Health Insurance Telemarketers Cough Up $145M In FTC Suits

By Joyce Hanson

Two telemarketing companies will pay $145 million to settle Federal Trade Commission claims that they misled millions of consumers into buying phony health insurance plans, the FTC said in a Thursday announcement accusing the telemarketers of making false promises that didn't provide what they offered.

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Meta Can't Ax 'Pen Register' Claim In Tax Data Tracking Row

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge overseeing a consolidated class action accusing Meta of unlawfully collecting sensitive information from several tax filing websites has refused to cut a claim that the social media giant's tracking pixel qualifies as a "pen register" device prohibited by the state's wiretap law.  

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Trump 'Debanking' Order Calls For Scrutiny Of Bank Practices

By Jon Hill

President Donald Trump on Thursday directed federal regulators to investigate and potentially punish banks if they have turned away customers based on their political or religious beliefs, escalating his administration's crackdown on so-called debanking.

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ND Judge Strikes Down Fed's Debit Card Fee Regulation

By Emilie Ruscoe

A North Dakota federal judge has invalidated the Federal Reserve's regulation limiting certain debit card fees charged in merchant transactions, ruling in favor of a truck stop and convenience store in finding that the Fed had attempted to "improperly repackag[e] the defunct-Chevron deference under a different name."

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HPE-Juniper Judge Shuns More Direct Comment On DOJ Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Comments, or complaints, about the controversial U.S. Department of Justice deal permitting Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks must go through the DOJ and will no longer be accepted if submitted directly to the court, the reviewing California federal judge said Wednesday.

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Crypto Buyers Win Class Cert. Against Kardashian, Celebs

By Lauren Berg

EthereumMax buyers accusing celebrities of promoting the cryptocurrency allegedly used in a pump-and-dump scheme can certify subclasses in four states, but not their nationwide class, a federal judge ruled, agreeing with famed boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. that there's a risk of California and Florida securities laws being inappropriately applied outside those states.

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6th Circ. Revives Whirlpool Stove Activation Class Suit

By Mike Curley

The Sixth Circuit has reinstated a proposed class action alleging Whirlpool Corp. sold stoves with defective knobs prone to accidental activation, saying the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that the company knew of the defect because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission sent it consumer complaints.

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9th Circ. Revives Homeowners' 'Reverse Mortgage Loan' Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit panel has revived a proposed class action against a company offering homeowners cash in exchange for a slice of their home equity, finding a Washington couple has shown their arrangement amounted to a reverse mortgage loan subject to special statutory requirements.

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California Anti-Deepfake Law Struck Down By Judge

By Jared Foretek

A California federal judge has agreed to block a California anti-deepfake law as constitutionally and legally invalid, siding with conservative media companies and content creators who argued that the law infringes platforms' First Amendment rights to moderate content on their own and pressures them to censor speech.

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Experian Gets CFPB Credit Reporting Suit Tossed, For Now

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge dismissed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit accusing Experian of mishandling consumer credit reporting disputes, saying the agency hasn't sufficiently shown that a tolling agreement with Experian's parent company stopped the clock on the claims, but gave the agency a chance to rework its complaint.

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Trump Taps Economic Adviser Miran For Fed Board Vacancy

By Sarah Jarvis

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has chosen Stephen Miran, the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors until early 2026 while continuing to search for a permanent replacement.

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FCC Chucks Nearly 100 'Outdated' Broadcast Rules

By Christopher Cole

In a bid to reduce what it considers to be obsolete regulations, the Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to drop nearly 100 older rules applying to broadcasters from its books.

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FCC Plans To Narrow Enviro Rules For Broadband Projects

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed to make it easier for broadband providers to clear FCC reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

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CFPB Mulls Cuts To Oversight Reach In 4 Nonbank Markets

By Jon Hill

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering formally scaling back the reach of its nonbank oversight, floating a series of early stage proposals that contemplate sharply reducing the number of firms it would supervise in four key financial services markets.

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NY AG Says Landlord Overcharged City Subsidized Tenants

By Grace Dixon

The New York Attorney General's Office has filed a lawsuit in state court against a New York City landlord who it says overcharged rent-stabilized tenants receiving subsidies and then sued some of the tenants for nonpayment.

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Binance Partner To Pay $48.5M For Compliance Failure Claims

By Sydney Price

Cryptocurrency trust Paxos Trust Co. has agreed to pay a $26.5 million fine and place $22 million into beefing up its compliance program in a settlement with a New York regulator over its anti-money laundering policies and other alleged due diligence failures related to its stablecoin partnership with crypto exchange Binance.

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UnitedHealth Selling Home Health Branches In DOJ Deal

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement Thursday resolving its Maryland federal court challenge to UnitedHealth's $3.3 billion acquisition of home health and hospice company Amedisys, with the deal requiring the companies to sell at least 164 locations across 19 states.

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Loan Servicer Inks $2M Deal With Mass. AG Over Foreclosures

By Julie Manganis

A mortgage servicing firm will pay $2 million to settle allegations that it violated Massachusetts consumer protection, debt collection and foreclosure prevention laws while previously operating as a direct loan servicer, the state attorney general's office announced on Thursday.

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Michigan AG Fights Bid To Pause PBM Price-Fixing Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

Michigan's attorney general has said there is no reason to pause her price-fixing suit against pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics for a pending dismissal motion, urging a federal judge not to put discovery on ice. 

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Motorola Surveillance App Teed Up For 1st Circ. Review

By Nadia Dreid

The First Circuit should decide whether a Motorola app designed to allow police to record calls without informing the person on the other line was illegal in and of itself, said a Massachusetts federal judge overseeing a suit from four men who argue that it was.

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Vast Amazon Customer Class Greenlit In Price-Fixing Case

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge has certified a consumer class encompassing an estimated 288 million people who purchased goods on Amazon's marketplace since 2017, advancing a sweeping antitrust case accusing the e-commerce giant of inflating prices through its merchant policies.

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Judge Orders Chemours To Cut Discharges At W.Va. Plant

By Tom Lotshaw

A West Virginia federal judge on Thursday ordered Chemours to take any steps needed to stop its Washington Works manufacturing plant from continuing to discharge excessive amounts of a harmful "forever chemical" into the Ohio River.

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Tea Dating App Hit With BIPA Suit Over Photo Verifications

By Lauraann Wood

Dating safety app Tea has been hit in Illinois state court with proposed class biometric privacy claims by three users who say it illegally analyzes their facial geometry through its identify verification process.

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Amazon, DC AG Get Antitrust Trial Delayed To May 2027

By Nadia Dreid

The District of Columbia's antitrust suit accusing Amazon of not allowing sellers to offer their products for less on other platforms will not make it to trial until closer to mid-2027, after a D.C. judge agreed Wednesday to allow the parties to push back the original trial date by four months.

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Google Wants Epic's Claims Tossed After Samsung Deal

By Matthew Perlman

Google urged a California federal court to toss the remaining claims in a case from Epic Games that initially accused the tech giant of colluding with Samsung to block app store competition, but now centers on a security feature Google said the court has already addressed.

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Class Action Over Kratom Extract Is Resolved

By Jonathan Capriel

Consumers have agreed to drop a proposed class action against online Missouri hemp retailer CBD American Shaman LLC that accused it of deceptively marketing a concentrated kratom alkaloid, known as 7-OH, as a safe "natural" product while concealing its opioid-level addictiveness.

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7th Circ. Backs $75M In Chicken Price-Fixing Settlements

By Matthew Perlman

The Seventh Circuit rejected an appeal from restaurants challenging $75 million in settlements inked in the broiler chicken price-fixing litigation with Koch Foods Inc. and House of Raeford Farms Inc., after finding an analysis of prices failed to show the deals were unreasonable.

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NC Town Alleges Chem. Giants Hid PFAS Health Risks

By Abigail Harrison

A North Carolina town sued Arkema Inc., Dynax and other chemical manufacturers on Wednesday over the infiltration of toxic "forever chemicals" into its drinking water, alleging the companies knew for decades that the compounds were dangerous and willfully ignored it.

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Eventide Creditors Seek Trustee To Take Over Ch. 11 Case

By Vince Sullivan

The official committee of unsecured creditors in the Chapter 11 case of consumer lending company Eventide Credit Acquisitions has asked a Texas judge for the appointment of a trustee to oversee the proceedings, saying the debtor and its principal have flouted the rules of bankruptcy since the case began in 2023.

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NC Biz Court Bulletin: Divorce Dust-Ups And Judicial Rebukes

By Hayley Fowler

Litigation in the North Carolina Business Court is heating up this summer with new complaints centered on fears a former state politician's divorce proceedings will impede his companies' operations and accusations that a climate technology company has failed to pay out a former engineer's ownership interest.

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Kratom Buyers Take Addictiveness Suit To 9th Circ.

By Mike Curley

A proposed class of kratom buyers is appealing to the Ninth Circuit after their claims that Thang Botanicals and FTLS Holdings LLC misled them about the addictive qualities of kratom products were dismissed with prejudice.

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NY AG, Ski Resort Square Up Over Resort Divestiture

By Nadia Dreid

A New York ski resort operator that bought a competing resort and shut it down must divest that resort to right the antitrust wrong a state judge found it had committed and restore competition to the market, the Empire State is arguing.

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Antitrust Scrutiny Heightens In The Cannabis Industry

Two ongoing antitrust cases signal intensified scrutiny of pricing practices, distribution restraints and exclusionary conduct in the cannabis sector, says Robin Crauthers at McCarter & English.

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Series

Creating Botanical Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Pressing and framing plants that I grow has shown me that pursuing an endeavor that brings you joy can lead to surprising benefits for a legal career, including mental clarity, perspective and even a bit of humility, says Douglas Selph at Morris Manning.

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Bonus Spotlight

Milbank Offers Summer Bonuses Of Up To $25K To Associates

By Anna Sanders

Milbank LLP has become the first BigLaw firm to announce summer bonuses this year, offering up to $25,000 for associates and counsel after smaller shops also unveiled midyear payouts.

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'Breakdown In Civility' Gets Boies Schiller Sanctioned

By Grace Elletson

A California federal judge slapped Boies Schiller Flexner LLP with a $15,000 sanction Thursday in a former worker's suit claiming Levi Strauss & Co. declined to promote her out of sex bias, faulting the firm for a "uniquely eye-opening breakdown in civility and professionalism."

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Federal Courts Disclose New Cyberattacks On PACER System

By Lauren Berg

The federal judiciary on Thursday disclosed there have been escalating cyberattacks on its case management system, putting sealed and sensitive case documents at risk, and that it is taking steps to strengthen its security.

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Fox Rothschild Must Face Litigation Funding Suit, Court Told

By Rose Krebs

A married couple is urging a New Jersey state judge to reject Fox Rothschild LLP's bid to exit a malpractice suit alleging that they were unlawfully steered to cover medical expenses with high-interest loans from the firm's litigation funder client, saying they've "amply" pleaded claims of misconduct.

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Ex-Boston Heart CEO Defends Jenner & Block Fee Bid

By Rose Krebs

Boston Heart's former CEO is urging the Delaware Chancery Court to order the medical testing company to advance her legal fees to pay Jenner & Block LLP for its defense of her in criminal and civil cases, disputing Boston Heart's claims that the law firm's rates are "grossly inflated."

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DOJ's Boasberg Complaint Violates Judicial Privacy, Sen. Says

By Jake Maher

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has accused the U.S. Department of Justice of misusing private comments from a meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States to pursue ethics charges against a federal judge who found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump's administration in contempt of court.

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2nd Circ. Says Trial Atty With Brain Disease Not 'Ineffective'

By Bonnie Eslinger

The Second Circuit on Thursday affirmed the convictions of a former New York City law enforcement union president along with its ex-financial adviser for defrauding members out of $500,000, rejecting among contentions that one defense lawyer's abilities were impaired at trial by a fast-moving neurodegenerative disease.

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Calif. Ethics Panel Clarifies Judge DQs In Racial Justice Cases

By Madison Arnold

A California judicial ethics committee has issued a formal opinion advising a judge who is a former prosecutor that a pending case involving a discovery motion under the state's Racial Justice Act does not require the judge's recusal.

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Democracy Forward Launches Appellate Practice

By Lynn LaRowe

The Democracy Forward Foundation has formed an appellate practice on the heels of a hiring spree that has doubled the nonprofit's legal staff since November with former BigLaw and government attorneys, as some private firms have pulled back from taking on cases that challenge the current White House.

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Trump Admin Asks Justices To Halt ICE Arrest Limits In LA

By Hailey Konnath

The Trump administration on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a California federal court's order temporarily blocking the government from conducting immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area without probable cause, arguing that it threatens officials' ability to enforce immigration laws.

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Sentencing Commission Plans To Reassess Fraud Guidelines

By Stewart Bishop

The U.S. Sentencing Commission on Wednesday said it will consider potential reforms to the federal sentencing guidelines for fraud offenses, including the outsized role of loss calculation in sentencing, one of several priorities the agency has marked for closer examination.

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