Consumer Protection

  • August 17, 2026

    Standing Flaw Sinks Chrysler Website Tracking Row, For Now

    A California federal judge has tossed, with leave to amend, a proposed class action accusing automaker FCA of illegally divulging Chrysler website visitors' personal information to a data broker, finding that the plaintiff had failed to establish the type of concrete injury necessary to sustain her wiretap and privacy claims.

  • August 17, 2026

    Meta Exec Can't 'Rule Out' Addiction But Doubts It, Jury Told

    A Meta safety executive admitted Monday to a Tennessee jury that she cannot "rule out" that addiction may occur with Instagram but said she believes that so far there is no evidence to identify anything beyond "problematic use."

  • August 17, 2026

    Experts See Looming Legal Disputes Over FCC Party Balance

    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to ditch case law shielding independent federal agency members from presidential removal is unlikely to resolve ongoing controversy over White House control of the Federal Communications Commission, experts said Monday.

  • August 17, 2026

    Pitney Bowes Hit With Tariff Refund Suit By EBay Users

    EBay users hit Pitney Bowes Inc. with a breach of contract proposed class action Monday in Connecticut federal court alleging the global shipping and logistics company failed to return or refund them tariff-related charges that were deemed illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

  • August 17, 2026

    Calif. AG Pans Bid To Pause Social Media Algorithm Limits

    The California attorney general urged a federal judge to deny requests from TikTok, Meta and Google to block enforcement of a state law barring them from using algorithms to deliver feeds to children, saying the court already denied a preliminary injunction and should not grant one pending the companies' appeal.

  • August 17, 2026

    Feds Back NJ Drivers' Bid To Void NYC Congestion Pricing

    The Trump administration threw its support behind New Jersey and out-of-state drivers suing to shut down New York's congestion pricing, saying a Biden-era federal agreement that gave New York's program the green light was invalid from the start.

  • August 17, 2026

    DOJ Charges Ga. Man Over $165M Crypto Ponzi Scheme

    A serial "Ponzi-schemer" is charged with wire fraud for allegedly spearheading a $165 million cryptocurrency scheme that defrauded over 6,000 victims around the world and using the money to make alimony payments and buy expensive cars for his children, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday. 

  • August 17, 2026

    Meta Loses 'Hail Mary' Sanctions Bid On Eve Of AGs' Trial

    A California federal judge Sunday denied Meta's request for spoliation sanctions against state attorneys general that would've barred a Meta whistleblower from testifying in the upcoming high-stakes social media addiction bellwether trial, ruling that Meta's request was an "obvious" "Hail Mary attempt to eliminate a strong witness" before trial.

  • August 17, 2026

    Apple Bricked Smartwatches In Software Update, Suit Says

    Apple has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging it breached its contracts with customers by intentionally killing updated software support for five generations of its smartwatches and essentially bricking them before the end of the hardware's useful life.

  • August 17, 2026

    Happy Egg Breaks 'Pasture Raised' False Ad Class At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday threw out class certification of California and New York consumers accusing the company behind the Happy Egg brand of deceptively labeling egg cartons with promises that its hens are "pasture raised on over 8 acres."

  • August 17, 2026

    Virginia Hemp Cos. Lose Bid To Halt THC Cap

    A Virginia federal judge has refused to block a state law placing new potency caps on THC products, ruling that the hemp businesses opposing the law are unlikely to succeed with claims that the law constitutes an unconstitutional taking.

  • August 17, 2026

    Google To Pay $10M For Spirit Airlines Data To Help AI Models

    Technology giant Google LLC has won an auction for Spirit Airlines' emails, chats, spreadsheets and other data, offering $10 million for anonymized information it will use to improve its large language models and other products, according to a notice filed Friday in New York bankruptcy court.

  • August 17, 2026

    Kalshi Loses Bid To Block Conn. Enforcement

    A Connecticut federal judge has denied a bid from KalshiEX to keep offering sports contracts while it pursues an appeal before the Second Circuit, finding the prediction market's arguments for a stay had already been rejected by the court and that it has not shown it is likely to win on appeal.

  • August 17, 2026

    Doxo To Pay FTC $2.1M Over Misleading Ads And Fees

    Doxo will pay $2.1 million to settle Federal Trade Commission claims that the online bill pay service and two co-founders misled consumers about fees and used deceptive advertising to impersonate billers, the commission announced on Monday, after a Washington federal judge granted partial summary judgment earlier this year.

  • August 17, 2026

    Home Sauna Kit Burned Consumer, Suit Says

    A New Jersey woman said in a suit filed Friday in Garden State federal court that the water tank in a personal steam sauna suddenly exploded while she was using it, which caused severe and painful burns.

  • August 17, 2026

    FCC Turns Down Bid To Revisit Campaign Ad Pricing Policy

    The Federal Communications Commission declined a petition asking it to reconsider guidance the agency put out earlier this year about political ads, saying the "central premise" of the request was "wrong many times over."

  • August 17, 2026

    Blue States Say FTC Can't Regulate Trans Youth Health

    A group of left-leaning states, including Massachusetts and California, asked a Texas federal court to toss a Federal Trade Commission suit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, saying Monday that the FTC's suit constitutes a "federal attack on state-regulated transgender healthcare."

  • August 17, 2026

    AIG Exclusion Doesn't Bar Multiplied Damages, Judge Says

    A California federal judge in a narrow ruling declared that a portion of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan's insurance policy does not automatically bar coverage for a portion of a $581 million False Claims Act settlement attributable to multiplied damages, but will decide later whether the agreement actually included such damages. 

  • August 17, 2026

    Paramount Wants AGs, WGA To Pay $1.9B Merger Suit Bond

    Paramount Skydance Corp. put a price tag Monday on waiting until next year to close its planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, asking a California federal judge to impose an approximately $1.9 billion bond requirement on the Democratic attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America challenging the deal.

  • August 17, 2026

    Pornhub To Pay $120M To End Child Abuse Content Cases

    The companies behind adult entertainment website Pornhub have agreed to make extensive policy changes and pay $120 million to end certified class claims in California and Alabama by child sex trafficking and sexual abuse material survivors who allege the website profited from crimes committed against them.

  • August 17, 2026

    Honda Civic Seat Belt Design Caused Teen's Death, Suit Says

    Honda was hit with a wrongful death suit in New Jersey state court alleging that the rear seat belt system in its 2017 Civic models was defectively designed and caused the death of an 18-year-old state resident in a crash.

  • August 17, 2026

    Broadband Co. Says It's Catching Up After Rural Fund Delays

    Broadband provider Brightspeed told the Federal Communications Commission that it is on track to meet its obligations under a rural development fund despite ongoing delays.

  • August 17, 2026

    Hartford HealthCare Told To Double-Check Privilege Claims

    Hartford HealthCare has agreed to re-review 113 documents over which the hospital operator asserted attorney-client privilege in an antitrust lawsuit by a Teamsters health plan and a local Connecticut transit district, following a federal magistrate judge's concerns about a nearly 1,000-page privilege log.

  • August 17, 2026

    Justices Won't Reconsider Verizon's $47M FCC Fine

    The U.S. Supreme Court is not interested in reconsidering how it worded its June opinion upholding the Federal Communications Commission's authority to issue monetary penalties, despite Verizon arguing that the ruling left it between a rock and a hard place concerning the $47 million fine it already paid.

  • August 17, 2026

    FTC Gets $725M Liquid Nails Deal Blocked

    A New York federal court has sided with the Federal Trade Commission and blocked Loctite maker Henkel's planned $725 million acquisition of fellow construction adhesive brand Liquid Nails, following a bench trial in Manhattan last month.

Expert Analysis

  • AI-Proofing Class Action Notices From Pro Se Objection Surge

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    Class action practitioners should prepare for a likely surge in artificial intelligence-enabled pro se objections by implementing several practical strategies to navigate this shift, says Britany Wessan at Almeida Law Group.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

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    Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

  • 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

  • AI Investment Advice May Fail Investor Protection Rules

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    Based on an ongoing study of artificial intelligence platforms' investment advice given to retail investors, direct access to AI may not yield recommendations for typical households that are suitable under relevant securities rules, raising new and important issues in the regulation of financial markets, says Bruce Carlin at Rice University.

  • Food Kiosk Merger Offers FTC Insights For Dealmakers

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent approval of 365 Retail Markets' merger with fellow food-kiosk provider Cantaloupe balances structural divestiture with behavioral provisions, emphasizing the role of early engagement by the parties and the importance of tailored remedies in concentrated markets, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • AG Watch: Reconciling 2 Maryland Data Privacy Statutes

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    In-house counsel should map the interplay between the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act's strictly necessary standard to deliver a requested service, and the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act's exemption of consent-based pricing within loyalty programs, before the state attorney general begins enforcement on the latter in October, says Erek Barron at Mintz.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

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    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • 5 Takeaways From Justices' Subpoena Fight Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in First Choice v. Davenport fortifies a line of First Amendment associational privacy cases stretching back nearly 70 years, and ensures that organizations subject to government demands for donor information have a meaningful federal forum in which to defend their constitutional rights, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • How Treasury's Stablecoin Test Will Shape State Oversight

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    The Treasury Department's recently proposed principles for judging whether state stablecoin regimes are "substantially similar" to the federal framework signal that issuers should expect stricter benchmarking against the bank agencies' standards, limited state flexibility and heightened pressure to reassess compliance as rules take shape, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Mass. Draft Regs Signal Nationwide Scrutiny Of Junk Fees

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    Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell's new draft regulations for assisted living facilities is only her latest move in the war on junk fees — and part of a national reordering of consumer protection enforcement in which states are aggressively and creatively asserting authority, says Steve Provazza at Arnall Golden.

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