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Consumer Protection
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December 13, 2024
EPA Mandates More Worker Safety For Carbon Tetrachloride
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule this week on carbon tetrachloride exposure, requiring "robust" employee safety planning on worksites but continuing to allow for its use as a feedstock for refrigerants.
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December 13, 2024
Mass. Law Wipes Out Pandemic Tuition Case Against Tufts
Tufts University on Friday defeated a putative class action seeking tuition refunds for pandemic closures of the Boston-area school's campus, as a Massachusetts federal judge upheld a state law providing immunity to colleges that shut their doors during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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December 13, 2024
Sexual Abuse, Price-Gouging Bills Clear Michigan Senate
Michigan state senators passed a flurry of bills during a marathon session ending early Friday morning, including legislation giving sexual assault victims more time to file lawsuits, strengthening protections against price-gouging and expanding polluter liability.
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December 13, 2024
Lawmakers Press Tech Giants As TikTok D-Day Looms
A pair of lawmakers on Friday leaned on TikTok to ensure it meets a Jan. 19 deadline to sell its operations or face a U.S. ban, while also pressing tech giants Apple and Google to be prepared to deplatform the video-sharing app if it refuses to sell.
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December 13, 2024
McKinsey To Pay $650M For Work With Opioid Maker Purdue
Consulting giant McKinsey & Co. will pay $650 million to resolve charges related to its work helping Purdue Pharma market and boost sales of OxyContin, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
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December 12, 2024
Align Tech's $27.5M Antitrust Deal Hits Nerve With Judge
A California federal judge said Thursday that a proposed $27.5 million deal for teeth-aligner buyers to resolve antitrust claims alleging Align Technologies Inc. colluded with the now-bankrupt SmileDirectClub to illegally restrict competition might be "inherently improper" due to a coupon component that "would bring additional business to the monopolist."
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December 12, 2024
Sens. Say Bipartisan Efforts Possible For Telecom In 2025
Key lawmakers who work on telecom policy suggested Thursday that Capitol Hill could come together in a bipartisan way next year to tackle some important issues left outstanding from the Biden era, including permitting reform to spur broadband expansion.
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December 12, 2024
9th Circ. Ruling Could Tank Gerber Baby Food False Ad Suit
A California federal judge weighing whether to toss a Bay Area mother's proposed class action accusing Gerber of deceptively claiming health benefits on its labeling for pureed baby and toddler food pouch products said Thursday that a recent Ninth Circuit decision in a similar case against Sprout Foods might doom the fraud claims against Gerber.
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December 12, 2024
Keller Postman Sues Jenner & Block In Escalating Tubi Fight
Keller Postman LLC added a new front Wednesday to its heated legal fight with Jenner & Block LLP, filing a California state court lawsuit accusing the BigLaw firm of employing a host of unethical tactics to gain leverage in mass arbitration against the streaming service Tubi.
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December 12, 2024
DOJ Seizes Rydox Cybercrime Site, Charges Administrators
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging two Kosovo citizens who ran the illicit website Rydox with multiple criminal counts after the U.S. government seized the website, which has been used by cybercriminals to buy and sell thousands of Americans' personal information and dating profiles.
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December 12, 2024
Electric Co-Ops Oppose Proposed FCC Customer Service Regs
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is adding its name to the list of those who think the Federal Communications Commission's plan to impose new rules surrounding customer service is a bad idea.
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December 12, 2024
Koch Foods Demands $178K For 'Burdensome' Subpoena
Koch Foods has become the latest nonparty to an antitrust fight between Tyson Foods and a poultry rendering company to try to recover a six-figure legal bill from the latter company, after Koch said it was forced to comply with a "broad and ambiguous subpoena" for its communications with Tyson.
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December 12, 2024
Texas AG Targets Instagram, Reddit Over Youth Data Security
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that his office is looking into minors' privacy and safety policies of more than a dozen tech companies, including Character.AI, Reddit and Instagram, as part of his long-running campaign to stop companies from selling minors' personal information without permission from their parents.
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December 12, 2024
DC Circ. Leans Toward BofA In Pandemic Market Loss Bout
The D.C. Circuit is set to decide whether Bank of America had a duty to try harder to stop one of its clients from dumping his investments when the market tanked at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but at arguments Thursday morning, the panel did not seem to think so.
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December 12, 2024
Restaurants Latest To Accuse Potato Cartel Of Price-Fixing
A group of restaurants on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Illinois federal court accusing the four largest potato processors of forming a cartel to fix the prices of French fries, tater tots and other frozen potato products, about a month after consumers brought the first such litigation.
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December 12, 2024
USAA Inks $3.25M Data Breach Deal With 22K Customers
More than 22,000 USAA customers have asked a New York federal judge to grant preliminary approval to a $3.2 million settlement to resolve a proposed class action alleging the company's security failures in its online insurance quote system allowed cybercriminals to open fraudulent memberships.
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December 12, 2024
Medicare Could Lose Billions From 'Patent Abuse,' Group Says
The $6 billion a year Medicare is supposed to save by negotiating drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act is close to the billions of dollars the government could lose due to "patent abuse" by drugmakers, according to a new report by a consumer interest group.
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December 12, 2024
Wash. Man Gets 41 Months For Gamer-Duping Crypto Scam
A Washington federal judge has sentenced a Spokane man to 41 months in prison for running a crypto scheme in which he allegedly induced victims he met online, including users of dating apps and "Call of Duty" players, and via hailed rides to sink over $350,000 into a phony crypto investment fund.
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December 12, 2024
FDIC Must Reconsider Redactions Of Crypto 'Pause' Letters
A Washington, D.C., federal judge told the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Thursday to "make more thoughtful redactions" of certain crypto-focused letters it handed over in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed on behalf of crypto exchange Coinbase, since the regulator's heavy-handed first pass seemed to lack a "good-faith effort."
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December 12, 2024
Photobucket Accused Of Training AI On Photos Sans Consent
A proposed class action filed in Colorado federal court Wednesday alleges that image hosting website Photobucket unlawfully used billions of photographs uploaded by users for biometric data and training artificial intelligence.
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December 12, 2024
6th Circ. Appears Divided On Telecom Breach Reporting Rule
A Sixth Circuit panel seemed split over the Federal Communications Commission's tightened telecommunications data breach rules, with one judge defending the commission as taking necessary steps to safeguard consumers from a "true" danger and another claiming that the rule seemed to run afoul of lawmakers' wishes.
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December 12, 2024
J&J Shampoo Contamination Suit Sent Down The Drain
A New Jersey federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action alleging Johnson & Johnson sold coal tar-based shampoo that contained the carcinogen benzene, saying the plaintiff's allegations fall far short of giving him standing.
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December 12, 2024
MOVEit Data Breach MDL Survives Dismissal Bid
Progress Software and a group of more than 100 businesses, healthcare providers and government agencies can't end a putative class action over a data breach tied to Progress' MOVEIt file transfer tool, a Massachusetts federal judge said Thursday.
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December 12, 2024
AGs Launch Gun Violence Crackdown With Glock Suits
New Jersey and Minnesota unveiled lawsuits Thursday against Glock Inc. aimed at ending "once and for all" the homemade machine gun industry, marking the start of a crackdown by a coalition of enforcers looking to hold the firearms industry liable for gun violence.
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December 12, 2024
Rumble Gets Green Light To Join Google Ad Tech MDL
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation rejected Google's bid to prevent video-sharing site Rumble from having its antitrust claims over key digital advertising technology included in the consolidated litigation pending against the tech giant in New York.
Expert Analysis
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Navigating New Enforcement Scrutiny Of 'AI Washing'
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent lawsuit against Joonko Diversity, its first public AI-focused enforcement action against a private company, underscores the importance of applying the same internal legal and compliance rigor to AI-related claims as other market-facing statements, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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What's Next For Federal Preemption In Financial Services
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's review of its preemption interpretations and growing pressure from state regulators signal potential changes ahead for preemption in U.S. financial services, and the path forward will likely involve a reevaluation of the entire framework, say attorneys at Clark Hill.
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Employer Arbitration Lessons From Calif. Consumer Ruling
Although a California state appeals court’s recent arbitration ruling in Mahram v. Kroger involved a consumer transaction, the finding that the arbitration agreement at issue did not apply to a third-party beneficiary could influence how employment arbitration agreements are interpreted, says Sander van der Heide at CDF Labor Law.
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Unpacking Jurisdiction Issues In 3rd Circ. Arbitration Ruling
The Third Circuit's recent ruling in George v. Rushmore Service Center could be interpreted to establish three principles regarding district courts' jurisdiction to enter arbitration-related orders under the Federal Arbitration Act, two of which may lead to confusion, says David Cinotti at Pashman Stein.
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Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
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'Pig Butchering': The Scam That Exploits Crypto Confusion
Certain red flags can tip off banks to possible "pig-butchering," and with the scam's increasing popularity, financial institutions need to take action to monitor entry points into the crypto space, detect suspicious activity and provide a necessary backstop to protect customers, say Brandon Essig and Mary Parrish McCracken at Lightfoot Franklin.
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Opinion
Agencies Should Reward Corporate Cyber Victim Cooperation
The increased regulatory scrutiny on corporate victims of cyberattacks — exemplified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against SolarWinds — should be replaced with a new model that provides adequate incentives for companies to come forward proactively and collaborate with law enforcement, say attorneys at McDermott.
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How Transaction Lookbacks Can Guide Fintech Companies
As transaction lookbacks continue to be a key focus of enforcement actions, newer financial institutions like fintech companies should know they can benefit from proactively investigating their potential failure to identify suspicious activity, creating a compliance road map and building trust with regulators in the process, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
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Opinion
CFPB's AI Stance Backslides On Innovation Issues
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent response to a Treasury Department's request for information about artificial intelligence in the financial services sector uses alarmist rhetoric about the technology's risks, ceding an opportunity to help shape this important discussion, says Mike Silver at Husch Blackwell.
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How Ripple Final Judgment Fits In Broader Crypto Landscape
The Southern District of New York's recent $125 million civil penalty levied in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple will have a broad impact on the crypto industry as it was the first to hold that blind sales of digital assets are not securities, even if deemed securities in other circumstances, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond
As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.
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The Bank Preemption Ripple Effects After Cantero, Flagstar
The importance of federal preemption for financial institutions will only increase as technology-driven innovations evolve, which is why the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cantero v. Bank of America and vacatur of Kivett v. Flagstar Bank have real modern-day significance for national banks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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IP Hot Topic: The Intersection Of Trademark And Antitrust Law
Antitrust claims – like those in the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent case against Apple – are increasingly influencing trademark disputes and enforcement practices, demonstrating how antitrust law can dilute the power of a trademark, say attorneys at Dentons.
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When Trauma Colors Testimony: How To Help Witnesses
As stress-related mental health issues continue to rise, trial attorneys must become familiar with a few key trauma-informed strategies to help witnesses get back on track — leaning in to the counselor aspect of their vocations, say Ava Hernández and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.