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Consumer Protection
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May 03, 2024
Phone Carriers Still Want More Time On SIM Swap Deadline
Telecom trade groups have once again told the Federal Communications Commission that their members are going to struggle to meet the deadline for complying with the agency's new rules aimed at combating SIM card swapping fraud.
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May 03, 2024
5th Circ. Stands By Keeping CFPB Late Fee Case In Texas
A Fifth Circuit panel will not reconsider its decision rejecting the cross-country transfer of a bank industry-backed challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee standard, denying the agency's bid to move the case back to Washington, D.C., from Texas.
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May 03, 2024
Charities Can't Get 'Second Bite Of The Apple' Against PayPal
An Illinois federal judge on Friday trimmed a second lawsuit by charities challenging the way PayPal solicits and distributes charitable contributions, saying they can't get a "second bite of the apple" after their nearly identical claims were dismissed because they'd agreed to individually arbitrate disputes.
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May 03, 2024
6th Circ. Drops Bettors' Appeal Over Doped Derby Horse
Kentucky Derby gamblers who claimed they had winning bets after officials disqualified the race's lead horse cannot sue Churchill Downs or the horse's Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, the Sixth Circuit ruled, saying courts can't "turn a losing wager into a winning one."
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May 03, 2024
Ill. Hilton Operators Slapped With Time-Tracking BIPA Suits
Hilton workers have hit several hotel operators in the Chicago area with a proposed class action and an individual lawsuit in Illinois state court, accusing the hotels of illegally collecting and retaining workers' biometric data to keep track of workers' hours in violation of the state Biometric Information Privacy Act.
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May 03, 2024
Walmart Hit With False Ad Suit Over 'Reef Friendly' Sunscreen
A consumer hit Walmart Inc. with a proposed class action on Friday in New York federal court accusing the retail giant of falsely labeling its sunscreen as "Reef Friendly," when it actually contains ingredients that are harmful to coral reefs.
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May 03, 2024
Hospital In Novant Merger Beset By Staff Turnover, Court Told
The Federal Trade Commission and two healthcare companies used witness testimony Friday to paint competing pictures of a North Carolina hospital at the center of a $320 million merger dispute: one in which the hospital has focused on making quality improvements, and another where it's been plagued by poor ratings and high staff turnover.
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May 03, 2024
DOJ Seeks Info Sharing With Texas In Google Ad Tech Case
The U.S. Department of Justice objected on Friday to a Virginia magistrate judge's refusal to coordinate discovery in its suit accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology with a similar case from state enforcers pending in Texas, contending the information sharing is needed to maintain a level playing field.
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May 03, 2024
Google Blasts Epic's Post-Verdict Play Store Reforms Bid
Google is hitting back at Epic Games' proposed injunction following its jury win on antitrust claims related to the Google Play Store and Android apps, telling a California federal judge Thursday that Epic's proposed rules cover conduct that was not presented to the jury and is "purely hypothetical."
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May 03, 2024
Crumbl Faces Privacy Suit For Not-So-Sweet Tracking Cookies
A customer hit Crumbl LLC with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging the cookie company helps a third-party payment processing company install tracking cookies on web browsers to collect consumers' sensitive information and their online activity without consent.
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May 03, 2024
Chamber Blasts FTC Bid For Member IDs In Noncompete Suit
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is defending its ability to represent anonymous members in its Texas federal suit challenging the Federal Trade Commission's pending noncompete ban, arguing that the FTC's attempt to block that representation is "radical and unprecedented."
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May 03, 2024
Cash App's Parent Co. Can't Ditch Referral Text Suit
Block Inc., the parent company of mobile payment service Cash App, can't escape a suit alleging it bombarded cellphone users with "annoying and harassing spam texts," a Washington federal judge ruled, finding the plaintiff has alleged sufficient facts to support a plausible claim for relief under Washington's Consumer Electronic Mail Act.
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May 03, 2024
Sens. Look To Add Kids Online Bills To FAA Bill
A bipartisan group of senators is looking to add legislation to better protect kids online and on social media to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which faces a May 10 deadline for enactment.
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May 03, 2024
Judge Says Lender Can't Escape CFPB's Loan Data Suit
A Florida federal judge has refused to dismiss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's suit accusing mortgage servicer and lender Freedom Mortgage Corp. of violating federal law by submitting inaccurate government mortgage loan data.
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May 03, 2024
Conn. Dentists Settle Govt's Illegal Patient Recruiting Suit
Two Connecticut dental practices and their co-owners have settled a federal false claims lawsuit accusing them of making illegal payments to a patient recruiter to generate business through Medicaid, agreeing to fork over about $187,000 over five years, plus 4% interest.
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May 03, 2024
6 States Strike $270M Opioid Deal With Amneal
The New York state attorney general on Friday said that a $270 million multistate deal had been reached with opioid manufacturer Amneal Pharmaceuticals for its role in the addiction epidemic over allegations that the company failed to report suspicious orders of the narcotics.
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May 02, 2024
Endo Judge Hopes Criminal Sentence Warns Opioid Makers
A Michigan federal judge said Thursday she hoped Endo's criminal sentence for falsely advertising a pain medication as "abuse deterrent" would itself be a deterrent for other opioid makers, as she accepted the company's recent $200 million settlement deal with federal prosecutors.
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May 02, 2024
SEC Lands $25M Judgment In TikToker-Wannabe Ponzi Suit
A South Carolina man and his companies must pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly $24.9 million to settle claims that he misappropriated investors' money to make Ponzi payments to earlier investors and to pay for luxury cars and over $1 million to TikTok creators, according to judgments issued in Georgia federal court.
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May 02, 2024
Google Judge Ponders Search Engine's Might At Trial Closings
The quality of Google's search engine, and what it would take to actually challenge the company's grip on default placements on Apple browsers and Android phones, were top of mind Thursday for the D.C. federal judge weighing U.S. Department of Justice monopolization allegations.
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May 02, 2024
TikTok, Users Push 9th Circ. To Keep Block On Montana Ban
TikTok and its users are hitting back at Montana's bid to convince the Ninth Circuit to unblock a new law that would ban the social media app in the state, arguing that the state's position that the statute is a consumer protection measure that regulates conduct and not constitutionally protected speech is "premised on fiction."
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May 02, 2024
Wells Fargo Discloses Zelle Dispute-Handling Scrutiny
Wells Fargo & Co. on Thursday became the latest financial institution to disclose government scrutiny of how customers' dispute claims for potentially mistaken or fraudulent instant payments are being handled.
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May 02, 2024
Hahn Air To Pay Feds $26.8M To End FCA Travel Fees Suit
Hahn Air Lines agreed to pay $26.8 million to resolve a whistleblower's allegations that the German airline-ticketing company violated the False Claims Act by intentionally failing to remit to the U.S. government certain travel fees the company collected from U.S. commercial airline passengers.
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May 02, 2024
No Atty Fees For Objectors To $5.6B Swipe Fees Settlement
Class members who initially objected to a $5.6 billion settlement with Visa and Mastercard cannot collect nearly $1 million in attorney fees, a New York federal judge ruled Thursday, saying they haven't shown their objections to the original 2013 settlement substantially benefited the class.
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May 02, 2024
Chicken Buyers Request $37M More In Price-Fixing Deal Fees
Direct broiler chicken purchasers who've inked more than $284 million in price-fixing settlements are asking an Illinois federal judge for more than $37 million in what would be a third distribution of fees and reimbursed costs to their co-lead counsel in the massive case.
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May 02, 2024
Tech, Finance Experts Urge CFTC To Consider AI Regs
Tech advisers urged the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday to consider policies to manage the risks associated with artificial intelligence, along with a list of other recommendations detailing potential approaches to the growing use of AI in financial markets.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Aviation Back On Course, But Keep Seat Belts Fastened
While the airline industry finally returned to profitability last year for the first time since the onset of COVID-19, and is poised for historic levels of traffic in 2024, supply chain problems and economic and geopolitical uncertainty persist — so more turbulence may lie ahead, say Kevin Lewis and Bart Biggers at Sidley.
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What Brands Must Know For Calif. Recycle Label Compliance
A brand that stamps nonrecyclable packaging with the chasing arrows symbol could face liability under California's new law on labeling recyclable material, so brand owners should keep an eye on the state's pending survey process to identify which materials meet the criteria before requirements go into effect, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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FTC AI Inquiry Signals Intensified Focus On Emerging Tech
The Federal Trade Commission's recent inquiry into investments and partnerships between Big Tech companies and artificial intelligence startups appears to be directed at guiding future enforcement decisions in competition, privacy and consumer protection — and three principles discussed at a related tech summit give insight on the agency's approach, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Preparing For A New Wave Of Litigation Under Silicosis Rules
After the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of California issued an emergency temporary standard to combat noncompliance with assessments of workers' exposure to particles of crystalline silica, companies that manufacture, distribute or sell silica-containing products will need aggressive case-specific discovery to navigate a new wave of litigation, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Managing Competing Priorities In Witness Preparation
There’s often a divide between what attorneys and witnesses want out of the deposition process, but litigation teams can use several strategies to resolve this tension and help witnesses be more comfortable with the difficult conditions of testifying, say Ava Hernández and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.
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Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout
While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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Amazon's €32M Data Protection Fine Acts As Employer Caveat
The recent decision by French data privacy regulator CNIL to fine Amazon for excessive surveillance of its workers opens up a raft of potential employment law, data protection and breach of contract issues, and offers a clear warning that companies need coherent justification for monitoring employees, say Robert Smedley and William Richmond-Coggan at Freeths.