Consumer Protection

  • September 03, 2024

    Pedestrian Hit By Off-Duty Uber Driver Can't Sue Over Injuries

    A California appellate panel held Uber can't be sued for the negligence of a driver who hit a pedestrian just minutes after he switched his status to "offline," saying it was speculative to assume the driver was still on duty due to his alleged manipulation of higher "surge" fares.

  • September 03, 2024

    Colo. Justices To Parse Public Interest Under Anti-SLAPP Law

    Colorado's high court will consider whether the state's anti-SLAPP law requires a person to actually contribute to public discourse in order for their speech to be covered by the statute, and whether their motive matters, in a case concerning negative online posts about a veterinary clinic.

  • September 03, 2024

    No BIPA Exception For OTC Glasses, Ill. Judges Say

    An Illinois appellate court has held that someone trying on nonprescription sunglasses with an online try-on tool isn't considered a patient in a healthcare setting, dooming a glasses retailer's attempt to end the biometric privacy lawsuit it faces.

  • September 03, 2024

    Bill-Pay Co. Says Judge Already Scrapped Wash. CPA Claims

    An online bill-pay platform has urged a Washington federal judge to throw out a consumer's proposed class action accusing the company of disguising itself as an official processor for legitimate service providers, pointing to disclosures on its website that the district court has already highlighted when dismissing comparable claims.

  • September 03, 2024

    FCC Urged To Trim Rule Proposal For Blocking Spam Texts

    Wireless carriers want the Federal Communications Commission to scale back a proposed rule for blocking spam texts to ensure legitimate messages can still go through despite tighter standards.

  • September 03, 2024

    FCC Bans Kaspersky Software In Authorized Equipment

    The Federal Communications Commission is banning the use of certain Russian-made cybersecurity and antivirus software from Kaspersky Labs in agency-authorized telecommunications equipment, months after the U.S. Department of Commerce said the software could pose national security risks.

  • September 03, 2024

    Colo. AG Says Tenants Can Sue Blackstone Over Lease Terms

    Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser urged the state's Supreme Court on Friday to find that tenants can sue a group of Blackstone subsidiaries for deceptive trade practices over lease agreements that allegedly misrepresent the rights of tenants.

  • September 03, 2024

    6th Circ. Revives Suits Over Fatal Kia Optima Crash

    A split Sixth Circuit panel on Tuesday reinstated a pair of suits alleging that a malfunction in the cruise control of a 2008 Kia Optima caused it to accelerate and hit a van, killing the Kia's driver and twin boys in the van, saying the trial court wrongly excluded portions of the plaintiffs' experts' opinions.

  • September 03, 2024

    Gov't Backs 9th Circ. Bid To Revive Invisalign Monopoly Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court applied the wrong standard when tossing a pair of class actions accusing the maker of Invisalign of monopolizing markets for clear dental aligners and teeth scanners.

  • September 03, 2024

    Alaska Says Nothing's Changed As Flyers Try Merger 'Do-Over'

    Alaska Airlines wants a nixed flyer challenge to its $1.9 billion purchase of Hawaiian Airlines to stay nixed, telling a Hawaii federal judge that declarations from the plaintiffs about their travel plans could have been submitted months ago and are "too little, too late" to overcome the judge's ruling that they had no standing.

  • September 03, 2024

    Ex-Miami Atty's Countersuit Tossed Due To Litigation Privilege

    A Florida state judge has tossed an ex-Miami city attorney's countersuit against a constituent, saying her suit fighting real estate fraud allegations that she says led to her termination is barred by the state's litigation privilege doctrine in which absolute immunity protects certain statements made in court proceedings.

  • September 03, 2024

    Calif. Eyes New Heavy-Duty Autonomous Truck Testing Regs

    California is forging ahead with plans to test and deploy more heavy-duty autonomous trucks, at the same time that state lawmakers are seeking to ban autonomous trucks from operating without a human driver behind the wheel.

  • September 03, 2024

    Glenmark Hit With $50M Suit Over Potassium Pill Death

    A proposed class of buyers is suing Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. for more than $50 million, alleging that the company's extended-release potassium chloride capsules are defective and instead deliver the potassium too fast, which resulted in the death of the lead plaintiff's mother.

  • September 03, 2024

    Pot Co. Stiiizy Hit With New Lawsuit Over High-Potency Wares

    California cannabis giant Stiiizy has been accused again of marketing dangerous, high-potency THC products to young people, allegedly resulting in cannabis-induced psychosis in a user who brought a product liability and fraud suit in Los Angeles state court.

  • September 02, 2024

    Microsoft To Face UK Class Action Over License Pricing

    Microsoft is set to face a multibillion-pound class action case brought by a former U.K. prosecutor over allegations that the tech giant illegally inflated the prices of software licenses, lawyers who plan to represent consumers said on Monday.

  • August 30, 2024

    3M Swept 'Forever Chemicals' Under The Rug, Buyers Say

    3M Co. and two chemical companies sold stain- and dirt-repellents made with so-called forever chemicals to carpet manufacturers without disclosing the health risks posed by the chemicals, which were then installed in millions of homes and businesses, according to a proposed consumer class action filed Friday in Minnesota federal court.

  • August 30, 2024

    Flint Water Firm Wants To Keep PR 'Sideshow' Out Of Trial

    One of the last remaining defendants in Flint water crisis litigation urged a Michigan federal judge to exclude from an upcoming bellwether trial evidence about its public relations efforts, which included an alleged smear campaign against the lawyer for Flint children that led to another attorney getting referred to the California bar.

  • August 30, 2024

    CrowdStrike VP Called To House Hearing On Global IT Outage

    A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee will dig into the faulty CrowdStrike software update that caused a massive global tech outage, revealing plans Friday for a September hearing that will feature testimony from a senior executive at the cybersecurity firm. 

  • August 30, 2024

    Calif. Legislature OKs Ban On 6 Food Dyes In Public Schools

    California's State Legislature on Thursday passed the nation's first-ever bill aimed at banning public schools in the state from serving foods to children that contain Red 40 and other synthetic food dyes, sending the law to the governor's desk.

  • August 30, 2024

    Steel Distributor Exec Pleads Guilty To Price-Fixing

    A second steel distributor executive pled guilty Friday in Puerto Rico to criminal charges for allegedly participating in an eight-year-long scheme to fix the prices of steel products, including while the island was recovering from a pair of hurricanes.

  • August 30, 2024

    Supply, Worker Shortages Prompt 'Rip And Replace' Leniency

    Citing shortages of network gear and work crews, the Federal Communications Commission granted additional time, generally six months, for several telecom carriers to comply with their obligations to "rip and replace" Chinese network equipment.

  • August 30, 2024

    UK Drops Antitrust Probe Into School Software Co.

    A United Kingdom school software company is no longer facing antitrust scrutiny over alleged litigation threats against schools looking to switch providers, but the firm continues to suggest that it may take action against the "misuse of its intellectual property" that it says complaints to authorities were meant to hide.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • What 11th Circ. FCRA Ruling Means For Credit Furnishers

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    Credit furnishers should revisit their internal investigation and verification procedures after the Eleventh Circuit declined last month in Holden v. Holiday to impose a bright-line rule that only purely factual or transcription errors are actionable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, say Diana Eng and Michael Esposito at Blank Rome.

  • Supply Chain Considerations For Companies Deploying AI

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    Many businesses will risk failure by embracing artificial intelligence without fully understanding the risks, and the value of a five-step AI supply chain analysis cannot be overstated, say Brooke Berg and Nathan Staffel at Nardello & Co.

  • Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content

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    From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.

  • The State Of Play In DEI And ESG 1 Year After Harvard Ruling

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    Almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, attorney general scrutiny of environmental, social and governance-related efforts indicates a potential path for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to be targeted, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Compliance Considerations For New Data Protection Law

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    Sam Castic at Hintze Law discusses how to determine if your organization is covered by the newly enacted Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, the scope of the law's restrictions, and how to go about compliance as its June 23 effective date approaches.

  • FTC Noncompete Rule Risks A Wave Of State AG Actions

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    The Federal Trade Commission's final rule language banning noncompetes may contribute to a waterfall enforcement effect in which state attorneys general deploy their broad authority to treat noncompetes as separate and independent violations, say Ryan Strasser and Carson Cox at Troutman Pepper.

  • CFPB Poised To Up The Ante After Supreme Court Victory

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically ruled last week that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure did not violate the Constitution, the agency boasted that it was "here to stay," signaling that it is moving full steam ahead with its regulatory, enforcement and supervisory agenda, says Jim Sandy at McGlinchey Stafford.

  • How To Use Exhibits Strategically Throughout Your Case

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    Exhibits, and documents in particular, are the lifeblood of legal advocacy, so attorneys must understand how to wield them effectively throughout different stages of a case to help build strategy, elevate witness preparation and effectively persuade the fact-finders, say Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie and Colorado prosecutor Adam Kendall.

  • Diving Deep Into Sweeping NY Financing Bill — And Its Pitfalls

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    A New York bill seeking to impose state usury limits onto a broader variety of financing arrangements and apply lender licensing requirements to more diverse entities would present near-insurmountable compliance challenges for lenders and retailers, say Kate Fisher and Tom Quinn at Hudson Cook.

  • Influencer Considerations As FINRA Initiates Crackdown

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    To avert risks when evaluating influencer and referral programs, firms should assess the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's recent settlements involving the supervision of social media tastemakers, as well as recent FINRA guidance in this area, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • What The FTC Report On AG Collabs Means For Cos.

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    The Federal Trade Commission's April report on working with state attorneys general shows collaboration can increase efficiency and consistency in how statutes are interpreted and enforced, which can minimize the likelihood of requests for inconsistent injunctive relief that can create operational problems for businesses, say attorneys at Kelley Drye.

  • A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches

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    Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.

  • Series

    Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.

  • Behind Court Challenges To The FTC's Final Noncompete Rule

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent final rule banning noncompetes may not go into effect any time soon amid a couple of Texas federal court challenges seeking to bar the rule's implementation, which will likely see appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, says Michael Elkins at MLE Law.

  • 15 Quick Tips For Uncovering And Mitigating Juror Biases

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    As highlighted by the recent jury selection process in the criminal hush money trial against former President Donald Trump, juror bias presents formidable challenges for defendants, and attorneys must employ proactive strategies — both new and old — to blunt its impact, say Monica Delgado and Jonathan Harris at Harris St. Laurent.

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