The U.S. government, in an amicus brief filed Monday, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject arguments that a lower court can parse an FCC decision in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case and isn’t barred from doing so under the Hobbs Act. SCOTUS will hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson Jan. 21, a case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a proposed class action suit that alleged Intelsat's then-chairman and two investor groups participated in insider trading (see 2304270005). In a docket 23-15822 order Wednesday, the appellate court said plaintiff Walleye hedge funds didn't adequately prove that David McGlade, Silver Lake Group and BC Partners possessed material nonpublic information. The three-judge panel said the Walleye funds also didn't adequately plead that Silver Lake and BC knew about Intelsat meeting with the FCC in November 2019 regarding the pending C-band clearing before the two funds sold big blocks of Intelsat shares. Walleye alleged the funds knew the FCC was leaning toward a public auction of the spectrum, and the FCC's subsequent announcement resulted in a big drop in Intelsat's stock price. Deciding were Judges Milan Smith, Andrew Hurwitz and Anthony Johnstone, with Smith penning the order.
Maine and Vermont legislators will reintroduce comprehensive privacy bills next session, lead sponsors told us in interviews. Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of Vermont’s privacy bill hasn’t discouraged supporters from seeking a private right of action (PRA) that Scott and industry opposed, Rep. Monique Priestley (D), the comprehensive measure’s sponsor, said. Meanwhile, in Maine, a veto threat from Gov. Janet Mills (D) means neither party will pursue a PRA in the upcoming session, Sen. Lisa Keim (R) told us. Mills' opposition to a PRA made it a nonstarter this session.
CDK Global, a software provider for North American car dealerships, failed to take the necessary steps to protect Coby Hester’s and class members’ personally identifiable information (PII), Hester's negligence class action alleged Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-05377) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois. CDK was hired to protect PII and is responsible for the software behind most major car dealerships in North America, the complaint said, citing a June 20 article in Enterprise Management 360 about a June 18 ransomware attack at CDK that reportedly reached 15,000 car dealerships. CDK acknowledged the breach on June 19 when it told car dealers it was investigating a “cyber incident.” The company “shut down most" systems and was “diligently trying to get everything up and running as quickly as possible,” the article said. CDK experienced a second cyber incident on June 19 and told dealers it was “again proactively shutting down most of our systems.” An employee of Northwest Dodge, Hester provided CDK with his PII, including name, address, Social Security number, driver’s license, and financial details, the complaint alleged. The Houston plaintiff is careful about sharing his PII and storing documents containing his PII in a safe, secure location, it added. Hester asserts claims of negligence and negligence per se, breach of third-party beneficiary contract and fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment.