Consumer Protection

  • January 02, 2025

    Stanley Cup Maker Sued Over Alleged Lid Hazard

    The Seattle-based maker of the trending Stanley-brand tumbler has been hit with a proposed class action in Washington federal court by a New York consumer accusing the manufacturer of failing to adequately compensate customers for a lid defect that led to the recall of 2.6 million travel mugs.

  • January 02, 2025

    DC Allowed To Resubmit AvalonBay Rent-Fixing Claims

    The District of Columbia will get another chance to tweak its claims against landlord AvalonBay Communities and see if the changes are enough to prop up allegations that it has been using the property management platform RealPage to fix the price of rentals.

  • January 02, 2025

    DOJ Joins FTC Suit Against Fintech Lender Dave

    The U.S. Department of Justice has taken the reins in the Federal Trade Commission's suit against fintech app Dave and added its CEO as a defendant, while the mobile banking platform decried the updated complaint as "a continued example of government overreach."

  • January 02, 2025

    Southern Comfort Malt Liquor Buyers Score False Ad Cert.

    A New York federal judge certified a class of Southern Comfort customers alleging Sazerac Co. deceptively labeled its malt beverage products, but declined to allow one plaintiff to serve as class representative, finding Thursday he lied in interrogatory answers and "appeared not to know the basic premise of the case."

  • January 02, 2025

    Meta Seeks To Pause Social Media MDL Coverage Fight

    Meta has urged a California federal court to find that its insurers cannot yet litigate to attempt to avoid covering thousands of pending lawsuits accusing the social media giant of deliberately designing its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, arguing that the coverage issues overlap with issues in the underlying cases.

  • January 02, 2025

    Epic Tells 9th Circ. Google's Legal 'Reckoning Long Overdue'

    Epic Games Inc. has slammed Google's Ninth Circuit appeal of an injunction requiring the tech giant to open up its Android Play Store to rival app distributors, defending the ruling and a jury's liability verdict and arguing that Google's appeal is a meritless attempt to avoid a "reckoning long overdue."

  • January 02, 2025

    Rep. Jordan Picks Wis. Lawmaker For House Antitrust Panel

    Republicans are moving to install a frequent critic of President Joe Biden's Federal Trade Commission at the head of the House of Representatives' antitrust subcommittee, naming Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., to the post Tuesday.

  • January 02, 2025

    ERISA Can't Shield Packaging Co. From Genetic Privacy Suit

    A food packaging company must face a former employee's lawsuit claiming it unlawfully asked about her family medical history, an Illinois federal judge ruled, saying the claims weren't preempted by federal benefits law because it wasn't clear a corporate wellness plan was involved.

  • January 02, 2025

    Uber Can't Hold Off Seattle Driver Deactivation Law

    A Washington federal judge denied Uber's bid to temporarily bar the city of Seattle from enforcing new app-based worker account deactivation rules against it, finding the day before the challenged ordinance took effect that the company is unlikely to succeed in its claims of a First Amendment violation.

  • January 02, 2025

    Amazon Gets Zulily's Antitrust Suit Trimmed, For Now

    A Seattle federal judge trimmed a lawsuit brought by now-defunct online retailer Zulily that accuses Amazon of using its monopoly power to shut out competition from other online retailers, tossing conspiracy and state consumer protection law claims, but allowing Zulily to rework its complaint.

  • January 02, 2025

    Amazon Says FTC Stalling Discovery In Prime Sign-Up Suit

    Amazon said the Federal Trade Commission is stonewalling discovery efforts vital to showing that the agency knew a federal law protecting online shoppers from deceptive billing practices was vague, in an enforcement action accusing the e-commerce giant of duping customers onto signing up for Prime subscriptions.

  • January 02, 2025

    Tempur Sealy Ups Floor Space Promise In FTC Merger Case

    Tempur Sealy is increasing its commitments to preserve floor space for rivals' mattresses in Mattress Firm stores, attempting to beat the Federal Trade Commission's merger challenge by extending the current floor space "slot" distribution after a Texas federal judge noted that prior commitments were below current allotments.

  • January 02, 2025

    Apple Reaches $95M Privacy Deal With Millions Of Siri Users

    A proposed class of tens of millions of Apple customers asked a California federal judge to approve a $95 million settlement that would end the litigation accusing the tech company of privacy violations over its voice-activated software Siri eavesdropping on conversations. 

  • January 02, 2025

    NJ Panel Tosses Honda CR-V Product Defect Suit

    A 2016 Honda CR-V was not defectively designed because it lacked some available driver-assistance technologies, which were not mandated by state or federal law, a New Jersey appellate panel said Thursday in dismissing with prejudice a plaintiff's product liability and negligence claims arising from a fatal crash.

  • January 02, 2025

    Colo. AG Launches 2026 Bid For Governor

    Colorado Attorney General Philip J. Weiser, a former law school dean who served in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, on Thursday announced his bid to become the state's next governor in 2026.

  • January 02, 2025

    Crypto Scam Victim Says Fraudsters' Banks Ignore Red Flags

    A California man who says he lost nearly a million dollars to a crypto "pig butchering" scam sued the alleged fraudsters and their banking partners, claiming the financial institutions ignored red flags and failed to conduct basic checks that would have revealed the scammers' actual business.

  • January 02, 2025

    Aetna Sues Drugmakers In Conn., Alleging Generics Price-Fixing

    Health insurer Aetna has sued 23 drugmakers, including Novartis and Pfizer, over an alleged scheme to fix the prices of 111 generic medications, citing information gleaned from a congressional probe, lawsuits by state attorneys general, a Pennsylvania multidistrict litigation proceeding, and U.S. Department of Justice findings.

  • January 02, 2025

    Beasley Allen Aims To Toss Suit From Ex-Ally Firm

    Beasley Allen has called on a Mississippi federal court to dismiss or transfer a defamation and breach of contract lawsuit from The Smith Law Firm PLLC over their joint venture agreement for talc litigation against Johnson & Johnson, arguing the case should be tossed in favor of its own suit filed earlier in Alabama.

  • January 02, 2025

    Ga. County Sues 3M, Daikin To Remove PFAS From Landfill

    A Georgia county has filed a lawsuit against 3M Co., Daikin America Inc. and several other manufacturers and users of so-called forever chemicals, alleging the sale and use of the toxic chemicals in carpet manufacturing has caused a "public-health crisis" across the northwestern part of the state.

  • January 02, 2025

    6th Circ. Overturns FCC Net Neutrality Rules

    The Sixth Circuit upended the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules Thursday, holding that commercial broadband providers cannot be regulated as telecommunications common carriers.

  • January 01, 2025

    Five Massachusetts Cases To Watch In 2025

    Massachusetts will be at the forefront of significant litigation on multiple fronts, including a landmark gun case before the nation's top court, antisemitism claims on the campus of the nation's oldest university, and an executive fighting back after largely defeating charges in the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal.

  • January 02, 2025

    The Top Property Insurance Cases To Watch In 2025

    Two cases that could change the policies offered by California's insurer of last resort and a forthcoming Hawaii Supreme Court decision on a $4 billion wildfire settlement are among the top property insurance suits to follow in the new year. Here, Law360 looks at five cases that practitioners should note in 2025.

  • January 01, 2025

    The Top 5 High Court Cases To Watch This Spring

    The U.S. Supreme Court justices will return from the winter holidays to tackle major First Amendment questions and several administrative law disputes — all arising from the Fifth Circuit — that could further change how federal agencies promulgate rules and defend them.

  • January 01, 2025

    Trump Begins 2nd Term With At Least 45 Judge Seats To Fill

    Incoming President Donald Trump will take office Jan. 20 with 45 seats on the federal bench to fill. Currently, there are 39 empty seats on U.S. district and circuit courts and 6 pending vacancies due to announced retirements and plans to take senior status, three of which opened on Dec. 31 and another that opened Jan. 2.

  • January 01, 2025

    Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice Cases To Watch In 2025

    A pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' rule on so-called ghost guns and Pennsylvania's top court's possible invalidation of a government injury damages cap are among the cases injury and malpractice attorneys will be following in 2025.

Expert Analysis

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • 3 Steps For Companies To Combat Task Scams

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    On the rise in the U.S., the task scam — when scammers offer a victim a fake work-from-home job — hurts impersonated businesses by tarnishing their name and brand, but companies have a few ways to fight back against these cons, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

  • False Patent Marking Claims Find New Home In Lanham Act

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    While the Patent Act may have closed the courthouse doors for many false patent marking claims, the Federal Circuit, in its recent decision in Crocs v. Effervescent, may be opening a window to these types of claims under the Lanham Act, says John Cordani at Robinson & Cole.

  • Digging Into CFPB's Overdraft Fee Consent Guidance

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    Although a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau circular may seem unassuming, a closer read reveals the bureau is escalating its clampdown on nonconsensual debit card overdraft fees by expanding financial institutions' record-retention obligations beyond a two-year statutory requirement, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • A Look At Calif. Biz Code And The Fight Over Customer Lists

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    To ensure Uniform Trade Secret Act security, California staffing agencies and their attorneys should review Section 16607 of the state Business Code, which prohibits contracts that restrain employees from engaging in other lawful types of business, to understand the process for determining whether a customer list constitutes a trade secret, says Skye Daley at Buchalter.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Where Can Privacy Plaintiffs Sue When Injury Is Online?

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    Website owners need to understand wiretapping laws to understand whether they may be sued for activity tracking in California or Pennsylvania courts, where the statutory damages for violations of half-century-old laws can be substantial — and a recent Third Circuit decision suggests establishing specific jurisdiction is not as easy as 1-2-3, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Crypto.com's Suit Against SEC Could Hold Major Implications

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    Crypto.com's recent lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could affect the operation and regulation of crypto markets in the U.S., potentially raising more questions about the SEC's authority to regulate the industry when it's unclear whether another agency is ready to assume it, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • How DOJ's Visa Debit Monopolization Suit May Unfold

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently filed Section 2 monopolization suit against Visa offers several scenarios for a vigorous case and is likely to reveal some of the challenges faced by antitrust plaintiffs following the U.S. Supreme Court's split 2018 American Express decision, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • Fluoride Ruling Charts Path To Bypass EPA Risk Evaluations

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    A California federal court's recent ruling in Food and Water Watch v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ordering the agency to address the public health risks of fluoridated drinking water, establishes a road map for other citizen petitioners to bypass the EPA's formal risk evaluation process, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Inside FTC's Decision To Exit Key Merger Review Labor Memo

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    Despite the Federal Trade Commission's recent withdrawal from a multiagency memorandum of understanding to step up enforcement of labor issues in merger investigations, the antitrust agencies aren't likely to give up their labor market focus, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • FDIC Guidance Puts Next-Gen ATMs In Regulatory Spotlight

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    The boring existence of ATMs is changing thanks to the emergence of new-age interactive teller machines, prompting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to sound off in a potentially influential August letter to branches on which services might need regulatory approval, says Thomas Walker at Jones Walker.

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