Consumer Protection

  • May 01, 2024

    Ex-Cybersecurity Firm CEO Settles SEC Fraud Claims

    A former executive for a cybersecurity firm has agreed to settle regulators' allegations that he lied to investors about the firm's success in selling a new product and that he fabricated aspects of his background and experience, according to filings in Texas federal court.

  • May 01, 2024

    FCC Leaders Look To Boost Wireless Supply Chain Security

    Federal Communications Commission members Wednesday unveiled a bipartisan plan to beef up wireless supply chain security by more tightly scrutinizing whether equipment labs are tied to foreign powers.

  • May 01, 2024

    Hotel Chains Hit With Algorithmic Pricing Collusion Suit

    A group of hotel-goers has hit six major hotel chains with a proposed class action, alleging that the companies used a shared pricing algorithm to fix and raise hotel prices nationwide.

  • May 01, 2024

    Chipotle Granted Win in Customer Change-Shorting Row

    A Pennsylvania federal judge gave Chipotle Mexican Grill an early win Wednesday in a lawsuit by customers alleging they were stiffed out of change during a coin shortage, finding that because the customers agreed to not receive coin change during their transactions, they can't reasonably argue the fast food giant did anything wrong.

  • May 01, 2024

    Apple Users Defend Web Apps Antitrust Case

    Consumers urged a California federal court not to toss their case accusing Apple of violating antitrust law by preventing iPhones from running web-based apps that don't need to be downloaded, saying Apple used deals with Google and others to protect its dominance.

  • May 01, 2024

    Meta's Privacy Fight With FTC Paused For High Court Ruling

    The D.C. Circuit has pressed pause on Meta's bid to block the Federal Trade Commission from pursuing modifications to the parties' $5 billion privacy settlement to await the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a case challenging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house courts.

  • May 01, 2024

    3rd Circ. Flags Bayer's Knowledge Of Tainted Fungal Spray

    A proposed class of consumers who bought tainted Bayer antifungal sprays said they should have standing to sue because they didn't get the "benefit of the bargain" — and a Third Circuit panel questioned Wednesday if Bayer's separate suit blaming a supplier made the consumers' case for them.

  • May 01, 2024

    Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

    The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates well over 200 times in April as they sought to sway the FCC on net neutrality rules, junk calls and texts, bulk billing deals for broadband service in apartment buildings, and many other issues.

  • May 01, 2024

    Textron Aviation Must Face Questions In Conn. Death Suits

    A Connecticut state court judge says a Kansas-based aircraft manufacturer must answer a series of questions about its connections to the Constitution State after being sued over a 2021 plane crash, disagreeing with most of Textron Aviation Inc.'s personal jurisdiction arguments that it need not face additional interrogatories.

  • May 01, 2024

    Attys Say $5M Fee In Acella Settlement A Modest Proposal

    Plaintiffs' attorneys who recently reached a $46.5 million class action settlement with Acella Pharmaceuticals LLC over faulty thyroid medication asked a Georgia federal judge Tuesday to sign off on their $5 million cut of the deal as a "presumptively reasonable" proposal.

  • May 01, 2024

    5th Circ. Wants Texas Injunction Ruling In CFPB Late Fee Case

    In a late Tuesday twist, the Fifth Circuit has sent a banking industry lawsuit over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule back to Texas federal court, saying it doesn't want to be the first to decide whether the rule should be blocked from taking effect later this month.

  • April 30, 2024

    Chancery Tosses Meta Activist Investor Suit Over Social Ills

    A Delaware vice chancellor tossed a Meta activist investor's suit seeking to prioritize wider social impact over company profits, saying Delaware's single-firm corporate model assumes directors owe fiduciary duties to their company's stockholders, and there's no case law articulating that because it's "so basic," just as "fish don't talk about water."

  • April 30, 2024

    SEC Fines Adviser Firm For Splitting Legal Fees With Client

    A Puerto Rico-based investment adviser will pay more than $500,000 to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's claims it entered into an improper joint legal fee arrangement with a mutual fund that was also its client.

  • April 30, 2024

    OpenAI Tries To Throw Out Another Copyright Case

    OpenAI is seeking to dismiss a suit in New York federal court from two alternative news websites asserting copyright infringement allegations against the Microsoft Corp.-backed artificial intelligence developer, saying they haven't shown they've been harmed.

  • April 30, 2024

    Pfizer Can't Slip COVID-19 Vax Suit, Texas Tells Court

    The Texas attorney general told a federal judge not to let Pfizer Inc. out of its suit accusing the pharmaceutical company of misleading the public about its COVID-19 vaccine, arguing the suit was properly pled under state law in a brief filed Monday.

  • April 30, 2024

    Drug Company Can't Escape Texas Counties' Opioid MDL

     A Texas appeals court on Tuesday declined to cut loose a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical manufacturer from Texas multidistrict litigation over opioid addiction in the state, finding that the counties of Dallas and Bexar have demonstrated that it's made deliberate moves toward the Texas market.

  • April 30, 2024

    Split 9th Circ. Finds San Jose Nuisance Laws Constitutional

    A split Ninth Circuit panel held Tuesday that San Jose, California, did not violate the First Amendment rights of a nightclub operator by suspending its license following a shooting, affirming that the public nuisance provisions and licensing scheme for entertainment venues used by the city are not unlawful prior restraints.

  • April 30, 2024

    3rd Circ. Preview: Kavanaugh Classmate Takes On HuffPost

    The Third Circuit's May lineup will find the court weighing HuffPost's battle with an allegedly libeled former classmate of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and claims by consumers alleging they bought defective Bayer antifungal medicine.

  • April 30, 2024

    Dust Spray Maker Hit With $7.75M Verdict Over Fatal DUI

    The maker of aerosol dust remover has been ordered by a Minnesota federal jury to pay $7.75 million to the husband of a woman who was killed in a car accident by a truck driver who huffed the spray before getting behind the wheel.

  • April 30, 2024

    FTC To Help FCC Enforce 'Net Neutrality' Rules

    The Federal Communications Commission has called on a sister agency, the Federal Trade Commission, to cooperate on enforcing the FCC's restored "net neutrality" rules to require the free flow of network traffic.

  • April 30, 2024

    Kroger, Albertsons Say FTC Distorts Markets In Merger Case

    Kroger and Albertsons told an Oregon federal court to reject a pending merger challenge by the Federal Trade Commission and a group of states, saying it distorts the competitive landscape for the grocery and labor markets.

  • April 30, 2024

    FTC Continues To Target 'Junk' Drug Patents

    Federal trade officials told a series of pharmaceutical companies — including the makers of the controversial diabetes and weight loss drug Ozempic — that they may have listed faulty patents in a key register of a federal drug database.

  • April 30, 2024

    Patients Sue NC Plasma Donation Co. Over Data Breach

    A plasma collection company has been hit in North Carolina federal court with at least two proposed class actions as of Monday claiming it failed to safeguard patient data, resulting in a breach in which names, Social Security numbers, addresses and treatment information were allegedly exposed by hackers.

  • April 30, 2024

    Customers Can't Get Ill. ComEd Bribery Suit Restored

    An Illinois state appellate panel refused Monday to reinstate a putative class action accusing Commonwealth Edison of fraud in the wake of the utility's admission that it bribed the former Illinois House speaker to secure his support for favorable energy policy, saying the passage of the relevant legislation wasn't directly related to the bribes.

  • April 30, 2024

    House Panel Touts Legislation To Preserve AM Radio In Cars

    Lawmakers pushed for legislation mandating that new vehicles come with AM radio capability Tuesday, even as auto industry representatives said the idea would stifle innovation and represent government overreach in the free market.

Expert Analysis

  • Bracing Cos. For Calif. Privacy Agency's Restored Authority

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    A recent California state appeals court decision greenlights the California Privacy Protection Agency's enforcement of certain consumer privacy regulations, which may speed up compliance requirements, so businesses considering use of artificial intelligence, for instance, may want to reassess their handling of privacy notices and opt-out requests, say Kevin Angle and Matthew Cin at Ropes & Gray.

  • 7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves

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    As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.

  • Basics Of Bank Regulators' Push For Discount Window Use

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    As the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency emphasize short-term liquidity risk management as central to preventing spring 2023-style bank collapses, banks should carefully tune into regulators’ remarks encouraging use of the Fed’s discount window, which some policymakers identify as a key component in the evolution of liquidity regulation and backstop lending, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • 2 Emerging Defenses For Website Tracking Class Actions

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    Putative class actions premised on state wiretapping statutes that bar website activity tracking continue to be on the rise, but they are increasingly being dismissed on two procedural grounds, says Sheri Pan at ZwillGen.

  • Series

    Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Communication Is Key As CFPB Updates Appeals Process

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    Though a recently updated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule expands financial institutions' abilities to appeal supervisory decisions, creating strong relationships and open communication channels with CFPB examiners may help resolve disputes faster than the more cumbersome formal process, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Considerations For Disclosing AI Use In SEC Filings

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    Recent remarks from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler should be heard as a clarion call for public companies to disclose artificial intelligence use, with four takeaways on what companies should disclose, says Richard Hong at Morrison Cohen.

  • Args In APA Case Amplify Justices' Focus On Agency Power

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    In arguments last week in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Supreme Court justices paid particular importance to the possible ripple effects of their decision, which will address when a facial challenge to long-standing federal rules under the Administrative Procedure Act first accrues and could thus unleash a flood of new lawsuits, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Setting The Stage For High Court BofA Escrow Interest Case

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    Dori Bailey and Curtis Johnson at Bond Schoeneck examine relevant legislation and case law dating back 200 years ahead of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in Cantero v. Bank of America, the outcome of which will determine whether state laws governing mortgage escrow accounts can be enforced against national banks.

  • What To Know About OCC Proposals For Bank Merger Review

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    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's proposed changes to the agency's bank merger review process could exacerbate industry concerns with long and unpredictable processing periods because the proposal is ambiguous with respect to how the OCC will view certain transactions, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Using Arbitration And Class Waivers As Privacy Suit Tools

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    Amid a surge in data breach class actions over the last few years, several federal court decisions indicate that arbitration clauses and class action waiver provisions can be possible alternatives to public court battles and potentially reduce the costs of privacy litigation, say Mark Olthoff and Courtney Klaus at Polsinelli.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • 5 Lessons For SaaS Companies After Blackbaud Data Breach

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    Looking at the enforcement actions that software-as-a-service provider Blackbaud resolved with state attorneys general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in the past year can help SaaS companies manage these increasingly common forms of data breaches, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: February Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five notable circuit court decisions on topics from property taxes to veteran's rights — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including class representative intervention, wage-and-hour dispute evidence and ascertainability requirements.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

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