Consumer Protection

  • September 29, 2026

    Live Nation Can't Ditch FTC's Ticket Scalping Case

    A California federal judge refused Monday to toss the Federal Trade Commission's claims Live Nation turned a blind eye to ticket scalpers and failed to disclose significant Ticketmaster fees upfront, finding the suit plausibly alleges Ticketmaster didn't enforce its own resale policies and duped consumers with "ambiguous and vague" disclosures.

  • September 29, 2026

    Zillow Tells DC Court To Toss Junk Fees Suit

    Zillow Group Inc. has urged a Washington, D.C., federal court to toss a "meritless" proposed junk fees class action, arguing that the challenged rent payment fees are disclosed to residential tenants, and it offers a fee-free payment option.

  • September 29, 2026

    Housing Agency Says Indicted Ex-Boss Can't Use Home For Bond

    The former executive director of two Connecticut housing authorities cannot use his home to secure a $500,000 bond in his federal wire fraud case, the Groton Housing Authority and related entities told the state court judge overseeing a civil case arising from his alleged theft.

  • September 29, 2026

    FCC Can Step Into Idaho Pole Dispute With Utility, ISP Says

    An internet service provider insisted the Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction in its fight with a utility over pole upgrades for broadband gear in Idaho, saying state regulators lacked authority over the issue when the dispute first occurred.

  • September 29, 2026

    Feds Seek To Throw Out States' Challenge To DEI Contract EO

    The Trump administration told a Maryland federal court that it should toss a lawsuit from states challenging its implementation of an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the government contracting space, arguing the order falls within well-settled law.

  • September 29, 2026

    Lululemon Says Shoppers Can't Claim Its Tariff Refunds

    A proposed class action brought by Lululemon shoppers seeking refunds for higher prices paid due to unlawful tariffs should be rejected because the retailer hasn't yet recovered all its paid duties, the company told a Washington federal judge.

  • September 29, 2026

    Md. Judge Tosses Vivid Seats 'Drip Pricing' Suit

    A Maryland federal judge has tossed a proposed class action brought by a customer accusing Vivid Seats of "drip pricing" — in which the total cost is revealed only at the end of the buying process — saying that even if added fees included at checkout made the total price more expensive than what was originally displayed, the ticket was still purchased.

  • September 29, 2026

    EU Prosecutors Arrest 7 In Alleged €300M Phone Scam

    Seven people have been arrested as part of an investigation into a network accused of tricking consumers into buying over a million used mobile phones sold as new to pocket €300 million ($340 million), including €30 million in stolen value-added tax, EU prosecutors said Tuesday.

  • September 29, 2026

    Chinese, Indian Electrodes Dumped, Commerce Finds

    Imports of electrodes used for smelting from India and China are facing possible antidumping duties, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday, finding they are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value.

  • September 28, 2026

    Grok-Maker Can't Get Deepfake Suit Paused Or Transferred

    Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company must continue battling a proposed class action brought by women suing over Grok-generated deepfakes of them in sexual situations, a California federal judge ruled Monday, declining to pause or transfer the suit to Texas.

  • September 28, 2026

    Home Depot, Keurig Spam Suits Paused For 9th Circ. Ruling

    Proposed class actions over allegedly misleading spam emails from Home Depot and Bed Bath & Beyond are on hold until the Ninth Circuit decides a related appeal involving Aeropostale's operators, a Washington federal judge said last week, as another Seattle federal judge returned similar suits against Macy's and Audible to state court.

  • September 28, 2026

    ChatGPT Users' Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft Gets Trimmed

    Microsoft isn't going to be able to force into arbitration claims that it undermined OpenAI by forcing the artificial intelligence giant into using only its cloud computing, but it did convince the California federal judge overseeing the case to toss the proposed class's federal antitrust claim.

  • September 28, 2026

    Calif. Governor Vetoes Broad Ban On Sensitive Data Sales

    California's governor has refused to sign off on legislation that would have made the state the latest to restrict the sale and sharing of consumers' geolocation, biometric and other sensitive information, saying the proposed "categorical ban" on these online data practices was "a step too far."

  • September 28, 2026

    6th Circ. Narrows Scope Of Injunction On Ohio Hemp Law

    Ohio officials can enforce much of a state law that reclassified hemp products as marijuana, the Sixth Circuit has ruled, only prohibiting state officials from enforcing on certain companies the parts that put geographical limitations on where cannabis products can be sourced.

  • September 28, 2026

    CFPB Rips Bid To Ax $43M Debt-Relief Win As 'Frivolous'

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has urged the Seventh Circuit to uphold a more than $43 million enforcement judgment against the former operator of a defunct debt relief provider, defending the agency's lower-court win in a case that has stretched across three presidential terms.

  • September 28, 2026

    FCC Seeks FirstNet Band Manager After Court Challenges End

    With a court challenge out of the way, the Federal Communications Commission took strides Monday toward choosing a band manager to coordinate use of the 4.9 gigahertz spectrum band by the First Responder Network Authority.

  • September 28, 2026

    Newsom Signs Calif. Pesticide PFAS Tracking Bill Into Law

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law new regulations requiring state officials to track and publicly disclose when pesticides that are used on state produce contain "forever chemicals."

  • September 28, 2026

    Paramount, States Urge Court To Approve Merger Deal

    State enforcers and Paramount Skydance responded Monday to several questions raised by a lawmaker over a settlement ending the states' challenge of Paramount's deal for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., telling a California federal court there's no need for a full-blown review.

  • September 28, 2026

    Jet Broker Accused Of Stealing $815K Through Ponzi Scheme

    A Florida couple has told a Colorado federal court a private jet charter company kept over $800,000 of the couple's money in "what amounted to a Ponzi scheme" after the company abruptly ceased operations and refused to provide refunds, leaving an estimated $150 million in customer funds in flux.

  • September 28, 2026

    Don't Overstep On Submarine Cable License Regs, FCC Told

    The Federal Communications Commission should shy away from implementing regulations for submarine cable landing licenses that would apply a uniform standard to all cable systems regardless of risk, says one of the country's biggest telecom trade groups.

  • September 28, 2026

    FCC Needs More Time To Weigh Verizon Copper Retirement

    The Federal Communications Commission says it needs more time to think about Verizon's request for the agency's permission to end copper line telephone service in certain parts of nine different states.

  • September 28, 2026

    Administration Says It Has Committed $289M In CDFI Funds

    An attorney for the Trump administration told a D.C. federal judge that nearly $300 million appropriated for community development financial institutions had been fully obligated, countering a lawsuit from an advocacy group seeking a court order requiring that the money go out.

  • September 28, 2026

    Fla. AG Seeks To Put Guardrails On OpenAI's Models

    Florida's attorney general on Monday asked a court to block OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman from developing artificial intelligence models without third-party guardrails and from offering ChatGPT to minors, in a suit accusing the AI company of spurring young people to commit crimes and acts of violence.

  • September 28, 2026

    Policyholders Say RICO Plot 'Pillaged' Insurer's Assets

    A private equity firm and a financial services business have been hit with civil racketeering claims by the holders of a combined $5 million in PHL Variable Insurance Co. policies, but whose benefits were capped at just $300,000 during a Connecticut state-managed rehabilitation effort.

  • September 28, 2026

    Atlanta Consulting Firm Sued Over May Data Breach

    Aprio Advisory Group LLC was hit with a proposed class action in Georgia federal court by a former employee who said its lax data security measures led to a data breach in May that exposed the personal information of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Expert Analysis

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

  • HPE-Juniper Settlement Teaches Key Tunney Act Lessons

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    A California federal court's recent approval of the U.S. Department of Justice's settlement with Hewlett Packard over its Juniper Networks acquisition offers legal practitioners some crucial lessons, including on unique tech-sector remedies for mergers and acquisitions and the continued viability of the Tunney Act, says Shubha Ghosh at Syracuse University College of Law.

  • First Steps For Companies Facing AI-Assisted Pro Se Suits

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    As the volume of filings by pro se litigants assisted by artificial intelligence tools continues to increase, companies should adopt a consistent early assessment process to control costs while responding fairly and effectively to such claims, say attorneys at Stradley Ronon.

  • Elder Fraud Risk And Pleading Lessons From Meta Cases

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    Michael Gilfix and Benjamin Gicqueau at Gilfix & La Poll discuss how a recent Meta youth settlement and an April decision involving social media harms to children may point to a broader pleading framework in cases of elder fraud, and offer practical measures for platforms and consumers seeking to reduce elder fraud risk.

  • Negotiating The Scope Of The Stablecoin Customer ID Rule

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    Though comments on bank regulators’ proposed rule for stablecoin issuers under the Genius Act generally agree that oversight would help prevent illicit activity, agencies must reconcile disagreement over whether to extend customer identification requirements from issuers' primary-market relationships to secondary-markets activity, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • An Economic Approach Could Curb Broad Antitrust Classes

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    A Minnesota federal court's recent certification decision reflects a familiar antitrust pattern of inefficiently broad class certification even when the alleged conspiracy's effect is likely to vary significantly across buyers, but utilizing an economic interpretation of predominance would enhance efficiency by leading to narrower classes, says Sean Durkin at Charles River.

  • How To Improve Hiring Transparency Amid Ghost Job Scrutiny

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    Recent regulatory and state law scrutiny of ghost job postings for roles that don't exist or aren't being filled signals a shift toward hiring transparency, and employers that fail to adapt risk enforcement actions, consumer protection claims and financial penalties, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Hugging Face Attack Is A Warning To The Securities Markets

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    The recent Hugging Face cyberattack, in which OpenAI's artificial intelligence agents hacked a third party without human instruction, raises questions about how regulators could respond to a similar incident in the securities markets and whether there's a substitute for scienter if no person is behind a financial crime, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

  • FTC Push May Create Dual Origin-Claim Risks For Contractors

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    Recent Federal Trade Commission actions involving Made in USA advertising requirements offer a preview of enforcement themes that may impose dual compliance burdens on government contractors that are also subject to Federal Acquisition Regulation Buy American restrictions, says Amy Hoang at Seyfarth.

  • 4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

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    Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

  • Series

    Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

  • FCC Robotics Restrictions Raise AI Compliance Risks

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    A recent "covered list" update from the Federal Communications Commission places restrictions on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices’ ability to obtain new authorizations, creating a framework that is poorly suited to continuous artificial intelligence updates, and raising several transactional and contractual challenges, says Kim Larsen at Stinson.

  • What Greek Tragedy Teaches About Mediating AI Disputes

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    While ancient Greek writers could not have anticipated modern arbitration, their tragic plays illustrate new and familiar questions for mediators dealing with artificial intelligence disputes, including the functional differences between adjudication and resolution, says Giuseppe De Palo at JAMS.

  • AML Takes Center Stage In Financial Crime Enforcement

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    Financial Crimes Enforcement Network actions, including its recent anti-money-laundering penalty against UBS, signal that companies should align sanctions and anti-corruption controls with documented risk assessments, quickly escalate and investigate red flags, and test remediation as enforcement intensifies, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

  • Tracking Trends In State-Level Regulatory Enforcement

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    State-level enforcement now increasingly involves antitrust, artificial intelligence and data privacy issues, and the key for organizations to reducing risk is having the ability to respond across governance, public affairs, discovery and remediation in multiple states simultaneously, say consultants at FTI Consulting.

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