NM Again Hauls Meta To Trial, This Time Over Privacy

By Cara Salvatore

The state of New Mexico told a jury Wednesday that Facebook flagrantly misrepresented its privacy practices, including the one that let Cambridge Analytica harvest the data of 87 million mostly nonconsenting users, as the state goes to trial against the company for the third time in seven months.

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Sugar Buyers Want Paul Weiss DQ'd From Price-Fixing MDL

By Dorothy Atkins

Hershey, J.M. Smucker and other food makers urged a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to disqualify Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP from representing Domino Foods in sugar price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing the firm is conflicted out because it saw their confidential sugar-purchasing data when it was being considered as plaintiffs' counsel.

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Court Lets Stand Exxon Win In Decade-Old Securities Case

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge denied a motion by a class of Exxon Mobil Corp. investors seeking a new trial in a 10-year-old securities class action claiming the energy giant misled shareholders, saying Wednesday that the company's closing arguments did not prejudice the jury.

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Justices Call For Early Response Over Paramount Merger

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Supreme Court is giving California and other state enforcers that are challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. until later this month to respond to Iowa and Montana's bid to block the merger challenge.

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Meta's 'Fanciful' AI Training Disclosures Leave Judge Doubtful

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared skeptical Wednesday that Meta Platforms Inc. had identified all magazines used to train its artificial intelligence tool after copyright plaintiffs pointed out Meta disclosed only nine issues spanning a 17-year period, telling Meta's counsel during a hearing that the likelihood Meta used only nine issues "seems rather fanciful to me."

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Waldorf Astoria Strikes $15M Deal In Spa Workers' Pay Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Waldorf Astoria resort will pay $15 million to settle spa workers' proposed class and collective action claims that the resort misclassified them as independent contractors and shorted them on wages and benefits, according to a filing in Hawaii federal court.

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Brief

Liberty Mutual Gets Green Light For $13.4M 401(k) Suit Deal

By Patrick Hoff

A Massachusetts federal judge on Wednesday signed off on a $13.4 million settlement that wraps up a lawsuit accusing Liberty Mutual of loading its employee 401(k) plan with excessive fees and underperforming investments.

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Bikini Barista Owner Owes Class $1.8M Over Wage Violations

By Ben Adlin

The owner of Seattle-area "bikini barista" company Beehive Espresso is on the hook for more than $1.8 million after a Washington state judge found him liable for numerous pay violations, including tip theft, limits on moonlighting, improper sick leave accounting and failure to pay minimum wage.

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Port Workers Win Class Status In Union Nepotism Suit

By Emily Brill

A Georgia federal judge certified a nepotism-in-hiring lawsuit against an International Longshoremen's Association local as a class action Wednesday, letting 64 workers band together to accuse the union of breaching its duty of fair representation by funneling jobs to union leaders' family and friends.

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Brief

West Point Faculty Speech Policy Blocked As Unconstitutional

By Elaine Briseño

A New York federal judge permanently barred West Point from enforcing a policy that prohibited professors from expressing opinions about the subject matters they were teaching their students, finding the directive unconstitutional.

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Unions, Feds Reach Deal In Gov't Shutdown Layoffs Suit

By Tim Ryan

A coalition of unions has reached a settlement in principle with the Trump administration resolving litigation in California federal court challenging layoffs at federal agencies during the 2025 government shutdown, pending approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Faulty Fee Comparisons Doom Ameritas Workers' 401(k) Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

Life insurance giant Ameritas defeated a proposed class action alleging an employee 401(k) plan was saddled with excessive fees, after a Nebraska federal judge held workers' allegations that management lapses cost millions failed to state a claim for violating federal benefits law.

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Aramark Worker Fights To Keep Parent Company In Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

A Seattle concessions supervisor has pushed back against a food services company's bid to exit from a wage and hour lawsuit, arguing in Washington federal court that the company's centralized control over employee handbooks, payroll, human resources and scheduling policies is enough to hold it liable as a joint employer under state wage law.

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Biz Group Says Centene 401(k) Suit Threatens Investor Choice

By Grace Elletson

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported Centene Corp.'s effort to toss a suit claiming it mismanaged its $4.7 billion retirement plan through excessive management fees and opaque trusts, arguing the suit is improperly attempting to cast certain investment vehicles as inherently untrustworthy.

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AI Travel Firm Brass Accused Of Misleading Investors

By Sydney Price

Executives and directors of business travel technology firm Navan have been hit with a shareholder's derivative suit accusing them of misleading investors about the company's profitability and AI-driven business model in the registration statement for its initial public offering. 

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Klarna Wants Out Of Investor Action Over Loan Risks

By Sydney Price

Payments company Klarna Group PLC has asked a New York federal court to dismiss it from an investor suit accusing it of damaging shareholders by failing to disclose losses associated with its "buy now, pay later" loans ahead of its 2025 initial public offering, saying its projections were neither inaccurate nor misleading.

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Dentsply Investor Suit Over Pandemic Woes Lined Up For Trial

By Katryna Perera

Dental health products supplier Dentsply Sirona is set to face trial over claims that it misled investors about the extent of its pandemic-era woes after a New York federal judge largely denied the company's bid to defeat a shareholder class action.

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Ex-Nikola CEO's Pardon Doesn't Let Him Beat Investor Suit

By Katryna Perera

The presidential pardon Nikola founder Trevor Milton received for his criminal conviction on securities fraud charges does not bar him from facing similar civil claims alleging he and the electric-vehicle startup exaggerated the viability of the company's prospects, an Arizona federal judge ruled.

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Paramount Doubles Down On $1.9B Bond Bid In Merger Suit

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Paramount has insisted the Writers Guild of America and state attorneys general cannot avoid putting up a roughly $1.9 billion bond as they challenge the media company's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying their arguments against its bond bid fail under the Clayton Act.

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Disney Gets Fubo Streaming Rate Claims Sent To Arbitration

By Matthew Perlman

A California federal court ordered Fubo subscribers to arbitrate their antitrust claims in a case accusing Disney of driving up the cost of subscriptions by forcing the streaming platform to carry a package of channels instead of just ESPN.

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3rd Circ. Stands By Upholding Lipitor Pay-For-Delay Suit Toss

By Bryan Koenig

The Third Circuit has refused to rethink its decision backing a New Jersey district court's dismissal of an antitrust suit alleging Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. conspired to delay a generic version of the cholesterol drug Lipitor.

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Brief

Latest $1.5M Turkey Price-Fixing Deal Gets Early OK

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge Wednesday gave his initial sign-off to a $1.5 million deal Prestage Farms has inked to resolve certain buyers' claims in sprawling turkey price-fixing antitrust litigation.

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General Mills, Mars Allege Sugar Price-Fixing Scheme

By Craig Clough

General Mills, Kellanova, Mars and Little Debbie maker McKee Foods are suing several major U.S. sugar producers in Illinois federal court, accusing them of conspiring to inflate granulated sugar prices for years by secretly sharing sensitive pricing, sales and supply information through an intermediary.

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Humana Says Mylan 'Gamesmanship' Can't Keep Trial Paused

By Bryan Koenig

Humana Inc. asked a Pennsylvania federal judge to restart the countdown to the first trial in the generic-drug price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing that Mylan Inc.'s "eleventh-hour delay gambit" of a potential conflict of interest is just the latest in a "carefully choreographed campaign of delaying trial to prevent accountability."

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Amazon Urges NY Court To Deny E-Book Antitrust Class Cert.

By Rachel Riley

Amazon on Tuesday objected to a New York federal magistrate judge's recommendation to certify a class of over 30 million customers in a suit accusing it of monopolizing the e-book market, saying the judge disregarded proof that a significant share of the consumers benefited from the challenged practices.

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FCA, Cummins Win Ram Diesel Suit Over EPA Preemption

By Susan Smiley

A class action alleging FCA and Cummins Inc. falsely marketed Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 diesel pickup trucks as being more environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient than other diesel trucks ended on Wednesday after a Michigan federal judge held the claims are preempted by the Clean Air Act.

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​​​​​​​Cannabis Co. Failed To Prevent Patient Data Breach, Suit Says

By Sam Reisman

A Miami-based telehealth company that helps people secure medical marijuana cards failed to protect users' personal data from a cyberbreach, according to a proposed class action lodged in Florida federal court.

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Williams-Sonoma Loses Bid To Arbitrate 'Drip Pricing' Suit

By Joyce Hanson

A California federal judge has allowed a pair of customers to proceed with their lawsuit claiming that Williams-Sonoma advertised low prices then tacked on extra fees at checkout, ruling a mass arbitration provision in the retailer's terms "unconscionably chills" consumers from making claims.

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Class Settlement MDL Plaintiffs Say Cos. Hinder Disclosure

By Jared Foretek

Plaintiffs in a sprawling multidistrict case accusing class action settlement administrators of hiding kickbacks from financial institutions are accusing the defendant companies of stalling prediscovery planning through "piecemeal and inadequate" disclosures and are asking the D.C. federal judge presiding over the case to order disclosures.

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Wells Fargo Beats Cert. Bid In Rate-Lock Extension Fee Suit

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge declined on Wednesday to certify a proposed class of Wells Fargo customers alleging it wrongly charged certain mortgage fees due to closing delays, ruling that liability cannot be determined without an individual file-by-file analysis to see whether the borrower or the bank was responsible for the delays.

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Womble Bond Adds 15 Lewis Brisbois Auto Defense Attys

By Kevin Penton

Womble Bond Dickinson has added a 29-person consumer warranty and product liability litigation group from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP that specializes in defending automobile manufacturers, the firm announced Wednesday.

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AI Note-Taking Suits May Fill Gap In Privacy Law Structure

A recent class action against Granola joins other pending lawsuits against AI note-taking providers, highlighting the legal uncertainty surrounding these tools, but there are practical steps companies using "invisible" AI services can take to mitigate risk, including conducting inventories and reviewing access permissions, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

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DOJ Says Berkeley Law Is Racially Biased In Admissions

By Craig Clough

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday that the University of California, Berkeley School of Law discriminated against white and Asian applicants in its 2024 and 2025 admissions cycles by preferring Black applicants because of their race, violating federal civil rights law and recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

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Murdaugh Murder Retrial Venue Shift Fueled By Bias Concern

By Emily Sawicki

A South Carolina trial court has approved a request to move Alex Murdaugh's murder retrial to a different county, finding the disgraced attorney could not expect a fair trial in Colleton County, where his wife and son were killed and where he was previously convicted for the crimes.

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Virginia Law Prof Says He'll Take USPTO General Counsel Job

By Jack Rodgers

A University of Virginia School of Law professor who has taught tort, administrative, patent and international intellectual property law there for more than 15 years recently said he plans to become the new general counsel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Hogan Lovells Partner Tapped For Mass. Judgeship

By Julie Manganis

A Hogan Lovells Cadwalader senior partner has been nominated to a seat as an associate justice on the Massachusetts Superior Court, the governor's office announced Wednesday.

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Kilpatrick Atty Tapped For Yakima County Bench In Wash.

By Ben Adlin

Washington's governor appointed Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP litigator Bree R. Black Horse to the Yakima County Superior Court bench on Wednesday, filling the first new position added to that court in nearly three decades.

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