Consumer Protection

  • March 14, 2025

    ExxonMobil Brings $14M Clean Air Act Suit To High Court

    ExxonMobil on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn both a "radically divided" en banc Fifth Circuit's opinion upholding $14.25 million in air pollution penalties as well as a decades-old high court ruling concerning redressability, saying it was being made to pay penalties environmental group plaintiffs won't even receive.

  • March 14, 2025

    Looming Virginia AI Bill Likely Just Start Of State Law Flood

    Virginia is on the brink of becoming the second state to regulate high-risk uses of artificial intelligence, a move that would kick-start the formation of a patchwork that is similar to the one emerging in the data privacy realm and that is expected to rapidly expand in the wake of the federal government's disavowal of stringent rules in the AI space.

  • March 14, 2025

    Dunkin' Nears End To ADA Suit Over Milk Alternative Charges

    A California federal judge indicated Friday that she's ready to toss a proposed class action claiming doughnut chain Dunkin' violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by charging extra for beverages with nondairy milk after noting that the chain announced it would no longer charge extra for nonlactose alternatives.

  • March 14, 2025

    Judge Backs Conn. Utility's $2M Enviro Penalty In Rate Hike Row

    An Avangrid Inc. unit must suffer a roughly $2 million annual penalty for failing to remediate pollution at the defunct English Station power plant in New Haven, Connecticut, a judge has ruled as part of a broader order that upholds most of the state utility regulator's decision to slash a requested $131 million rate hike.

  • March 14, 2025

    Chocolate-Makers Can't Keep Child Labor Suit In Fed. Court

    Mars Inc. and other chocolate-makers have lost their bid to keep in federal court a suit claiming they falsely advertised their products as being made without child slave labor, with a federal judge finding the alleged damages weren't high enough to trigger federal jurisdiction.

  • March 14, 2025

    Md. Judge Joins Calif. In Reversing Federal Workers' Firing

    A Maryland federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of thousands of probationary employees who were abruptly fired from 18 federal agencies, saying the Trump administration's lack of required notice left states "scrambling" to pick up the pieces.

  • March 14, 2025

    BNY Sued Over $17.7B Unregistered Barclays-Issued Notes

    A trio of investors has filed a proposed class action against The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for allegedly failing to properly authenticate several exchange-traded note offerings from Barclays, leading to the sale of $17.7 billion in unregistered securities.

  • March 14, 2025

    Ford Bronco TM Suit Looks Under Hood Of Vintage Market

    Ford Motor Co. is clashing with a company that restores Broncos from the 1960s and 1970s and retrofits the newer models that Ford started selling after a two-decade hiatus to make them look like older ones, setting up a battle over whether the iconic car company has done enough to maintain its rights over the Bronco mark in the intervening years.

  • March 14, 2025

    LG Unit Must Face Ga. Jury Over Exploding Battery Claims

    LG Chem America Inc., a subsidiary of Korea's LG Chem Ltd., can't toss a suit from a man who claims one of its lithium ion batteries exploded in his pocket, after a Georgia state court judge ruled the company may not have done enough to prevent its batteries being misused for vapes.

  • March 14, 2025

    Calif. Insurance Chief OKs State Farm Rates Pending Hearing

    The California Department of Insurance on Friday provisionally approved State Farm's request for an emergency rate hike following the Los Angeles fires, including a nearly 22% increase for homeowners, saying final approval will be contingent on the insurer justifying its request at a hearing.

  • March 14, 2025

    Legalese Aside, Live Nation Judge Keeps Damages Claims

    A New York federal judge refused Friday to pare back a lawsuit filed by the government and 40 states accusing Live Nation of quashing competition and hiking ticketing prices, preserving claims that artists have been forced to use Live Nation promotion services and deeming state attorneys general to have standing to seek damages.

  • March 14, 2025

    Gov't Tells Justices FCC Subsidy Critics Target 'Strawman'

    Opponents of the Federal Communications Commission's nearly 30-year-old telecom subsidy system are making "strawman" arguments by claiming taxing power has been unlawfully delegated away from Congress, the government told the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 14, 2025

    Apple Tells DC Circ. It's Still Singled Out In Final Google Fixes

    Apple told the D.C. Circuit that it still needs to intervene in the U.S. Department of Justice's search monopolization case against Google because the government's final remedy proposal still treats the iPhone-maker differently than other companies.

  • March 14, 2025

    Wash. Justices Side With Shopper In Lowe's Fallen Fence Suit

    Washington's high court has sided with a customer suing Lowe's after she was injured by a fallen roll of fencing at an Evergreen State store, saying a judge or jury should decide whether the retailer could have anticipated the hazard given the self-service style of the store.

  • March 14, 2025

    FCC Chief Presses Congress For Spectrum Pipeline Soon

    The Republican chair of the Federal Communications Commission told lawmakers the U.S. won't make critical advances on the wireless technology front until they free up dedicated blocks of airwaves for private licensing.

  • March 14, 2025

    Antigua Clinic Accused Of Lying About 'Miracle' Cancer Cure

    A company called ExThera Medical Corp. has been sued in California federal court over a cure, backed by a billionaire investor, marketed for metastatic cancer but was actually a "dangerous medical experiment."

  • March 14, 2025

    FTC Urges 8th Circ. Not To Pause Insulin Pricing Case

    The Federal Trade Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit not to pause its in-house case accusing Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx of artificially inflating insulin prices, telling the appeals court the pharmacy benefit managers have no chance of winning on their constitutional claims.

  • March 14, 2025

    Connecticut Wants Retailers' Hemp Law Challenge Tossed

    The state of Connecticut has asked a federal judge to toss a lawsuit by nearly a dozen hemp retailers challenging statutes designed to regulate hemp-derived products with high levels of THC, saying the retailers' lawsuit is deficient in multiple ways.

  • March 14, 2025

    Client Who Sent Money To Fraudster Wins Suit Against Firm

    An optometrist who claims a fraudster infiltrated her lawyer's email system and tricked her into wiring $90,586 to an incorrect account has won a lawsuit against Mancini Provenzano & Futtner LLC after a Connecticut state court judge found the firm was negligent in failing to secure its system.

  • March 14, 2025

    Kraken Beats Suit Over Crypto Scam Losses, For Good

    A California state judge permanently tossed a lawsuit Friday alleging lax security measures on the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken are to blame for a Los Angeles County man's loss of nearly $50,000 in a digital asset investment scam.

  • March 14, 2025

    Class Can't Re-Contest Debt Collection, Mich. Law Firm Argues

    A law firm accused of charging unlawfully high post-judgment interest rates on debt collection actions told a Michigan federal court on Thursday that several debtors have already resolved their litigation, precluding them from pressing their federal class action, and debt collection agencies blamed the rates on the law firm.

  • March 14, 2025

    Reject Next-Gen TV Tuner Mandate, Consumer Tech Org. Says

    It's a bad idea to force TV manufacturers to include devices that make them compatible with the next generation of television broadcasting technology on all new sets, a consumer technology trade group told the Federal Communications Commission.

  • March 14, 2025

    FTC Probing $13B Marketing Mega-Deal

    Marketing communications giants Omnicom and Interpublic disclosed an in-depth Federal Trade Commission probe into their $13 billion merger, pumping the brakes on their ability to close the deal soon, but they said the expectation is nevertheless to finish by the second half of this year.

  • March 14, 2025

    Judge Refuses Bid For Injunction In CFPB Defunding Suit

    A Maryland federal judge on Friday denied the city of Baltimore's bid for a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from stripping away the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's budget, unpersuaded that it has been targeted for defunding.

  • March 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Block Consolidation Of Uber Assault Cases

    The Ninth Circuit has rejected Uber Technologies Inc.'s contention that the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation should've enforced Uber's "non-consolidation" clause with passengers' lawsuit alleging they were sexualy assaulted, ruling that such a "private agreement" doesn't override the JPML's power to consolidate.

Expert Analysis

  • Comparing 2 Pending Bills To Regulate Stablecoins

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    Alexandra Steinberg Barrage at Troutman analyzes the key similarities and differences between two payment stablecoin proposals currently pending in Congress — the STABLE and GENIUS acts — as both chambers are forming a working group to deliver a clear regulatory framework for digital assets and bipartisan agreement appears within reach.

  • Citibank Wire Transfer Ruling Creates New Liability For Banks

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    A New York federal court's recent decision in New York v. Citibank, affirming the Electronic Fund Transfer Act's consumer protections cover wire transfers allegedly initiated by scammers who infiltrated Citibank customers' online accounts, creates new liability for sending financial institutions and upends decades-old regulatory guidance, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • 4 Do's And Don'ts For Trial Lawyers Using Generative AI

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    Trial attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools should review a few key reminders, from the likelihood that prompts are discoverable to the rapid evolution of court rules, to safeguard against embarrassing missteps, says Nate Sabri at Perkins Coie.

  • Series

    Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.

  • 11th Circ. TCPA Ruling Signals Erosion Of Judicial Deference

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    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently came to the rescue of the lead generation industry, striking down new regulations that were set to go into effect on Jan. 27, a decision consistent with federal courts' recent willingness to review administrative decisions, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • How Southern Calif. Fires Can Affect National, Local Pricing

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    The fire-related California state of emergency declared last month in Los Angeles and Ventura counties triggered laws around price-gouging and pricing restrictions that affect not just individuals and businesses in the state, but also nationwide, meaning sellers should be mindful of how price changes are discussed and rolled out, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Inside The Uncertainty Surrounding CFPB's Overdraft Rule

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's overhaul of overdraft fee regulation hangs in limbo as the industry watches to see whether new leadership will repeal the rule, allow it to stay in place, or wait for congressional action or the courts to drive its demise, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • How Private Securities Suits Complement SEC Enforcement

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    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement is vital to the healthy functioning of markets, but government enforcement alone is not enough to ensure meaningful monetary recoveries for investor losses due to securities law violations, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz.

  • The Case For Compliance During The Trump Administration

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    Given the Trump administration’s shifting white collar enforcement priorities, C-suite executives may have the natural instinct to pare back compliance initiatives, but there are several good reasons for companies to at least stay the course on their compliance programs, if not enhance them, say attorneys at Riley Safer.

  • Opinion

    Despite Noble Intentions, Va. Usury Bill Is Bad For Consumers

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    A Virginia bill purportedly aimed at eradicating predatory online bank lending actually does nothing to achieve that goal, and instead would limit credit opportunities for state residents, says Catherine Brennan at Hudson Cook.

  • Opinion

    Undoing An American Ideal Of Fairness

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    President Donald Trump’s orders attacking birthright citizenship, civil rights education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten hard-won constitutional civil rights protections and decades of efforts to undo bias in the law — undermining what Chief Justice Earl Warren called "our American ideal of fairness," says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Opinion

    DOJ's Visa Suit Shows Pitfalls Of Regulating Innovative Tech

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    A policy of allowing free-market mechanisms to operate without undue interference remains the most effective way to foster innovation, and the U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 case against Visa illustrates the drawbacks of regulating innovative technology, says attorney Thomas Willcox.

  • How Ill. Ruling Could Influence Future Data Breach Cases

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    The Illinois Supreme Court's recent decision in Petta v. Christie Business Holding, which was based solely on standing, establishes an important benchmark for the viability of Illinois-based lawsuits arising out of data security incidents that defendants can cite in future cases, say attorneys at Wilson Elser.

  • CFPB Small Biz Study Brings Fair Lending Considerations

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent report highlighting potential racial discrimination in small business lending may not result in more aggressive enforcement under the Trump administration — but lenders can expect state regulators, private plaintiffs and advocacy groups to step up their own efforts, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • Expect To Feel Aftershocks Of Chopra's CFPB Shake-Up

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    Publications released by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau personnel in the last days of the Biden administration outline former Director Rohit Chopra's long-term vision for aggressive state-level enforcement of federal consumer financial laws, opening the doors for states to launch investigations and pursue actions, say attorneys at Hudson Cook.

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