'Think Carefully': Judge Wary Of Notice Tactic In Google Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge indicated on Thursday that he will grant preliminary approval to Google's $8.25 million settlement to resolve putative class allegations that Google surreptitiously tracked children online for advertising, while urging counsel to "think carefully" about using behavioral tracking in future settlements to post advertisements notifying class members.

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Meta Doesn't Understand Its Own Algorithms, Ex-VP Testifies

By Craig Clough

A former vice president at Meta Platforms Inc. told a California jury Thursday in a landmark bellwether trial over claims the company's Instagram and Google LLC's YouTube harm children's mental health that he quit because he was deeply concerned about safety, and that even Meta's own experts don't understand how its algorithms work.

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Texas Suit Says Sanofi Paid Kickbacks For Prescriptions

By Spencer Brewer

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Sanofi-Aventis US LLC in state court Thursday, accusing the pharmaceutical company of paying kickbacks to providers so they would prescribe Sanofi's drugs.

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Lyft Must Share Driver Records In Uber Sexual Assault Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

Lyft Inc. must hand over sexual misconduct records it has on four men who allegedly assaulted and raped passengers while driving for Uber, a California federal judge has ruled, saying such documents could show that Uber, the defendant in multidistrict litigation, knew of the drivers' past conduct.

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Ohio Justices Shield Lenders From COVID-Era Class Claims

By Katryna Perera

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a state resident can collect damages from Quicken Loans for the company's failure to report within 90 days that his mortgage had been paid off, but reversed a trial court's certification of a class of individuals who experienced the same issue, finding an amended state law prohibits the action.

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Google Says IPhone Users Campaign To 'Harass' Senior Execs

By Nadia Dreid

Google is going head-to-head with iPhone users who want to depose its executives at the tail end of discovery in a lawsuit accusing the tech behemoth of cutting a deal with Apple to become the default search engine on Apple devices, accusing the proposed class of harassment.

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Wash. Justices Say Amazon Must Face Chemical Suicide Suits

By Rachel Riley

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday revived negligence lawsuits against Amazon brought by the families of four people who killed themselves by ingesting high-potency sodium nitrite purchased on the e-commerce platform, finding the company had a duty to avoid exposing online shoppers to foreseeable harm from items sold on its website.

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Eutelsat Seeks Fast-Track C-Band Relocation Payments

By Nadia Dreid

As the Federal Communications Commission makes plans to auction off part of the upper C-band, Eutelsat thinks the agency should use its auction of the lower part of the band as a guide, particularly when it comes to paying satellite operators to clear out quickly.

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Electronics Cos. Fight 'Heavy-Handed' Next-Gen TV Mandate

By Christopher Cole

As the Federal Communications Commission looks to coax the broadcast industry into adopting next-generation TV on a wider scale, a key electronics industry group has re-upped concerns that officials might move too fast.

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Delta, Aeromexico Urge 11th Circ. To Void DOT Split Order

By Linda Chiem

Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico urged the Eleventh Circuit to void a U.S. Department of Transportation order directing them to dismantle their joint venture, saying the agency had offered contrived reasoning and scant evidence for purported anticompetitive effects.

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Texas Panel Unsure Midwife Can Escape Abortion Order

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appellate court pushed back on a midwife's assertion that a court order blocking her from providing abortions flouted the state's rules of civil procedure, saying Thursday she wasn't facing the lawsuit "for doing appendectomies."

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ITC Says Indian Springs Harm US Industry, Duties Coming

By Jack McLoone

Garage door springs imported from India to the U.S. will be hit with antidumping and countervailing duty orders after the U.S. International Trade Commission said Thursday they are causing material harm to U.S. domestic industry.

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Warren Seeks Treasury, Fed Pledge Of No Bitcoin Bailout

By Rick Archer

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is asking the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to provide a written pledge not to bail out cryptocurrency markets in the face of sliding bitcoin prices, saying such a move would disproportionately benefit billionaires.

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FCC Floats Nearly $200K Fine On Dahua For Late Filing

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will seek an almost $200,000 fine against Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. for allegedly failing to file paperwork detailing its subsidiaries and affiliates going back three years under a U.S. national security program.

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5th Circ. Pauses Order Scrapping FTC Merger Filing Overhaul

By Rae Ann Varona

The Fifth Circuit on Thursday granted the Federal Trade Commission's emergency motion to pause a Texas federal judge's ruling that threw out the agency's overhaul of premerger reporting requirements.

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Pepsi And Frito-Lay Avoid Class Chip-Pricing Claims, For Now

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge struck class claims from a lawsuit accusing PepsiCo and Frito-Lay of illegally charging Walmart, Target, and other chain stores less for chips than smaller retailers, stating that the plaintiffs cannot show that the proposed class has suffered the same injury, but will allow them to rework the complaint.

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Brief

Commerce Orders Duties On Paper Folders From Cambodia

By Jack McLoone

Paper file folders imported into the U.S. from Cambodia will be subject to a countervailing duty order following affirmative determinations by the U.S. Department of Commerce that these imports are benefiting from harmful subsidies and damaging U.S. domestic industry, Commerce said Thursday.

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Apple Knowingly Hosts Child Porn On ICloud, W.Va. AG Says

By Rae Ann Varona

Apple knowingly allows child sexual abuse material to be stored and distributed on its iCloud platform, West Virginia's attorney general alleged Thursday in what he called a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, saying the tech giant's "privacy" brand provides cover for a defective product that violates state consumer protection law. 

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Texas AG Launches Latest Suit Over Temu Data, China Ties

By Hailey Konnath

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday accused online bargain app Temu of secretly stealing customer data and exposing it to the Chinese Communist Party, calling it "spyware disguised as a shopping app" in a suit filed in federal court.

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Live Nation Says Judge Should Have Cut More Of DOJ's Case

By Matthew Perlman

Live Nation urged a New York federal court on Thursday to further pare down the government's antitrust case against the company, saying a ruling earlier in the week should have nixed additional allegations involving the promotion services it provides to major concert venues.

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Live Nation Fights Uphill To Nix FTC Suit Over Ticket Scalping

By Gina Kim

Live Nation urged a California federal judge Thursday to reconsider her tentative decision refusing to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission's allegations it turned a blind eye to scalpers, arguing that the complaint doesn't identify specific tickets that scalpers were able to obtain by evading security measures that limit purchases.

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CIT Orders Reconsideration Of Fujifilm Co.'s Industry Status

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission must redo its determination that a U.S. subsidiary of Fujifilm qualifies as a domestic producer for purposes of finding domestic industry has been harmed by imports from Japan and China, the U.S. Court of International Trade said.

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Shkreli Again Tries To Add Wu-Tang Members To Album Fight

By Sydney Price

"Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli filed a third-party complaint against two members of hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, seeking once again to bring them into litigation brought by a cryptocurrency community that claims Shkreli improperly retained copies of a Wu-Tang album the community had bought the rights to.

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Target Ends Chicken Price-Fixing Claims Against Tyson

By Lauren Berg

Target Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc. told an Illinois federal judge Thursday that they have reached an agreement to resolve the retailer's claims accusing the food company of conspiring with other poultry producers to fix broiler chicken prices.

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Scientist Must Give Splenda Maker Emails With In-House Attys

By Hayley Fowler

A scientist battling a lawsuit by the maker of Splenda over her research linking the artificial sweetener to cancer-causing chemicals must turn over emails with her employer's in-house counsel, a North Carolina magistrate judge ruled, finding they are not protected by privilege.

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Judge Denies Mylan And Aurobindo's Bid To Escape Trial

By Jonathan Capriel

A Connecticut federal judge has once again rejected generic-drug makers' bid to escape a multistate lawsuit accusing them of engaging in an overarching antitrust conspiracy, saying the evidence supports the need for a jury trial on whether the companies colluded to fix prices and divvy up markets for dozens of generic drugs.

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'Sealed Container' Defense Sinks Exploding Battery Suit

By Mike Curley

A North Carolina appeals panel won't revive a man's suit against a retailer and distributor alleging he was sold a defective lithium-ion battery that exploded in his pocket, saying all his claims are blocked by the sealed container defense.

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Ga. Appeals Court Weighs Kratom Seller's Liability

By Sam Reisman

A Georgia appellate court on Thursday gave little indication on whether it would reverse a trial court's grant of summary judgment to a kratom distributor whose customer died after consuming one of its products.

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Nev. Wants Latest Kalshi Betting Case Waged In State Court

By Alex Lawson

Nevada's efforts to shutter Kalshi's sports event contracts are mired in an early procedural snag as the prediction market angles to litigate in federal court, while the Silver State pushes to keep the dispute within its own judicial system.

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Tips For Consumer Finance GCs Navigating AI In Pro Se Suits

There are several avenues for consumer finance in-house counsel to make artificial intelligence use disclosure requirements a standardized tool when facing pro se litigants, including preservation demands and discovery requests to ease friction and root out inaccurate legal representations, says Lee Barrett at Planet Home Lending.

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FCC Satellite Co. Action Starts New Chapter For Team Telecom

The Federal Communications Commission's recent settlement with satellite company Marlink marks a modest but meaningful step forward in how the U.S. regulates foreign involvement in its telecommunications sector, proving "Team Telecom" conditions are not limited to companies with substantial foreign ownership, says attorney Sohan Dasgupta.

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Should Prediction Markets Allow Trading On Nonpublic Info?

Recent trading activity, such as the Polymarket wager on the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has raised questions about whether some participants may be engaging in trading that is based on material nonpublic information, and highlights ongoing uncertainty about how existing derivatives and anti-fraud rules apply to event-based contracts, say economic consultants at the Brattle Group.

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How The Fashion 'Dupe' Economy Is Redefining IP Strategies

Fashion brands' recent experiments with unconventional trademark strategies highlight the growing impact that "dupe" versions of luxury items are having on the fashion market, as well as growing pressure points in trademark and trade dress law, say attorneys at Marshall Gerstein.

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Opinion

SNAP Rule Confusion Risks A Compliance Crisis

Recent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food restriction waivers pose a compliance crisis for legal practitioners advising food retailers, amid higher costs and lack of a coherent national standard, says Tyson-Lord Gray at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

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Series

Trivia Competition Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Playing trivia taught me to quickly absorb information and recognize when I've learned what I'm expected to know, training me in the crucial skills needed to be a good attorney, and reminding me to be gracious in defeat, says Jonah Knobler at Patterson Belknap.

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McGlinchey Stafford Files Ch. 7 With Over $10M In Liabilities

By Lauren Berg

New Orleans-based firm McGlinchey Stafford PLLC, which announced last month that it's winding down operations after more than half a century, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with more than $10 million in liabilities owed to former staff and attorneys, workplace vendors, financial institutions and other creditors.

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Judge Nixes DOJ Fine In ICE Case, But Blasts 'Radio Silence'

By Hailey Konnath

A Minnesota federal judge said Friday that a U.S. Department of Justice attorney won't be fined after an immigrant's identification documents were finally returned to him, yet she tore into the DOJ's excuses and said she will "not tolerate what happened here: disobedience and radio silence from the government."

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Analysis

Deportation Policy Pushes Texas Federal Bench To The Brink

By Courtney Bublé

Texas has suffered through a shortage of judges for its federal courts for a while now, but the recent influx of immigration cases is pushing the system to the brink.

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Michigan Federal Judge Faces State's 'Super Drunk' Charge

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Michigan federal judge facing trial on drunken driving charges crashed his car on the night he was arrested, registered a 0.27% blood alcohol level and told a state trooper who asked him to recite the alphabet, "A, B, C, D, F, U," according to a police report recently made public.

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Boies Schiller Partner Faces Possible Sanctions For AI Errors

By Emily Sawicki

A Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner must explain why he should not face monetary sanctions for filing a brief containing artificial intelligence-generated citation errors amid his representation of women who allege the Church of Scientology harassed them for reporting convicted actor Danny Masterson's sexual assaults.

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Epstein's Advisers Ink $35M Deal With Sex Trafficking Victims

By Katryna Perera

A class of victims of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scheme has asked a New York federal judge to grant the first OK in a settlement reached with Epstein's lawyer and accountant, who allegedly aided him in the scheme.

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Va. Judges Name New US Atty, But Blanche Says 'You're Fired'

By Lauren Berg

The federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday unanimously appointed veteran litigator James W. Hundley to serve as interim U.S. attorney, a decision immediately met with derision from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who purported to fire Hundley in a social media post.

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Class Attys Allege Lead Counsel Is Hoarding $75M Sutter Fees

By Dorothy Atkins

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP has urged a California federal magistrate judge to enforce the $75.4 million fee award in Sutter Health's $228.5 million deal resolving a decade-long antitrust fight, arguing lead counsel Constantine Cannon LLP "unilaterally" and "arbitrarily" cut SWCK's fees by nearly $800,000 while boosting its own.

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Beasley Allen Can't Pause NJ Talc DQ Order, Judge Rules

By George Woolston

The Beasley Allen Law Firm can't delay an order disqualifying it from representing hundreds of women who claim their ovarian cancer was caused by Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder while it seeks review from the New Jersey Supreme Court, a state judge ruled on Friday.

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Fake Attys, Judges, Hearings: DOJ Alleges Immigration Scam

By Hailey Konnath

A group of Colombian immigrants scammed clients out of $100,000 by pretending to be immigration lawyers at a fake firm and orchestrating phony hearings in which they pretended to be judges and federal agents, complete with fake judicial robes and uniforms, federal prosecutors in New York said Friday.

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6th Circ. Chief Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

Chief Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton announced on Friday that he will take senior status on Oct. 1 after more than 20 years on the bench.

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Judiciary Preps Training On National Injunction Limits

By Courtney Bublé

Seven months after the budget reconciliation bill was enacted, the federal judiciary is making progress on the provisions to rein in what Republicans deem abuse of nationwide injunctions targeting the Trump administration's initiatives.

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Analysis

Valve's Anti-Troll Law Win Could Open New Doors

By Dani Kass

The first jury verdict in the U.S. finding a patent owner violated state law meant to curb bad faith patent suits had unique circumstances that will be hard to repeat, but attorneys say Tuesday's decision still has them considering the little-used laws more closely.

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Florida AG Defends $100K Teaching Side Gig Amid Scrutiny

By Jake Maher

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has been on defense amid scrutiny over a reported $100,000-per-year teaching gig at the University of Florida law school, just as he sought to roll out a new anti-corruption unit.

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Attys Regret Unnoticed ChatGPT Errors In Conn. Court Filings

By Tracey Read

Attorneys ordered to explain errors in two January Connecticut Supreme Court briefs said ChatGPT altered legal arguments that counsel did not notice when they asked the artificial intelligence software to help limit duplicate passages, meet word count rules and format the filings.

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Brief

2nd NJ Defendant Joins Bid To Disqualify US Atty Leadership

By Carla Baranauckas

A second defendant in a New Jersey federal criminal case on Friday joined a pending bid to disqualify the three assistant U.S. attorneys overseeing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, escalating a constitutional challenge to the office's leadership structure.

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Beltway Moves: Baker McKenzie, Armstrong & Bradylyons

By Alison Knezevich

The deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division returned to Baker McKenzie, while two former DOJ fraud prosecutors launched a new white collar boutique, in some of the latest legal industry happenings in Washington, D.C.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

The last week in London saw the founders of Getir sue investment fund Mubadala for more than $700 million tied to alleged breaches during the company's restructuring, the Welsh Rugby Union face a claim by Swansea Council over a proposed takeover of Cardiff Rugby, and Euro Car Parks target the Competition and Markets Authority after it was fined by the watchdog. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Several pension funds in New York City sued AT&T, alleging the illegal exclusion of their shareholder proposal requesting a corporate diversity report from the telecom giant's corporate ballot. In the meantime, the DOJ said the Trump administration is investigating federal contractors and grant recipients for potentially engaging in discrimination, rather than for their DEI programs. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Wigdor LLP and Elefterakis Elefterakis & Panek lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a New York federal judge denied the NFL's bid to force a class of National Football League coaches into arbitration.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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