive compounds derived from hemp are illegal, delivering a blow to a coalition of hemp interests that brought a constitutional challenge to the state's recreational marijuana legalization law.

  • September 10, 2025

    NCAA Bans Hoopsters For Betting, Rigging Performances

    The NCAA has permanently banned three California college basketball players for their "coordinated effort" to bet on their own games, each other's games and their own performances, with at least one athlete manipulating his on-court performance to secure gambling wins.

  • September 10, 2025

    Consumers Defend Challenge To Nippon-US Steel Merger

    Consumers urged a California federal judge Wednesday not to dismiss their challenge to Nippon Steel's now-closed purchase of U.S. Steel Corp., arguing they've fixed an earlier lawsuit's shortcomings.

  • September 10, 2025

    3rd Circ. Questions NJ's Bid To Block Kalshi's Sports Bets

    The Third Circuit seemed prepared on Wednesday to block New Jersey from enforcing a sports gambling ban on trading platform KalshiEx, with at least one judge arguing the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's authority to regulate the event contracts space "seems quite broad."

  • September 10, 2025

    FTC Warns Healthcare Employers About Noncompetes

    The Federal Trade Commission has sent letters warning healthcare employers and staffing companies not to include overly broad noncompete restrictions in their employment contracts and urged them to conduct a review to ensure they comply with the law.

  • September 10, 2025

    Biz Groups Ask 4th Circ. To Revisit Ethylene Oxide Class Suit

    Business groups have urged the Fourth Circuit to reconsider a recent ruling that allowed a West Virginia woman's proposed class action to proceed against Union Carbide Corp. and Covestro LLC over ethylene oxide exposure, arguing that she doesn't have ground for her medical-monitoring claims.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Know About Bill Aiming To Curb CIPA

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    A bill pending in the California Assembly would amend the California Invasion of Privacy Act to allow for the use of website tracking technologies for commercial business purposes, limiting class actions seeking damages under the act for industry standard practices, say Katherine Alphonso and Avazeh Pourhamzeh at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Practical Implications Of SEC's New Crypto Staking Guidance

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent staff guidance that protocol staking does not constitute securities offerings provides a workable compliance blueprint for crypto developers, validators and custodial platforms willing to keep staking strictly limited to protocol-driven rewards, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • State Law Challenges In Enforcing Arbitration Clauses

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    In recent cases, state courts in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey have considered or endorsed heightened standards for arbitration agreements, which can mean the difference between a bilateral arbitration and a full-blown class action in court, says Fabien Thayamballi at Shapiro Arato.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How To Strengthen A Case By Mastering Expert Witness Prep

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    A well-prepared expert witness can bolster a case's credibility with persuasive qualifications, compelling voir dire responses and concise testimony that can withstand cross-examination, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Series

    Georgia Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter brought a number of significant legislative and regulatory changes for Georgia banking, including an extension of the intangibles tax exemption for short-term notes, modernization of routine regulatory practices, and new guardrails against mortgage trigger leads, says Walter Jones at Balch & Bingham.

  • Capital One Deal Approval Lights Up Path For Bank M&A

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    The federal banking regulators' recent approval of Capital One's acquisition of Discover signals the agencies' willingness to approve large transactions and a more favorable environment generally for bank mergers under the Trump administration, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    In the second quarter of the year, New York utilized every available tool to fill gaps left by federal retrenchment from consumer finance issues, including sweeping updates to its consumer protection framework and notable amendments to cybersecurity rules, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • State, Fed Junk Fee Enforcement Shows No Signs Of Slowing

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    The Federal Trade Commission’s potent new rule targeting drip pricing, in addition to the growing patchwork of state consumer protection laws, suggest that enforcement and litigation targeting junk fees will likely continue to expand, says Etia Rottman Frand at Darrow AI.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • New Laws Show How States Are Checking AI Developers

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    Recent state consumer protection legislation shows Utah, Colorado and Texas are primed to impose controls on artificial intelligence, and exemplifies the states' unwillingness to accord strong deference to developers and deployers of AI tools, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

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