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Consumer Protection
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May 23, 2024
TikTok, YouTube Must Produce European Privacy Data In MDL
A California federal magistrate judge overseeing discovery in multidistrict litigation over whether social media platforms' design is addictive ordered TikTok and YouTube on Thursday to give American personal injury plaintiffs certain technical documents regarding the companies' safety features implemented in Europe and Australia, which have tougher consumer privacy laws.
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May 23, 2024
Ex-Bank CEO Cops To Embezzling $47M To Pay Crypto Scam
Heartland Tri-State Bank's former chief executive pled guilty Thursday in Kansas federal court to embezzling $47 million that he wired to cryptocurrency accounts controlled by fraudsters after falling victim to a "pig butchering" scam, which led to the bank's collapse and subsequent shutdown last summer.
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May 23, 2024
FCC Defends Nielsen Data In Low-Power TV Licensing Suit
The Federal Communications Commission is defending its use of Nielsen statistics to determine if a low-power TV station should receive protections provided under a 2022 law aimed at safeguarding local and rural broadcasting.
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May 23, 2024
House Panel Moves Data Privacy Bill, While Vowing Revisions
A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Thursday advanced a bipartisan proposal to create a nationwide framework for how companies use and share consumers' personal information, despite lawmakers on both sides of the aisle acknowledging that more work needs to be done to further refine the measure.
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May 23, 2024
SEC Opens Gate To Ether ETFs, But Firms Await Green Light
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission started the process of bringing exchange-traded funds holding the cryptocurrency ether to market on Thursday when it approved a series of filings permitting national securities exchanges to list the products, leaving firms to wait for the next step before trading can begin.
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May 23, 2024
NC Top Court Finds Credit Union's Arbitration Add-On Is Valid
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday said a credit union can enforce an arbitration clause tacked on to a customer's contract at a later date, confirming a ruling by a lower appellate panel and requiring the customer suing the nonprofit over allegedly illegal overdraft fees to arbitrate her claims.
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May 23, 2024
AdTech Co. Faces Suit As Google's Cookie Support Crumbles
Advertising company Direct Digital Holdings Inc. faces a proposed investor class action alleging it mismanaged its response to an impending major technological change affecting how digital advertisers can target consumers.
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May 23, 2024
DOJ Has A Long Set To Play Against Live Nation-Ticketmaster
The U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit announced Thursday against Live Nation and Ticketmaster's dominance over performing artists, venues and tickets may have been 14 years in the making, but it still has a long road ahead in New York federal court.
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May 23, 2024
'I Just Don't Buy It': Judge Rips Google's Injunction Argument
A California federal judge considering the scope of a potential injunction against Google following Epic Games' antitrust jury trial win told Google's economist Thursday that the tech giant keeps arguing that more app store options for consumers will create a "terrifying world of chaos and anarchy," but "I just don't buy it."
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May 23, 2024
House Members Approve Closing Delta-8 Hemp 'Loophole'
A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Thursday approved a major change to the statutory definition of hemp and hemp products — which would effectively rewrite national hemp policy if it became law — in the next version of the federal Farm Bill.
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May 23, 2024
Kratom Cos. Failed To Warn Man About Risks, Colo. Suit Says
The parents of a deceased Colorado man allege that four companies that sell kratom are liable for their son's death because of their failure to warn consumers about the risks associated with using the loosely regulated plant-derived substance with opioid-like effects.
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May 23, 2024
House Panel Pushes AM Radio Bill Forward
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle came together to bump a popular proposal to prevent automakers from removing AM radios from their vehicles through to the full committee, with the bill sailing through markup Thursday morning.
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May 23, 2024
FCC Aims To Reduce Risk From China-Controlled Test Labs
The Federal Communications Commission pushed Thursday for new rules to prevent foreign adversaries, mainly the Chinese Communist Party, from playing a role in testing and certifying communications equipment in the U.S. market.
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May 23, 2024
Irma Power Outage Claims Must Be Brought To Fla. Regulator
A Florida state appellate court reversed the class certification in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit brought against Florida Power & Light Co. over extended electricity outages during Hurricane Irma, citing a new law requiring ratepayers to bring their claims before the state's Public Service Commission.
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May 23, 2024
Feds Nab Pair In $2M Sports, Pokémon Trading Card Scam
Two Washington state men were charged Thursday in New York federal court with running a $2 million scheme to defraud buyers of sports and Pokémon trading cards by claiming low- or mid-grade cards were authentic and highly rated.
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May 23, 2024
AT&T Stands To Gain Billions From 4.9 GHz, Report Says
A group representing Verizon and T-Mobile is renewing its effort to stop AT&T-affiliate FirstNet from gaining further control of the 4.9 gigahertz public safety band, this time arguing that AT&T stands to gain over $3 billion worth of spectrum if the Federal Communications Commission extends FirstNet's authority.
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May 23, 2024
Man Behind NH Primary Deepfake Faces Charges, FCC Fines
The Democratic consultant accused of making robocalls with a cloned voice of President Joe Biden discouraging voters from taking part in the New Hampshire primary faces a state indictment on 13 felony voter suppression charges and $6 million in potential federal fines.
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May 23, 2024
House Passes Bill To Block Fed-Issued Digital Dollar
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital dollar in a vote that fell starkly along party lines, with Democrats decrying the bill as fearmongering over privacy concerns and a departure from the previous day's bipartisan passage of a regulatory framework for digital assets.
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May 23, 2024
High Court Urged To Rule On FCC Question In TCPA Dispute
A chiropractic practice group is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take another crack at the question of whether district courts must adhere to a Federal Communications Commission's legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, in a bid to revive its proposed class action against McKesson over junk faxes.
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May 23, 2024
Coverage Suit Paused Until Resolution Of Gun Sales Dispute
A California federal court paused Crum & Forster's suit against a police gun and fitness club and the city of Los Angeles over coverage for underlying actions brought by officers accusing the club of selling them stolen handguns, citing factual overlap between the actions.
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May 23, 2024
NFL Says Unsolicited-Text Suit Belongs In Arbitration
The NFL wants to force into arbitration a lawsuit filed by a New York woman frustrated with her inability to stop unwanted text messages from the football organization, citing a binding agreement she consented to when registering to receive notifications about the 2023 draft.
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May 23, 2024
GSK, Boehringer Prevail In 1st Zantac Cancer Trial
A Chicago jury found Thursday that Zantac heartburn medication and its generic counterparts sold by GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim are not responsible for an Illinois woman's colon cancer and her subsequent, debilitating symptoms, handing the drug companies a decisive victory in the first of hundreds of such cases to go to trial.
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May 23, 2024
DOJ Sues Live Nation 14 Years After Ticketmaster Deal
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Live Nation Thursday over the 2010 agreement clearing the concert promotion giant's purchase of Ticketmaster, an oft-maligned deal that enforcers now want to unwind and that is blamed for fiascoes like the meltdown of ticket sales for Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
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May 23, 2024
Wow Such Basic: Justices Back Crypto Fans In Dogecoin Duel
It's up to judges, not arbitrators, to figure out whether contracts between businesses and consumers have subtly superseded earlier agreements to hash out disputes in arbitration rather than litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
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May 22, 2024
Neb. Takes Aim At TikTok For 'Exploiting' Teen Users
Nebraska's attorney general has become the latest to accuse TikTok of operating a service that is addictive and harmful to teens, alleging in a complaint filed in state court Wednesday that the popular video-sharing site has misled consumers about how safe and appropriate the platform is for minors.
Expert Analysis
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Reducing The Risk Of PFAS False Advertising Class Actions
A wave of class actions continues to pummel products that allegedly contain per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, with plaintiffs challenging advertising that they say misleads consumers by implying an absence of PFAS — but there are steps companies can take to minimize risk, say attorneys at Keller and Heckman.
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CFPB Overdraft Rule Could Mean Big Shift In Banking Biz
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed "to close a longstanding loophole" in the Truth in Lending Act by changing how it regulates overdraft fees, but underneath the headline-grabbing proposal is a foundational shift in how the bureau views overdraft services, say attorneys at Katten.
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Storytelling Strategies To Defuse Courtroom Conspiracies
Misinformation continues to proliferate in all sectors of society, including in the courtroom, as jurors try to fill in the gaps of incomplete trial narratives — underscoring the need for attorneys to tell a complete, consistent and credible story before and during trial, says David Metz at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Navigating The FCC's Rules On AI-Generated Robocall Voices
The Federal Communications Commission's declaratory ruling issued last week extends the agency's regulatory reach under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to calls that use artificial intelligence technology to generate voices, laying out a compliance roadmap, but not making AI-cloned voices in robocalls illegal per se, say attorneys at Wiley Rein.
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Aviation Watch: 737 Max Blowout Raises Major Safety Issues
The sudden in-flight loss of a side panel on an Alaska Air 737-9 Max last month, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane's cabin, highlighted ongoing quality issues at Boeing, the jet's manufacturer — but the failure also arose from decisions made by the airline, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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Mass Arb. Rule Changes May Be A Hindrance For Consumers
The American Arbitration Association's recent changes to its mass arbitration supplementary rules and fee schedule, including a shift from filing fees to initiation and per-case fees, may reduce consumers' ability to counteract businesses' mandatory arbitration agreements, say Eduard Korsinsky and Alexander Krot at Levi & Korsinsky.
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3 Principles For Minimizing The Risk Of A Nuclear Verdict
In one of the latest examples of so-called nuclear verdicts, a single plaintiff was awarded $2.25 billion in a jury trial against Monsanto — revealing the need for defense attorneys to prioritize trust, connection and simplicity when communicating with modern juries, say Jenny Hergenrother and Mia Falzarano at Alston & Bird.
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Series
Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.
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Freight Forwarders And Common Carriers: Know Your Cargo
Freight forwarders and other nonprincipal parties involved in global cargo movement should follow the guidance in the multi-agency know-your-cargo compliance note to avoid enforcement actions should they fail to spot evasive tactics used in supply chains to circumvent U.S. sanctions and export controls, say attorneys at Venable.
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Debt Collector Compliance Takeaways From An FDCPA Appeal
A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amicus brief last month in an ongoing First Circuit appeal focusing on an interpretation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can serve as a reminder for debt collectors to understand how their technologies, like bankruptcy scrubs and letter logic, can prevent litigation, says Justin Bradley at Womble Bond.
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SG's Office Is Case Study To Help Close Legal Gender Gap
As women continue to be underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal profession, law firms could learn from the example set by the Office of the Solicitor General, where culture and workplace policies have helped foster greater gender equality, say attorneys at Ocean Tomo.
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Bitcoin ETF Approval Doesn't Mean SEC Approves Of Crypto
While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval last month of 11 applications for spot exchange-traded funds tracking bitcoin is a landmark moment for the crypto-asset industry, investors who are hopeful that the SEC will approve similar crypto-based ETFs may be disappointed, says attorneys at Mintz.
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Googling Prospective Jurors Is Usually A Fool's Errand
Though a Massachusetts federal court recently barred Google from Googling potential jurors in a patent infringement case, the company need not worry about missing evidence of bias, because internet research of jury pools usually doesn’t yield the most valuable information — voir dire and questionnaires do, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Opinion
CFPB Shouldn't Ditch Prior Earned Wage Access Precedent
Recent statements from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau general counsel Seth Frotman indicate the CFPB may be concluding that some or all earned wage access products are credit under federal law, but doing so would threaten the existence of the products and cause consumers to turn back to costly alternatives, says Eric Goldberg at Akerman.
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A Look Into How Jurors Reach High Damages Awards
In the wake of several large jury awards, Richard Gabriel and Emily Shaw at Decision Analysis shed light on challenges that jurors have in deciding them, the nonevidentiary and extra-legal methods they use to do so, and new research about the themes and jury characteristics of high-damages jurors.