Meta Can't Dodge Testifying In Mobile-App Gambling Trial

By Greg Lamm

A Washington federal judge has determined Meta must testify on the authenticity of data showing how much players spent on High 5 Games' illegal gambling mobile apps, saying the parent company of Facebook would not be overly burdened by providing a witness from one its three nearby offices. 

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FCC Drops 5th Circ. Defense Of Nonbinary Gender Category

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will no longer defend a nonbinary gender category on its employment diversity forms amid challenges brought by religious broadcasters in the Fifth Circuit, where judges grilled the FCC on Tuesday about its authority to collect and publish industry data on employee diversity.

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Robinhood Halts Super Bowl Offerings After Request By CFTC

By David Steele

Robinhood Markets' derivatives subsidiary pulled back its planned offering of Super Bowl online trading markets on Tuesday, one day after announcing the offering, saying the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission requested that it stop.

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Norfolk Southern Hit With 'Toxic Nightmare' Derailment Suit

By Ryan Harroff

Hundreds of Ohio and Pennsylvania residents affected by the fallout of the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train derailment have accused the rail company, government agencies and several businesses of downplaying the ongoing harm of the incident, marking one of the latest lawsuits filed on or near the two-year milestone.

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Google Gets OkCaller's 'Incoherent' Antitrust Claims Tossed

By Craig Clough

A Florida federal judge on Tuesday tossed for good antitrust claims from the company behind reverse phone number lookup website OkCaller.com, saying the newly amended suit does not rectify the previous problems, or if it does, the court cannot decipher the "incoherent" arguments. 

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Whirlpool Sinks Customer's Suit Over Service Plan Repair

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge has tossed a customer's proposed class action over a dishwasher warranty for good, finding no "reasonable consumer" would have been misled to believe the terms covered the full cost of any repair given the "caveats" on marketing materials.

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Brief

FCC Floats $4.4M Robocall Fine Against Telecom Network

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday proposed a fine of more than $4.4 million against a Chicago-based telecom that the agency accused of allowing government impostor calls on its network.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2025 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2025 editorial advisory boards.

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Trump Names Sen. Cruz Aide To Lead NTIA

By Jared Foretek

The White House is nominating Arielle Roth, a top aide to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and an outspoken critic of what she called the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's "woke social agenda," to head up the agency.

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Sen. Banking Chair Sets 100-Day Dash For Crypto Legislation

By Aislinn Keely

Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Tuesday that he intends to pass crypto legislation out of his chamber in the first 100 days of the new administration with the help of a working group composed of committee chairs in both chambers of Congress.

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Lawmakers Hit Replay On Bill For Singers' Radio Royalties

By Theresa Schliep

Lawmakers in Congress have reintroduced legislation that would require radio broadcasters to pay artists when playing their music, a measure that would address what the recording industry has called a legal loophole in which songwriters and publishers get paid — but not performers and labels — when radio stations play their music.

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SEC Could Greenlight Crypto Trading Under New Task Force

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new crypto task force could bless the trading of certain tokens on nonregulated exchanges as the industry awaits agency rulemaking or legislation setting out the new rules of the road for crypto, the task force's leader said Tuesday in a statement laying out her agenda.

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Sen. Mike Lee To Head Antitrust Subcommittee

By Matthew Perlman

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a frequent critic of the Federal Trade Commission, will serve as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on antitrust and consumer protection issues, with Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., taking over the ranking member role.

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Sens. Hawley, Sanders Pitch 10% Cap On Credit Card Rate

By Bonnie Eslinger

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would hold President Donald Trump to his campaign promise of a 10% credit card interest rate cap.

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RI Says Flavored Vape Ban Is 'Rational,' And Must Stand

By Mike Curley

The state of Rhode Island is urging a federal court to throw out a suit by two retailers challenging the state's ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, saying the plaintiffs can't show that there's no rational basis for the law.

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Wells Fargo Clears 2 More Consent Orders Amid Rehab Efforts

By Jon Hill

The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that Wells Fargo & Co. has exited a pair of mortgage-related consent orders from more than a decade ago, another step forward in the banking giant's regulatory rehabilitation efforts.

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FINRA Fines Broker $3.2M Over Securities Lending Biz

By Emilie Ruscoe

Broker-dealer Apex Clearing Corp. has agreed to pay the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority $3.2 million to end first-of-its-kind claims that the firm failed to abide by customer protection rules with its fully paid securities lending program, including by misrepresenting how it would compensate participants, leaving certain customers vulnerable to potential tax consequences.

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Boeing Supplier Tells 5th Circ. To Ax Texas Biz Records Law

By Madeline Lyskawa

Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems Inc. cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent in urging the Fifth Circuit to uphold a lower court finding that a Texas statute requiring businesses to immediately comply with the state's demand to examine business records is facially unconstitutional.

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Meta Attacks Insurers' Bid To Remand Social Media MDL Row

By Hope Patti

Meta asked a Delaware federal court to postpone ruling on its insurers' request to remand a dispute over coverage for thousands of suits alleging harm from the company's social media platforms, saying the action will likely soon be transferred to multidistrict litigation in California alongside the underlying claims.

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Funeral Home BIPA Violations Not Covered, Insurer Says

By Elizabeth Daley

An insurer told an Illinois federal court to dismiss a suit seeking $10 million in coverage for underlying litigation from a funeral home it insured, arguing that claims in a proposed class action by family members of decedents against the facility were all for noncovered biometric privacy violations.

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LendingTree Faces Consumer Claims Over Snowflake Breach

By Emilie Ruscoe

Online consumer lending platform LendingTree and an insurance comparison subsidiary are facing a proposed consumer class action based on a data breach of their cloud storage service, which affected personal information for "hundreds of millions of consumers."

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LinkedIn Shares Users' Info With Meta And Adobe, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

LinkedIn has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging it illegally shared with Meta and Adobe personal information belonging to its LinkedIn premium subscribers who watched online training courses on its LinkedIn Learning platform without their knowledge or permission.

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Judge Asks If ZoomInfo Search Result Ads Violate Privacy

By Greg Lamm

A Washington federal judge asked Tuesday if the use of a plaintiff's name to search ZoomInfo's vast database violated state privacy and publicity law because the search result included ads for other products.

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Apple Asks DC Circ. To Pause Google Search Case For Appeal

By Matthew Perlman

Apple has asked the D.C. Circuit to pause the remedies phase of the landmark monopolization case targeting Google's search dominance, arguing it needs to intervene to protect its contracts with Google that are worth billions of dollars each year.

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Southern Glazer's Wants FTC Unfair Pricing Suit Canned

By Bryan Koenig

Southern Glazer's asked a California federal judge Monday to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission's first price discrimination lawsuit in 25 years, arguing that even if the "mistaken economic theory" undergirding it holds true, dissents from the FTC's Republicans illustrate why the case fails anyway.

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Attys Seek $1.25M From Shuttered Nursing School Settlement

By Aaron Keller

Attorneys with the Connecticut boutique firm Hurwitz Sagarin Slossberg & Knuff LLC are seeking a 25% cut of a $5 million class action settlement for students whose career paths were sent spiraling by for-profit nursing school Stone Academy's sudden shutdown in February 2023.

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Insurer Points To Limits In McDonald's Franchisees' Policies

By Elizabeth Daley

An insurer told a Washington federal court that it owes limited coverage to two McDonald's franchisees it insures in suits accusing them of illegally withholding specific pay figures in job postings. 

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Coinbase Taps BigLaw Firms In Bid To End Crypto 'Debanking'

By Aislinn Keely

Crypto exchange Coinbase urged regulators Tuesday to clarify that banks can offer crypto custody and execution services, submitting a letter featuring a report from three BigLaw firms asserting that federal laws and regulations already allow banks to wade further into digital asset activities.

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Another Cannabis Biz Faces THC Potency Suit In Illionis

By Celeste Bott

Ascend Wellness Holdings is the latest cannabis company to be sued by a putative class of customers in Illinois state court claiming its vape products contain more THC than is allowed under the state's cannabis law.

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Anticipating Direction Of Cosmetics Regulation Under Trump

It is unclear how cosmetics regulation reform from the last few years will fare under President Donald Trump, but the new administration's emphasis on deregulation and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s views on product safety provide some insight, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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The Tides Are Changing For Fair Access Banking Laws

The landscape of fair access banking laws, which seek to prevent banks from denying services based on individuals' ideological beliefs, has shifted in the last few years, but a new presidential administration provides renewed momentum for advancing such legislation against the backdrop of state efforts, say attorneys at Latham.

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Drug Pricing Policy Trends To Expect In 2025 And Beyond

Though 2025 may bring more of the same in the realm of drug pricing policy, business as usual entails a sustained, high level of legal and policy developments across at least six major areas, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering

Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.

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Senate Confirms Pam Bondi To Be AG

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate voted 54-46 on Tuesday to confirm Pam Bondi to be attorney general.

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'Is This A Joke?' Judge Denies Atty Fees For Grocery Patrons

By Bryan Koenig

A California federal judge had so little tolerance for shoppers claiming victory and seeking attorney fees from the abandoned Kroger-Albertsons merger that in tossing their motion and underlying lawsuit he noted with incredulity, "Plaintiffs are actually making these arguments."

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Trump Selects McKinsey CLO For Commerce Department GC

By Hailey Konnath

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated McKinsey & Co.'s Chief Legal Officer Pierre Gentin to serve as the next general counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to congressional records.

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Haynes Boone Adds 7-Atty Seward & Kissel Team In NY

By Christine DeRosa

Haynes Boone has grown its fund finance and securitization practices with the addition of seven attorneys from Seward & Kissel LLP, including the head of the firm's asset securitization and CLO practice group.

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Former Conn. US Attorney Returns To McCarter & English

By Christine DeRosa

Vanessa Roberts Avery, who recently stepped down as U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, has returned to her roots as a business litigator at McCarter & English LLP in Hartford, Connecticut.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

February is off to a rip-roaring start in several circuits, and there's plenty more action ahead, including a moment of truth for judiciary policymaking that has managed to anger both the defense and plaintiffs bars. We'll explore all that in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing, which also includes an appellate quiz pegged to recent presidential news.

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DOJ Criminal Division Leader Joins White & Case's DC Shop

By Jack Rodgers

White & Case LLP announced on Tuesday it was growing its white collar team with the addition of partner Brent Wible, who told Law360 Pulse that it was time for him to step back into private practice following a five-year stint with the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Trump Picks AG Paxton Atty For Homeland Security Dept.

By Catherine Marfin

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's special counsel, who is also a former member of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign, has been tapped for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Paxton announced Tuesday.

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