Commercial Contracts

  • June 06, 2024

    High Bar For Booking.com Price Limits, EU High Court Told

    A European Court of Justice advocate general recommended a high bar Thursday for Booking.com assertions that price parity clauses imposed on contracts with hotels are "ancillary" to, and thus protected as, legitimate business arrangements.

  • June 06, 2024

    Meta Can't Get Section 230 Shield Over Scam Ads At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit has ruled that Section 230 is "not limitless" and doesn't shield Meta from contract claims in a proposed consumer class action over Chinese vendors' scam ads on Facebook and Instagram, with one judge calling on the Ninth Circuit to rethink precedent that broadly interprets Section 230's scope.

  • June 06, 2024

    UK, US Team Up On Standard-Essential Patents

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.K. Intellectual Property Office each announced a five-year agreement Thursday to collaborate on policy for standard-essential patents.

  • June 06, 2024

    Co. Won't Face Defect Claims In Suit Over Lost Fingers

    A worker who lost her fingers after her right hand was pulled into an industrial laminating machine won't get the chance to add design defect claims to her lawsuit against the manufacturer, a Texas federal judge has ruled, saying she squandered her opportunity to investigate those claims.

  • June 06, 2024

    5th Circ. Sides With Miss. In Pipeline Permitting Row

    The Fifth Circuit has found a lower court properly threw out an interstate pipeline company's assertion that annual levee crossing fees sought by Mississippi regulators were unconstitutional because they fell outside the scope of the company's 75-year-old permit.

  • June 06, 2024

    Biote Investors Sue Cooley, SPAC After Huge Merger Loss

    Family trust investors in Biote Corp. have sued Cooley LLP and the "hormone optimization" company's top brass over the $700 million merger Biote completed with a special purpose acquisition company, saying the deal was a "disastrous transaction to divert approximately $70 million of merger consideration to themselves and gain control of an enterprise they did not build."

  • June 06, 2024

    NC Attorney General Drops HCA From Hospital Contract Suit

    The North Carolina Attorney General's office has agreed to drop for-profit hospital network HCA Management Services from a lawsuit over allegedly unsafe and unsanitary conditions at its Asheville hospital, according to a joint stipulation in the state Business Court.

  • June 06, 2024

    Law Firms Accused Of Missing 'Red Flags' In NJ Fraud Deal

    A legal malpractice suit filed in New Jersey state court accuses Rivkin Radler LLP and Kunstlinger Law Firm LLC of costing clients millions of dollars by failing to detect "obvious 'red flags'" amid a fraudulent business deal.

  • June 05, 2024

    Denver Nuggets Owner Says Hot Dog Biz Owes $860K

    Billionaire Stan Kroenke's sports holding company, which owns the Denver Nuggets and other professional sports teams, sued a Denver-based hot dog shop chain in state court, alleging the food vendor owes more than $860,000 in sponsorship fees as part of a deal to promote its brand at Ball Arena during sporting events.

  • June 05, 2024

    Bank Shareholders Say Venezuelan Takeover Cost Them $27M

    Shareholders in a small Miami bank told jurors Wednesday that board members working for the Venezuelan government had taken control of the bank and cost shareholders $27 million by engaging with the sanctioned Venezuelan government.

  • June 05, 2024

    Kanye West Faces Sex Harassment Suit By Ex-Assistant

    Kanye West repeatedly sexually harassed a woman who worked as his assistant by sending her inappropriate and profane texts and forcing her to watch him masturbate, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court against the rapper and some of his companies. 

  • June 05, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Review Cathay Pacific Ticket Refund Fight

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to reconsider its decision ordering a couple who were left stranded in the Philippines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to arbitrate their breach of contract dispute with Cathay Pacific Airways under their contract with a third-party booking site.

  • June 05, 2024

    Judge Denies Fubo Bid For Texts On Streaming Bundle

    A New York federal judge on Wednesday denied FuboTV's bid to obtain text messages from executives at Disney, ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery discussing the joint venture streaming plan at the heart of Fubo's ongoing antitrust suit.

  • June 05, 2024

    Axos Says Money Market Account Suit Should Be Arbitrated

    Axos Bank has urged a California federal judge to either toss or force into arbitration a proposed class action alleging it reclassified customers' high-yield money market accounts into lower-yield investment accounts without informing them, saying federal law allows banks to offer accounts with variable rates that the bank can change at its discretion.

  • June 05, 2024

    Aluminum Co. Seeks Reversal Of $10M Coverage Cap

    An aluminum supplier is urging the Fourth Circuit to reverse a lower court's ruling capping its damages at $10 million because of a molten material endorsement, arguing that the fire and water damage it sustained is separate and not subject to any sublimit or exclusion.

  • June 05, 2024

    Texas Tamale Co. Wins Partial Injunction In Trademark Case

    A Texas federal magistrate judge has found that a Fort Worth tamale outfit called Texas Lone Star Tamales can't use certain phrases in its advertising but limited some language in a requested injunction.

  • June 05, 2024

    Microsoft Blasts Gamers' Bid To Add To Activision Appeal

    Microsoft Corp. says the Ninth Circuit should reject a "bevy of additional, extra-record 'facts'" seeking to hold up the recent layoffs of 1,900 Activision and Xbox employees as proof that the tech giant's acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. was anticompetitive.

  • June 05, 2024

    Synchrony Charges Were Unlawful 'Veteran Penalty,' Suit Says

    Synchrony Bank was hit with a proposed class action accusing it of promoting a misleading 0% interest rate for veterans and failing to disclose that the bank applies retroactive high interest rates on service members' outstanding balances when they leave duty.

  • June 05, 2024

    Toshiba Unit CEO Can Be Deposed In $500M Mich. Plant Suit

    The leader of a Toshiba Corp. subsidiary can be deposed in a lawsuit from Michigan energy companies alleging Toshiba's overhaul on a plant was shoddy and will cost more than $500 million to fix, as a Michigan federal judge has found the executive has relevant knowledge about the defective work.

  • June 05, 2024

    French Bulldog Breeder Says Partner Conned Her Out Of $95K

    A woman has told a federal court that a Houston-area French bulldog breeder inflated the price of four dogs by $95,000 and has refused to pay her her share of breeding fees stemming from their 2022 partnership.

  • June 05, 2024

    Epic Accuses Apple Of Stalling Antitrust Doc Production

    Epic Games accused Apple Inc. at a hearing Wednesday of dragging its feet on producing internal documents that a California federal judge recently ordered the tech giant to hand over to help decide if Apple complied with her ban on App Store anti-steering rules.

  • June 05, 2024

    $900K Injury Verdict Sparks Fee Squabble In Connecticut

    Connecticut law firm Ventura and Ribeiro LLP is taking Perkins and Associates PC to state court over the legal fees from a $900,000 personal injury case settlement that both firms worked on, claiming that Perkins is trying to take too much of the pie.

  • June 05, 2024

    Fire Co. Shuts Down Insurer's $3.7M Subrogation Bid

    A hotel's insurer cannot seek reimbursement from a fire protection company for its roughly $3.7 million coverage payment following a pipe rupture in the hotel's fire sprinkler system, an Ohio federal court ruled, finding the hotel and fire protection company waived their respective insurers' subrogation rights. 

  • June 05, 2024

    Houston Law Firm Can't Arbitrate 'Excessive' Fees Claims

    A homeowners' association can proceed with its lawsuit against Vethan Law Firm PC in a Texas state court over allegedly "needless and excessive fees" because the firm failed to prove the existence of an arbitration agreement, a Texas state appellate court has ruled.

  • June 05, 2024

    1st Circ. May Undo Tribal Casino Bribery Convictions

    First Circuit judges hinted Wednesday that jurisdictional flaws and other issues could reverse the bribery convictions of an architect and tribal chairman in connection with a proposed $1 billion casino in southeastern Massachusetts.

Expert Analysis

  • The Effects Of New 10-Year Limitation On Key Sanctions Laws

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    Recently enacted emergency appropriations legislation, doubling the statute of limitations for civil and criminal economic sanctions violations, has significant implications for internal records retention, corporate transaction due diligence and government investigations, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Supply Chain Considerations For Companies Deploying AI

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    Many businesses will risk failure by embracing artificial intelligence without fully understanding the risks, and the value of a five-step AI supply chain analysis cannot be overstated, say Brooke Berg and Nathan Staffel at Nardello & Co.

  • Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content

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    From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.

  • Key Lessons From Recent Insurance Policy Reform Litigation

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    A review of recent case law reveals the wide range of misunderstandings that may arise between insurers and policyholders in the purchase and renewal of insurance policies, as well as the utility — and the limits — of reformation and related remedies for these misunderstandings, say Jad Khazem and Seth Tucker at Covington.

  • Compliance Considerations For New Data Protection Law

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    Sam Castic at Hintze Law discusses how to determine if your organization is covered by the newly enacted Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, the scope of the law's restrictions, and how to go about compliance as its June 23 effective date approaches.

  • 2nd Circ. Ruling Affirms NY Law's Creditor-Friendly Approach

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    The Second Circuit’s recent ruling in 245 Park Member v. HNA International provides creditors with some reason for optimism that debtors in New York may face rejection in court for aiming to keep creditors at arm’s length by transferring personal assets into an LLC, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Diving Deep Into Sweeping NY Financing Bill — And Its Pitfalls

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    A New York bill seeking to impose state usury limits onto a broader variety of financing arrangements and apply lender licensing requirements to more diverse entities would present near-insurmountable compliance challenges for lenders and retailers, say Kate Fisher and Tom Quinn at Hudson Cook.

  • When Oral Settlements Reached In Mediation Are Enforceable

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    A recent decision by the New Jersey Appellate Division illustrates the difficulties that may arise in trying to enforce an oral settlement agreement reached in mediation, but adherence to certain practices can improve the likelihood that such an agreement will be binding, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.

  • What Transactional Attys Must Know About Texas Biz Courts

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    As Texas prepares to launch its new business courts, transactional attorneys — especially those involved in commercial, securities and internal governance matters — should keep several issues in mind when considering use of the state's business court system to facilitate deals and settle disputes, say attorneys at Katten.

  • Series

    Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.

  • Behind Court Challenges To The FTC's Final Noncompete Rule

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent final rule banning noncompetes may not go into effect any time soon amid a couple of Texas federal court challenges seeking to bar the rule's implementation, which will likely see appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, says Michael Elkins at MLE Law.

  • Can Chatbot Interactions Lead To Enforceable Contracts?

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    The recent ruling in Moffatt v. Air Canada that found the airline liable for the representations of its chatbot underscores the question of whether generative artificial intelligence chatbots making and accepting offers can result in creation of binding agreements, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • The Opportunities, Risks And Rewards Of AI Acquisitions

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    As artificial intelligence acquisitions become an increasing area of focus for investors and technology buyers, entities should pay special attention to target identification, due diligence and more when structuring and executing a transaction with a company that has an AI-centric business model, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Legal Issues To Watch As Deepfake Voices Proliferate

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    With increasingly sophisticated and accessible voice-cloning technology raising social, ethical and legal questions, particularly in the entertainment industry and politics, further legislative intervention and court proceedings seem very likely, say Shruti Chopra and Paul Joseph at Linklaters.

  • Insurance Types That May Help Cos. After Key Bridge Collapse

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    Following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, businesses that depend on the bridge, the Port of Baltimore and related infrastructure for shipment and distribution of cargo should understand which common types of first-party insurance coverage may provide recoveries for financial losses, say Bert Wells and Richard Lewis at Reed Smith.

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