Consumer Protection

  • April 18, 2024

    Wife Of Alleged $3B TelexFree Scammer 'Hounded' In MDL

    The estranged wife of alleged TelexFree Ponzi schemer Carlos Wanzeler said Thursday that plaintiffs in a decade-old civil suit are needlessly "hounding" her for information they already have and urged a Massachusetts federal court to free her from the "litigation purgatory." 

  • April 17, 2024

    Ethics Panel Douses Judge DQ Talk In 5th Circ. CFPB Case

    A judicial ethics panel has concluded that recusal isn't automatically required for the Fifth Circuit judge whose financial disclosures have fueled calls for his disqualification from litigation challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule.

  • April 17, 2024

    House Sends Bill To Close Data Warrant 'Loophole' To Senate

    The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly advanced bipartisan legislation that would ban federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies from purchasing from data brokers personal information about Americans that they would otherwise need a warrant to obtain, despite the White House voicing opposition to the measure. 

  • April 17, 2024

    New TikTok Bill Gives More Time For Divestment

    A bill requiring ByteDance Ltd. to divest TikTok or face a ban in the U.S. was included in the package of national security bills House Republicans introduced on Wednesday, which gives a longer runway to sell the app than the one the House previously passed in March.

  • April 17, 2024

    Walgreens Investors' $36M Deal In Opioid Suit Gets First OK

    An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday granted his initial approval of a $36 million settlement to end a stockholder's derivative suit accusing Walgreens and its leadership of failing to limit retail pharmacies from dispensing unreasonable amounts of opioids.

  • April 17, 2024

    'Fired Up': House Leaders Say Data Privacy Law Top Priority

    House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders said Wednesday that they are "fired up" to finally push long-running efforts to enact a federal data privacy framework across the finish line, although concerns about the scope of the proposal and desires to enhance digital safeguards for children threaten to derail this momentum. 

  • April 17, 2024

    NY Settles With Payroll, Prepaid Card Bank For $700K

    Pathward, formerly MetaBank, has reached a $700,000 agreement with New York Attorney General Letitia James to resolve allegations the bank broke the law by freezing certain customer accounts and illegally handing over customer money to debt collectors.

  • April 17, 2024

    ISPs Seek Clearer Preemption In Feds' Net Neutrality Draft

    With the Federal Communications Commission set to vote on net neutrality rules later this month, internet service providers are hoping the agency will clarify exactly how its orders trump state regulations on ISP conduct.

  • April 17, 2024

    Kraft Sued Over Lead Contamination In Lunchables

    Kraft has been slapped with a proposed class action over its popular Lunchables snack kits after independent testing of the kits allegedly found that they contained high, though legally allowable, levels of lead and other harmful substances.

  • April 17, 2024

    Biden Says Tariffs On Chinese Steel Should Be Tripled

    President Joe Biden promised Wednesday to seek significantly steeper tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum imports should the U.S. Trade Representative confirm that China is engaging in unfair trade practices that erode competition.

  • April 17, 2024

    DC Judge Questions 7-Eleven Position On FTC Constraints

    A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday pressed counsel for 7-Eleven on the company's claims that only the U.S. attorney general can seek civil penalties on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, questioning how the commission itself can be limited when the FTC Act gives it the right to take up actions if the U.S. Department of Justice does not.

  • April 17, 2024

    Cinemark Shorted Thirsty Moviegoers By 2 Ounces, Suit Says

    Movie theater chain Cinemark USA Inc. is ripping off customers by lying about its purported 24-ounce drink sizes when in reality, the plastic containers can only hold 22 ounces of liquid, according to a proposed class action filed in Texas federal court.

  • April 17, 2024

    Don't Ignore Problematic Merger Docs, FTC Comp Chief Says

    The Federal Trade Commission's top antitrust enforcer urged merging parties Wednesday to be fully open and transparent with reviewing staffers, warning that trying to get enforcers to ignore potentially problematic material just makes their jobs more difficult.

  • April 17, 2024

    Tinder, Hinge Seek Arb. In 'Preposterous' Addictive Apps Suit

    Allegations that the Tinder and Hinge dating apps are addictive and lead to compulsive use are "preposterous," Match Group told a California federal judge, arguing that not only are the claims baseless, but the consumers bringing them all signed arbitration agreements when they signed up for accounts.

  • April 17, 2024

    New Stablecoin Bill Eyes Investor Protections, AML Regime

    Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R.-Wyo., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D.-N.Y., have unveiled their long-awaited proposal to regulate stablecoins, which would require issuers to hold full reserves, ban algorithmic stablecoins and define the authority that state and federal banking regulators will have over the tokens.

  • April 17, 2024

    First-Of-Its-Kind Brain Data Privacy Bill Passes In Colo.

    Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed a bipartisan bill to protect the privacy of individuals' brain activity, marking the first time in the United States that a law expands the definition of "sensitive data" to include biological and neural data.

  • April 17, 2024

    Jury To Decide Fault Of Driver In Spray-Huffing DUI Death

    A Minnesota federal judge on Wednesday said it's up to a jury to decide whether a driver acted intentionally or negligently when he allegedly huffed a compressed gas spray and killed a woman in a collision, in a trial against the spray's manufacturer over the death.

  • April 17, 2024

    Liberty Mutual's Spyware Suit Halted Pending 3rd Circ. Appeal

    A proposed class action accusing Liberty Mutual of using software to track customers' actions on its website without consent was put on hold Wednesday by a Pennsylvania federal judge pending guidance from the Third Circuit in a similar case.

  • April 17, 2024

    Flagstar Bank Beats Overdraft 'Fee Maximization' Suit

    A Michigan federal judge has shut down a proposed consumer class action that accused Flagstar Bank of unlawfully charging millions of dollars in surprise overdraft fees, ruling that the bank had provided clarifying disclosures that left no more room for surprise.

  • April 17, 2024

    Lawmaker Says New Merger Guides Hurt Small Businesses

    The head of the House Small Business Committee has sent letters to the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, contending enforcers did not fully consider how new merger guidelines will impact the small business community.

  • April 17, 2024

    Geolocation Co. Seeks FCC Revamp Of Lower 900 MHz

    Tech developer NextNav has asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconfigure the lower 900 megahertz spectrum band to allow for geolocation services that can back up the Global Positioning System.

  • April 17, 2024

    Coding Bootcamp Fined $164K For Misleading Student Loans

    A company that runs coding "bootcamps" has been permanently banned from consumer lending after U.S. regulators found it inflated its job placement rates to students and lied to them about a tuition financing program that turned out to be risky loans.

  • April 17, 2024

    FDA Denies Marketing For 65 MNGO Disposable E-Cigarettes

    The latest action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on e-cigarettes was to tell a Chinese company to take its range of 65 e-cigarette products in a variety of flavors from menthol to pink lemonade and watermelon off the market.

  • April 17, 2024

    FDA Tells Justices It Has A Better Vape Case In Mind

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has told the U.S. Supreme Court that if it wants to address the agency's decision not to approve applications for flavored e-cigarettes, there is a better case in the pipeline than the appeal lodged by Lotus Vaping Technologies that the justices should choose instead.

  • April 17, 2024

    States, Biz Groups Back Fight Over DOE Furnace Rules

    Eighteen states and several business associations are backing gas utility groups' challenge to the U.S. Department of Energy's tighter energy efficiency standards for furnaces and water heaters, telling the D.C. Circuit that the agency is unlawfully forcing a switch to new appliances.

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding And Working With The Millennials On Your Jury

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    Every trial attorney will be facing a greater proportion of millennials on their jury, as they now comprise the largest generation in the U.S., and winning them over requires an understanding of their views on politics, corporations and damages, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation Consulting.

  • Vagueness In Calif. Climate Law Makes Compliance Tricky

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    California's recently enacted Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act requires companies making claims of carbon neutrality, or significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions, to disclose information supporting those claims — but vague and conflicting language in the statute poses multiple problems for businesses, say John Rousakis and Chris Bowman at O'Melveny.

  • Series

    Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.

  • Breaking Down FDIC's New Advertising And Signage Rule

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s final rule on signage and advertising, coming on the heels of a campaign against nonbank businesses purporting to offer FDIC-insured deposit products, introduces important new requirements and clarifies existing regulations for both traditional depository institutions and novel digital platforms, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Potential Defendant Strategies Amid Calif. Privacy Questions

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    Although the current case law surrounding the California Consumer Privacy Act is in its infancy, courts have begun addressing important issues related to the notice-and-cure provisions of the statute, and these decisions show defendant-businesses would be wise to assert their notice rights early and repeatedly, say Viola Trebicka and Dan Humphrey at Quinn Emanuel.

  • How 2 CFPB Advisory Opinions Affect Reporting Agencies

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued two advisory opinions last month that demonstrate a continued commitment to address inaccuracies in background check reports and consumer file disclosures through broad interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, expanding on a coordinated federal agency effort, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • A Close Look At The FCC's Revised SIM Card Fraud Rules

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    Carolyn Mahoney and John Seiver at Davis Wright break down recently proposed revisions to the Federal Communications Commission's customer proprietary network information and local number portability rules for wireless providers, discuss the revisions' implications on artificial intelligence regulation, and provide tips to prevent SIM swap and port-out fraud.

  • What Retailers Should Note In Calif. Web Tracking Suits

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    As retailers face a deluge of class actions alleging the use of conventional web analytic tools violate wiretapping and eavesdropping provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, uncovering the path toward a narrow interpretation of the law will largely depend on how these cases proceed, say Matthew Pearson and Kareem Salem at BakerHostetler.

  • Del. Ruling Adds Momentum For Caremark Plaintiffs

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent opinion in Lebanon County Employees' Retirement Fund v. Collis could be viewed as expanding plaintiffs' ability to viably plead a Caremark claim against directors, so Delaware companies should be on heightened alert and focus on creating a record of board oversight, say attorneys at V&E.

  • Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Election-Year Unknowns

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    In the final installment of this three-part article reviewing the top challenges for the maritime industry this year, Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight examines how the uncertainty surrounding the forthcoming U.S. election may affect the maritime sector — especially companies involved in offshore wind and deep-sea mining.

  • The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift

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    As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.

  • Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Environmental Challenges

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    In the second installment of this three-part article examining key concerns for the maritime sector this year, Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight considers how the industry will be affected by environmental concerns — including the growing push for decarbonization, and regulatory scrutiny around greenwashing and ESG issues.

  • 5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money

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    As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.

  • Following Banking Regulators' Breadcrumbs To 2024 Priorities

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    Through blog posts, speeches, and formal guidance and regulations, prudential and other federal and state financial regulators laid out a road map last year pointing to compliance priorities that should be reflected in financial institutions' planning this year, say Laurel Loomis Rimon and Gina Shabana at Jenner & Block.

  • How Biotech Deals May Help Competition, Despite FTC View

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    The Federal Trade Commission's complaint against Sanofi's proposed partnership with Maze Therapeutics highlights increasing skepticism of so-called killer acquisitions, but a closer look reveals potentially legitimate reasons behind why entities might decide to delay or abandon the development of acquired products, say consultants at Analysis Group.

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