Consumer Protection

  • March 06, 2024

    Genesis Parent Co. Says NY Fraud Suit Is 'Baseless Innuendo'

    Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group Inc. and its CEO told a New York trial court on Wednesday that the state attorney general's claims that it defrauded customers out of more than $3 billion are "a thin web of baseless innuendo, blatant mischaracterizations and unsupported conclusory statements" that should be permanently tossed.

  • March 06, 2024

    North Carolina Probing RealPage Over Antitrust Issues, Too

    The North Carolina Attorney General's Office is probing RealPage Inc. over concerns that its software helps property owners coordinate rent increases, adding to pressure on a company already facing private litigation and enforcement actions for allegedly violating antitrust law.

  • March 06, 2024

    CFPB Rebuffs Bid By MV Realty To End Investigation

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has denied a plea from MV Realty to set aside the agency's investigation of the Florida-based company's use of 40-year exclusive listing agreements to force homeowners to pay thousands of dollars in junk fees.

  • March 06, 2024

    DC Circ. Sticks By FERC In Nebraska Utility Charge Fight

    The D.C. Circuit stood by its early January decision backing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's rejection of a Lincoln, Nebraska, public utility's proposal to recover costs from customers located in the same area as its generation and transmission source.

  • March 05, 2024

    NY Targets Yellowstone Capital In $1.4B Suit Over Lending

    New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday slapped Yellowstone Capital and dozens of other lenders with a suit seeking at least $1.4 billion for allegedly predatory lending practices that James said exploit small businesses through fraudulent loans at "sky-high interest rates."

  • March 05, 2024

    Poland Springs Sued Over Microplastics In 'Natural' Water

    Poland Springs is being falsely marketed as "100% natural spring water," a description that isn't accurate thanks to the "dangerous levels of microplastics" found in the bottled water, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in New York federal court.

  • March 05, 2024

    Wells Fargo Accused Of Enabling Ex-Texas Atty's Fraud

    Victims of a former San Antonio lawyer's multimillion-dollar fraud scheme claim his theft was enabled by Wells Fargo willfully turning a blind eye to the lawyer's misuse of trust accounts holding client funds, according to a lawsuit in Texas federal court that alleges the bank profited from this scheme.

  • March 05, 2024

    5 Things To Know About CFPB's Cut To Credit Card Late Fees

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new rule to cut credit card late fees has ignited a banking industry firestorm, with at least one trade group warning it will "imminently" sue. Here are five things to know as the fallout from the rule begins to take shape. 

  • March 05, 2024

    Penn Perpetuates 'Virulent Anti-Jewish Hatred,' Students Say

    The University of Pennsylvania has fostered a culture of antisemitism that has only escalated since Hamas-led killings in Israel on Oct. 7, according to an amended federal complaint accusing the school of cultivating a "pervasively hostile educational environment."

  • March 05, 2024

    4th Circ. Affirms Med Mal Trial Win For Md. Patient

    A clinic and gynecologist can't evade a $1 million judgment over claims they botched a surgery, causing a patient's infection and ultimately the removal of part of her large intestine, a Fourth Circuit panel ruled, saying there was sufficient evidence for a jury to find them liable.

  • March 05, 2024

    White House To Crack Down On Illegal, Unfair Pricing

    President Joe Biden launched a new "strike force" Tuesday to stop companies from imposing unfair price hikes on consumers amid a rash of measures supporting the administration's push to boost competition and lower prices across the economy.

  • March 05, 2024

    Google Profits From Play Store Gift Card Scams, Suit Says

    Google was hit with a proposed class action Tuesday in California federal court by a customer who accused it of keeping millions of dollars in funds stolen from victims of Google Play gift card scams and perpetuating the scheme due to the commissions the company keeps from sales transactions.

  • March 05, 2024

    Terraform Says Creditors Sabotaging Dentons Retention

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday allowed Terraform Labs unsecured creditors time to catch up on a dispute over the debtor's Denton's retention, a request Terraform dubbed "sabotage" of its defense in an upcoming $40 billion securities fraud trial.

  • March 05, 2024

    Zimmerman Reed Rips L'Occitane Privacy 'Shakedown' Suit

    Zimmerman Reed LLP has asked a California federal court to toss L'Occitane's suit claiming the firm and thousands of its clients have conspired to "weaponize" a California wiretapping law against the luxury retailer, arguing that there's no "legitimate factual basis" backing the allegations.

  • March 05, 2024

    Judges Unsure On Atty Sanctions In Robinhood Spam Suit

    Class counsel sanctioned $750,000 for helping instigate a spam text suit against Robinhood Financial likely engaged in "shenanigans," a Washington appeals judge said Tuesday, though a colleague on the bench questioned whether those sanctions should stick if Robinhood was nevertheless liable in the case.

  • March 05, 2024

    App Store Users Tell 9th Circ. To Reject Class Cert. Appeal

    Consumers pressed the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to not take up Apple's appeal of the certification of millions of App Store users, arguing the class action raises none of the issues justifying immediate intervention before trial on allegations targeting the technology giant's iron grip over app distribution on iPhones.

  • March 05, 2024

    Coca-Cola Sued Again Over Topo Chico's Margarita Label

    Buyers of The Coca-Cola Co.'s hard seltzer brand Topo Chico Margarita Hard Seltzer have alleged the company misled them into believing the drink contains tequila by labeling it "margarita," and listing "alcohol" and "agave syrup" as ingredients, according to a new putative class action. 

  • March 05, 2024

    Gibson Dunn AI Leader On Weathering The AI Policy Blizzard

    Like a mountaineer leading a team through a snowstorm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP's artificial intelligence co-chair Cassandra L. Gaedt-Sheckter is guiding companies developing and using artificial intelligence through a blizzard of new laws and regulations coming online in Europe and the U.S., saying that assessing AI risks is the North Star to mitigating them.

  • March 05, 2024

    2nd Circ. Won't Revive Stanley Black & Decker Power Fight

    A Second Circuit panel on Tuesday declined to revive proposed class claims alleging that Stanley Black & Decker Inc.'s Craftsman vacuum cleaner labels overstated the products' achievable horsepower, reasoning that the consumers' "fine print" argument was too weak to support their challenge.

  • March 05, 2024

    Pharmacist Takes Deal In Mich. Over Fatal Meningitis Outbreak

    The founder of a Massachusetts drug compounding center that was the source of a deadly meningitis outbreak has pled no contest to 11 counts of manslaughter brought by Michigan state prosecutors, the latter state's Department of Attorney General announced Tuesday.

  • March 05, 2024

    Senate Dem Sees Votes For Broadband Discount Funding

    A key Democratic senator said late Tuesday he sees momentum growing on Capitol Hill for at least a short-term funding renewal for the embattled Affordable Connectivity Program.

  • March 05, 2024

    FTC Chair Decries PE's Healthcare Impacts As Probe Starts

    Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan on Tuesday lamented what she deemed the "financialization" of healthcare resulting from private equity buyouts, in remarks coinciding with the launch of a multijurisdictional request for public comment on PE and other companies' growing control over the healthcare system.

  • March 05, 2024

    Capital One Beats Foreign Currency Swap Overcharge Suit

    A Virginia federal judge on Monday tossed a proposed class action claiming Capital One overcharges credit and debit card customers on transactions made in foreign currencies, saying the plaintiffs' card agreements do not specify the rates they will be charged.

  • March 05, 2024

    Ill. Atty Tells 1st Circ. Feds Botched Venue For Scam Case

    An Illinois lawyer convicted of receiving proceeds from business email compromise schemes orchestrated by others told the First Circuit on Tuesday that Massachusetts was the wrong place for him to have been tried, urging the appeals court to dismiss the charges underlying the guilty verdict. 

  • March 05, 2024

    FCC Looks To Ban Bulk Billing In Apartment Buildings

    The Federal Communications Commission is considering banning bulk broadband billing in apartment buildings, with the hopes of expanding choice and lowering costs for residents of multi-tenant buildings, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a release Monday.

Expert Analysis

  • A Potential Proactive Tool For Public-Private Joint Ventures

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    In the current environment of heightened antitrust enforcement, the National Cooperative Research and Production Act seems tailor-made for the collaborative work among competitors encouraged by the Biden administration's infrastructure and green energy funding legislation, say Jeetander Dulani and Susan Ebner at Stinson.

  • 5 AI Risks For Corporate Boards To Examine

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    Whether companies are building their own artificial intelligence technology or leveraging third-party tools, their directors should get educated on certain legal issues and business risks to ensure the adoption of policies that foster responsible use of generative AI, say James Gatto and Tiana Garbett at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 3 Areas Of Focus In Congressional Crosshairs This Year

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    Companies must prepare for Congress to build on its 2023 oversight priorities this year, continuing its vigorous inquiries into Chinese company-related investments, workplace safety and labor relations issues, and generative artificial intelligence, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Companies Should Beware Greater Scrutiny Of Subscriptions

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    The New York Attorney General's Office has been utilizing a severe interpretation of the law in enforcement against subscription services, as demonstrated in last month's Sirius XM complaint and Cerebral settlement — and this focus is representative of heightened subscription scrutiny in other states and at the federal level, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Takeaways From FTC Children's Privacy Rule Proposal

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    The Federal Trade Commission’s recently issued and long-awaited proposed revisions to its Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule are not as seismic as might have been expected under current leadership, and show that the agency's COPPA rulemaking is far from over, says Phyllis Marcus at Hunton.

  • Series

    Baking Bread Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    After many years practicing law, and a few years baking bread, I have learned that there are a few keys to success in both endeavors, including the assembly of a nourishing and resilient culture, and the ability to learn from failure and exercise patience, says Rick Robinson at Reed Smith.

  • 3 Key Class Action Trends To Use As Guidance In 2024

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    Telephone Consumer Protection Act, privacy and false advertising class actions saw significant shifts last year — including a trend toward expanding the application of preexisting laws to current technologies — that businesses should keep in mind to navigate the class action landscape in 2024, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Federal Courts And AI Standing Orders: Safety Or Overkill?

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    Several district court judges have issued standing orders regulating the use of artificial intelligence in their courts, but courts should consider following ordinary notice and comment procedures before implementing sweeping mandates that could be unnecessarily burdensome and counterproductive, say attorneys at Curtis.

  • What FTC CARS Rule Means For Auto Dealers And Lenders

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    A newly finalized Federal Trade Commission rule is aimed at changing how auto dealers interact with customers in the financing process, but will likely also affect banks and finance companies — and consequences for lenders and servicers have been amplified by recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement actions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • How Data Brokers Can Prep For Calif. Delete Act Compliance

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    As California Delete Act obligations approach in late January, data brokers should proactively assess and scrutinize their compliance with the act, taking proactive measures to mitigate potential risks associated with noncompliance, say Goli Mahdavi and Gabrielle Harwell at BCLP.

  • Why CFTC Whistleblowers Are Crucial To Crypto Regulation

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's whistleblower program has proven to be a key tool in the U.S.' efforts to police cryptocurrency, but a funding issue shows that it has become a victim of its own success, says Stephen Kohn at Kohn Kohn.

  • How 4 State AGs Are Shaping Data Privacy Compliance

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    As the landscape of state data privacy laws continues to grow across the nation, understanding how state attorneys general — such as in California, Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia — are thinking about these laws is critical to begin forecasting how enforcement will play out, say Michelle Kallen and Daniel Echeverri at Jenner & Block.

  • 7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond

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    The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Securities Class Actions Show No Signs of Slowing In 2024

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    Plaintiffs asserted securities class actions at elevated levels in 2023 — a sign that filings will remain high in the year ahead — as they switched gears to target companies that allegedly have failed to anticipate supply chain disruptions, persistent inflation, rising interest rates and other macroeconomic headwinds, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Top Considerations For Retailers Using AI To Combat Theft

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent enforcement action against Rite Aid indicates a significant evolution in the landscape surrounding biometric information and artificial intelligence data collection by retailers, meaning retailers should take reasonable measures to prevent harm to customers, say attorneys at Dentons.

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