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Consumer Protection
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August 30, 2024
Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action
Appeals courts have awakened from summertime slumber and crammed their early autumn calendars with arguments of national significance, which Law360 previews in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing. We're also recapping August's top appellate decisions, exploring new polling about U.S. Supreme Court opinions and testing your knowledge of Fifth Circuit history.
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August 30, 2024
Align Tech Cuts $27.5M Antitrust Deal With 1.45M Consumers
A proposed class of nearly 1.45 million SmileDirectClub teeth-aligner buyers urged a California federal judge Thursday to preliminarily sign off on Align Technologies Inc.'s $27.5 million cash and coupon settlement to resolve antitrust claims alleging the company colluded with the now-bankrupt SmileDirecClub to illegally restrict competition.
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August 30, 2024
Missouri Ban On Some Psychoactive Foods To Hit Sept. 1
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson's ban on consumables "containing psychoactive cannabis products" will go into effect Sunday, according to an announcement by state health regulators.
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August 30, 2024
Axon Pushes FCC Again For New Surveillance Device OKs
Police body cam maker Axon again pressed the Federal Communications Commission to approve the use of three surveillance devices, emphasizing they will only be used briefly for law enforcement situational awareness.
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August 30, 2024
Mich. Justices Reject College Students' COVID Refund Appeal
The Michigan Supreme Court said Friday it won't revive college students' lawsuits seeking refunds over the switch to virtual instruction during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, cementing wins for three universities.
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August 30, 2024
Cable Cos. Seek Latitude To Define BEAD Service Areas
If Texas wants to make the most of its $3.3 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program money, it should allow participants the latitude to craft their own project areas when deciding which locations to build broadband infrastructure for, a major cable trade group told the state's broadband office.
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August 30, 2024
Ex-Detainee Can't Be Forced To Arbitrate Card Fee Suit
A Washington federal judge will not force arbitration in a proposed class action accusing a bank of charging former jail detainees debit card fees to regain access to their own money postrelease, saying the plaintiff never consented to an arbitration clause because the card was issued to him already activated.
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August 30, 2024
Hotel Chains, Software Co. Fight Algorithmic Pricing Suit
Major hotel chains and software provider SAS Institute Inc. have asked a California federal court to toss a proposed class action from hotel guests alleging the companies used a shared pricing algorithm to fix and raise room rates nationwide.
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August 30, 2024
New York Magazine Reader Drops Suit Over Data Disclosures
A subscriber to New York magazine has voluntarily dropped a potential class action accusing the periodical's publisher of violating a Michigan consumer privacy law by wrongfully disclosing readers' data to third parties.
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August 30, 2024
Period Tracker App Users Seek Class Cert. In Data-Selling Suit
Users of the menstrual cycle tracking app Flo Health Inc. are seeking class certification in their suit against Flo, Google and Meta, telling a California federal judge the proposed class would include millions of users whose personal health information was sold to the ad giants without consent.
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August 30, 2024
Harris Admin Would Stay Course On Tough Antitrust Policy
Just two days after food and candy giant Mars announced its blockbuster $35.9 billion Kellanova purchase, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign indicated plans to “crack down” on mergers between large food companies. That would differ significantly from another Trump presidency, which could see a generally more relaxed antitrust environment. Here, Law360 explores anticipated policy differences between the two.
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August 30, 2024
Monthly Merger Review Snapshot
The Federal Trade Commission went to court against Kroger's $25 billion purchase of Albertsons and geared up for its looming handbags merger case, the Justice Department added to its case against Live Nation, and the sports-streaming juggernaut partnering ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery hit a significant roadblock.
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August 30, 2024
Gaming Co. Exec Gets 6 Years For Fake IPO Claims, Theft
An executive of Carlyle Entertainment Ltd. has been sentenced to 72 months in prison for advertising a phony initial public offering and fraudulently misappropriating $3 million in investor funds for his personal use in a scheme that spanned six years.
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August 30, 2024
NY Hemp Shops Seek Halt Of 'Military Style' Raids
A quintet of hemp product retailers have alleged that New York state and city officials unlawfully targeted their businesses as part of an effort to crack down on unregulated marijuana sellers.
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August 30, 2024
Philips Accuses SoClean Of Discovery Delay In CPAP Recall
Koninklijke Philips NV says SoClean Inc. is unduly delaying claims that the company should contribute to Philips' $1 billion settlement over breathing machine foam by insisting on a wall between discovery materials in two related multidistrict litigations.
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August 30, 2024
Paxton Follows Through On Suit Over State Fair Firearms Ban
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has followed through on his threat to sue the State Fair of Texas if it didn't retract its no firearms policy, telling a Dallas County court that the exclusion of handguns from the annual event is illegal.
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August 30, 2024
FINRA Dings Raymond James $2M Over Customer Complaints
Two Raymond James units will pay nearly $2 million to settle allegations from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that they didn't properly handle customer complaints or supervise mutual fund purchases.
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August 30, 2024
Staples Latest To Face Suit Over Job-Seeker Polygraph Notice
A Massachusetts man applying for jobs with Staples Inc. filed a proposed class action alleging the company violated a state law that requires companies to notify candidates that the use of lie detectors is banned for hiring decisions, the latest such case targeting a major Bay State employer.
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August 30, 2024
Crypto Exchanges Illegally Took Facial Scans, Suits Say
Two cryptocurrency exchanges have been hit with proposed class actions in Illinois federal court alleging they unlawfully collected, stored, and disclosed users' facial geometry scans by making new customers go through a mandatory verification process in violation of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act.
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August 30, 2024
Firm Accused Of Botching Arbitration In Tribal Lending Row
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and one of its former attorneys have been hit with a California federal court suit accusing them of negligence in their representation of a consulting business and its president in a 2018 arbitration they say caused them at least $17.5 million in damages.
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August 30, 2024
Inaccurate TransUnion Report Ended Job Chances, Suit Says
A TransUnion unit that sells background checks was hit with a federal lawsuit in Texas accusing it of wrecking an applicant's employment prospects at Chick-fil-A by incorrectly reporting he had misdemeanor convictions for cannabis possession.
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August 30, 2024
Medical Tech Co. Exits MOVEit Hack MDL For $2.8M
Medical billing software firm Arietis Health LLC has agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle out of a multidistrict litigation brought by a class of victims of a 2023 data breach involving Progress Software's MOVEit file transfer tool.
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August 29, 2024
Ga. Health System Shakes Facebook Data Sharing Row
A Georgia federal judge has tossed a putative class action accusing Piedmont Healthcare Inc. of unlawfully sharing confidential health information with Facebook, finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege actual damages and that the "weight of authority" in similar online tracking cases supported the provider's contention that there was no privacy intrusion.
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August 29, 2024
PNC Asks 4th Circ. To Reconsider HELOC 'Offset' Ban Ruling
PNC Bank has asked the Fourth Circuit to take another look at its ruling that extended the "offset" provision of the Truth in Lending Act, which prevents banks from using funds held in deposit accounts to offset credit card debt without the consumer's consent, to home equity lines of credit.
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August 29, 2024
Ancestry.com Beats Claims It Used Yearbook Photos In Ads
Ancestry.com has snagged a quick win from an Ohio federal judge in a proposed class action claiming the genealogy website uses people's yearbook records without their consent to market its services with three unlawful advertising techniques.
Expert Analysis
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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Calif. Web Tracking Cases Show Courts' Indecision Over CIPA
Several hundred cases filed to date, and two recent conflicting rulings, underscore California courts' uncertainty over whether the use of web analytics tools to track users' website interactions can give rise to a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, says Patricia Brum at Snell & Wilmer.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Takeaways From SEC's New Data Breach Amendments
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent amendment of its consumer privacy rules to require investment advisers and broker-dealers to put procedures in place to uncover data breaches and report them to customers evidences that protecting client records and information remains an SEC priority, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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What Junk Fee Law Means For Biz In California And Beyond
Come July 1, companies doing business in California must ensure that the price of any good or service as offered, displayed or advertised is inclusive of all mandatory fees and other charges in compliance with S.B. 478, which may have a far-reaching impact across the country due to wide applicability, say Alexandria Ruiz and Amy Lally at Sidley Austin.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod
The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.
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'Food As Health' Serves Up Fresh Legal Considerations
The growth of food as medicine presents a significant opportunity for healthcare organizations and nontraditional healthcare players to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, though these innovative programs also bring compliance considerations that must be carefully navigated, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Aviation Watch: Mostly Smooth Landing For New FAA Law
The recently signed Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act enhances air safety in several key ways, including strengthened passenger rights and cockpit voice recorder requirements, but an expansion of slot exemptions at Reagan National Airport is a notable misstep, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling
As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.
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FTC Hearing On Fake Review Rule Stressed Compliance Costs
The Federal Trade Commission is likely to finalize its proposed rule to prohibit marketers from using deceptive practices in their product reviews after an informal hearing covered arguments over whether costs of implementing the rule, such as review moderation and software maintenance, would be minimal, says Jeffrey Edelstein at Manatt.
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FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.
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3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
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12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews
Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.