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Consumer Protection
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September 19, 2024
Union Pacific Contractors Again Escape Texas Enviro Claims
A Texas appeals court on Thursday affirmed a trial court's decision to dismiss without prejudice the claims scores of people lodged against two Union Pacific Railroad Co. contractors in their litigation over cancer-causing contamination related to a Houston rail yard.
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September 19, 2024
Food Safety Org Says EPA Stalling On Sharing Pesticide Info
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is illegally failing to provide important records about how it assesses pesticides' ecological impact and human health risks, the Center for Food Safety said in a new lawsuit.
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September 19, 2024
Scammers Bilked At Least $230M In Bitcoin, Feds Say
Two people were arrested and charged with conspiring to steal and launder at least $230 million in bitcoin, allegedly using online monikers like "Anne Hathaway" and "VersaceGod," federal prosecutors said Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
Shot Put Pro Alleges Cannabis Ended His Athletic Career
A champion collegiate athlete who's won numerous medals in the shot put has filed suit against half a dozen hemp retailers in New Jersey state court, claiming their products caused him to develop a cannabis-induced psychosis that spurred a suicide attempt and ended his professional athletic career.
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September 19, 2024
Crypto Exchange Must Refund Bitcoins, But In 2013 Dollars
A New York judge held Thursday that bygone cryptocurrency exchange Bitfloor improperly failed to return more than 200 of its customers' bitcoins upon shutting down in 2013, but said damages will be limited to the dollar value of the digital assets over a decade ago.
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September 19, 2024
Live Nation Looks To Trim Gov't Antitrust Case
Live Nation has asked a New York federal court to toss claims seeking damages in the government's antitrust case, arguing that consumers were not harmed by its dealings with concert venues and promoters, and also asked to nix a tying claim from the case.
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September 19, 2024
Tyson Foods Hit With Greenwashing Suit For 'Net-Zero' Claim
Tyson Foods Inc. has been slapped with a complaint by the Environmental Working Group in D.C. Superior Court, accusing the country's second-largest meat company of falsely claiming it will be net-zero by 2050 and misrepresenting its industrial beef products as "climate-smart."
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September 19, 2024
Puerto Rico, Navient Ink $7.7M Student Loan Forgiveness Deal
Navient Corp. has reached an agreement with Puerto Rico's attorney general to forgive at least $7.7 million in private student loans after being accused of past predatory lending to student borrowers and pervasive loan servicing failures.
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September 19, 2024
GOP's Broadband Permit Overhaul 'Dangerous,' Localities Say
Local governments urged congressional leaders to reject a Republican-backed plan to revamp permitting laws that delay new broadband deployment projects, calling the proposal a "dangerous" step toward limiting city and county rights.
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September 19, 2024
No Coverage For Santander Shareholder Suit, Allianz Says
Allianz told a Massachusetts federal court that it doesn't owe coverage to Santander Holdings for an underlying class action brought by shareholders over the company's $2.5 billion deal to take its consumer finance entity private, arguing that multiple exclusions bar coverage for claims arising from the transaction.
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September 19, 2024
H&R Block Again Asks 8th Circ. To Remove ALJs In Ad Suit
H&R Block asked the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its denial of the company's request to stop administrative law judges from presiding over its coming false-advertising hearing before the Federal Trade Commission, saying the court's one-sentence ruling lacked any explanation despite the significant constitutional issues involved.
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September 19, 2024
Feds Oppose Overturning Guilty Verdict For Crypto Trader
Federal prosecutors told a New York federal judge that the crypto trader convicted of fraudulently draining more than $100 million from platform Mango Markets is wrongly attempting to recast factual issues as legal questions in his bid for acquittal.
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September 19, 2024
Calif. Vape Co. Says Mich. Store Is Selling Counterfeit G Pens
California-based GS Holistic LLC is suing a Michigan smoke shop in federal court, alleging that it is selling counterfeit versions of its G Pen e-cigarettes without authorization at a fraction of the price, infringing its trademarks and harming its reputation.
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September 19, 2024
Tech Giants Falling Far Short On Data Privacy, FTC Says
Facebook, Amazon and other major social media and video streaming platforms are deploying "woefully inadequate" data privacy practices to protect users of all ages, highlighting the urgent need for tighter restrictions on how these companies collect, use and retain personal information, the Federal Trade Commission said in a staff report issued Thursday.
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September 18, 2024
Kids' Online Safety, Privacy Bills Move To House Floor
The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced a pair of bipartisan bills aimed at enhancing children's digital safety and data privacy, despite several lawmakers voicing concerns with recent changes that a sponsor acknowledged left one measure a "weakened version" of the proposal that passed the U.S. Senate.
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September 18, 2024
Google Judge Wonders: Does Ad Tech Benefit Publishers?
The Virginia federal judge weighing the fate of Google's display advertising placement business zeroed in Wednesday on a key aspect of the search giant's defense against a Justice Department monopolization suit — the assertion that even if company practices disadvantaged rival ad exchanges, they benefited publishers.
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September 18, 2024
CFPB Says Fintech's Funding Challenge 'Misconstrues' Law
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a California federal judge that its lawsuit accusing fintech lender SoLo Funds Inc. of falsely touting interest-free loans on its platforms should proceed despite SoLo's claims that the agency is operating with an illegal funding scheme, among other things.
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September 18, 2024
SEC Says Unregistered DeFi Project Pooled $1B In Crypto
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced settlements with the business and co-founders behind decentralized finance, or DeFi, project Rari Capital Inc. on Wednesday after the regulator accused the project of misleading investors and acting as an unregistered broker.
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September 18, 2024
First Horizon To Pay SEC $325K Over Reg BI Violations
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that First Horizon Advisors Inc. will pay a $325,000 penalty to settle claims the broker-dealer violated Regulation Best Interest in the wake of its parent company's 2020 merger with IberiaBank Corp.
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September 18, 2024
SEC Must Clarify Murky Crypto Rules, Ex-Officials Tell House
Two former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials who now represent crypto businesses told House lawmakers Wednesday that the agency's insistence on analyzing the economic realities of every crypto transaction in lieu of clear rulemaking has put the sector and its attorneys in unworkable situations.
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September 18, 2024
FTX Auditor Prager Metis Settles SEC Charges For Negligence
The former auditor of Sam Bankman-Fried's defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX agreed Tuesday to pay $1.95 million to resolve allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of misconduct in FTX audits and, in a separate case, violations of auditor independence rules.
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September 18, 2024
SEC Files Its 1st Suits Over 'Pig Butchering' Crypto Scams
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed two first-of-their-kind suits against a series of entities and individuals behind a pair of so-called pig butchering schemes that allegedly solicited investments in fake crypto platforms by gaining people's trust over social media only to scam them out of nearly $3 million.
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September 18, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Revive Gas Price-Fixing Suit Over Trump Pact
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action alleging price fixing between major oil producers as part of the Trump Administration's 2020 deal with Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut production, saying that subjecting the pact to judicial review would be inappropriately "second-guessing" executive branch foreign policy.
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September 18, 2024
Health AI Co. Says Texas AG 'Misrepresents' Compliance Deal
The Texas attorney general's Wednesday announcement of a compliance agreement with a healthcare-focused artificial intelligence company has sparked backlash from the company, which accused the state prosecutor of "dangerously" misrepresenting their agreement.
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September 18, 2024
Gov't Lifeline Gives Nippon A Fighting Chance On US Steel
The Biden administration has indicated it's poised to block Nippon Steel from proceeding with a controversial $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, but the government is reportedly giving the Japanese steelmaker an additional 90 days to prove its case, a development that should give Nippon hope it can get the deal done, attorneys say.
Expert Analysis
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Opting In To CIPA Risk Mitigation After New Precedent
A recent California federal court decision, adopting a new, broad interpretation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, will likely increase the volume of CIPA claims and should prompt businesses to undertake certain preventative measures, including adopting an opt-in approach to using third-party website advertising technologies, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.
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Opinion
It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union
As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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CFPB's Earned Wage Access Rule Marks Regulatory Shift
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's newly issued interpretive rule on earned wage access products, classifying them as extensions of credit, marks a significant shift in their regulatory landscape and raises some important questions regarding potential fringe cases and legal challenges, say Erin Bryan and Courina Yulisa at Dorsey & Whitney.
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What 7th Circ. Samsung Decision Means For Mass Arbitration
The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Wallrich v. Samsung highlights the dilemma faced by mass arbitration filers in the face of nonpayment of arbitration fees by the defending party — but also suggests that there are risks for defendants in pursuing such a strategy, says Daniel Campbell at McDermott.
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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FTC Drives Crackdown On Connected Cars' Data Privacy Risk
After the Federal Trade Commission's warning to automakers about data privacy, which continues to emerge as a national concern, automakers must carefully examine their data collection, use and retention practices, say Catherine Castaldo and Michael Rubayo at Reed Smith.
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Jarkesy May Thwart Consumer Agencies' Civil Penalty Power
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy not only implicates future SEC administrative adjudications, but those of other agencies that operate similarly — and may stymie regulators' efforts to levy civil monetary penalties in a range of consumer protection enforcement actions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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How Courts Split On Damages Analysis In Automotive Suits
As high-profile vehicle recalls and lawsuits alleging vehicle defects surge, many plaintiffs are turning to choice-based conjoint analysis to calculate damages, but a review of federal district court decisions reveals a range of views on the validity of this methodology, say Joshua Hochberg and Shireen Meer at Berkeley Research.
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Considerations As State AGs Step Up Privacy Enforcement
As new state privacy laws take effect, businesses are facing an increasingly complex patchwork of compliance obligations and risk of scrutiny by attorneys general, but companies can gain a competitive edge by building consumer trust and staying ahead of regulatory trends, say Ann-Marie Luciano and Meghan Stoppel at Cozen O’Connor.
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2 Vital Trial Principles Endure Amid Tech Advances
Progress in trial technologies in the last 10 years has been transformative for courtroom presentations, but two core communication axioms are still relevant in today's world of drone footage evidence and 3D animations, say Adam Bloomberg and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Lessons From Rising Fake Discount Consumer Class Actions
Ellen Robbins and Scott Allbright at Akerman discuss the rise of false reference price consumer class actions and outline key strategies to minimize legal risk and protect businesses.
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How Cos. With Chinese Suppliers Should Prep For Biotech Bill
A proposed bill to prohibit government-affiliated life sciences companies from contracting with Chinese biotech companies of concern may necessitate switching to other sources for research and supplies, meaning they should begin evaluating supply chains now due to the long lead times of drug development, say John O'Loughlin and Christina Carone at Weil Gotshal.
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Classwide Calculations May Get Price Premium Damages Wrong
In many consumer class actions, plaintiffs assert that they overpaid for a product because of a misrepresented or defective product feature, and that a single price premium estimate can be applied classwide — but failure to account for differences in price premiums across a putative class may lead to improper damage awards, say economists at Ankura Consulting.
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Opinion
Texas Judges Ignored ERISA's Core To Stall Fiduciary Rule
Two recent rulings from Texas federal courts, which rely on a plainly wrong reading of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to effectively strike a forthcoming rule that would impose functional fiduciary duties onto sellers of investment services, may expose financially unsophisticated 401(k) participants to peddlers of misleading advice, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Inside OCC's Retail Nondeposit Investment Products Refresh
In addition to clarifying safe and sound risk management practices generally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's revised booklet on retail nondeposit investment products updates its guidance around certain sales practices in light of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption of Regulation Best Interest, say attorneys at Debevoise.