The preemption clause in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act restricts states from imposing liability for regulated activities, including online data collection from children, that’s “inconsistent” with COPPA’s treatment of those activities, said the FTC’s amicus brief Monday (docket 21-16281) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals en banc reahearing of Jones v. Google. The FTC filed the brief at the 9th Circuit’s request in the case involving a group of children who allege Google collected data and surreptitiously tracked their online activity in violation of state laws.
DirecTV’s litigation accusing Nexstar and its broadcast sidecars Mission and White Knight of colluding to set retransmission consent fee prices (see 2303150041) should be dismissed for multiple reasons, Nexstar wrote U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty for Southern New York in Manhattan in a letter Friday (docket 1:23-cv-02221) requesting a pre-motion conference. DirecTV alleges the broadcasters' “unlawful price-fixing conspiracy” is the root cause of unsuccessful retrans talks with Mission and White Knight resulting in blackouts.
The second fraud class action against SiriusXM to enter the federal court system in three days was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark by plaintiffs Robyn Posternock, Muriel Salters and Philip Munning. Their complaint (docket 2:23-cv-02680), brought under New Jersey law on behalf of a class comprised solely of New Jersey citizens, challenges “a deceptive pricing scheme whereby SiriusXM falsely advertises its music plans at lower prices than it actually charges.”
Walmart said the FTC doesn’t, and can’t, deny the questions the retailer highlighted in its motion to certify for interlocutory appeal the district court’s denial of Walmart’s motion to dismiss the agency’s enforcement action “strike at the heart of the FTC’s legal authority and the proper interpretation of key provisions of the FTC Act.” Walmart filed its reply Thursday (docket 1:22-cv-03372) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago in support of its bid to challenge the constitutionality of the FTC’s litigation powers before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Five affiliated Manhattan telemarketing entities agreed to pay Pennsylvania $250,000 to settle allegations they inundated Pennsylvanians with hundreds of thousands of unwanted robocalls (see 2211030056), said a consent petition for final decree filed Thursday (docket 2:22-cv-01551) in U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Ranjan signed an order Thursday approving the petition and closing the case.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should deny plaintiff-appellant Darrell Seybold’s challenge of the district court’s “proper dismissal” of his complaint that purports to state a whistleblower claim “without any blowing of the whistle” and his breach of contract claim “without any contract,” said Charter Communications’ answering brief Wednesday (docket 23-10104). Seybold alleged in his opening brief April 3 that he was terminated for exposing Charter’s unlawful cooking of the books, in violation of the whistleblower protections in the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act (see 2304040022).
Google will pay $39.9 million, plus 12% post-judgment interest per annum, to settle allegations it duped Washington state consumers about its location-tracking purposes, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) announced Thursday. The AG’s office will use money from the resolution to continue enforcement of the state’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA) he said.
California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) “unconstitutionally infringes” news organizations’ and minors’ First Amendment rights, said the New York Times Co. and Student Press Law Center in an amicus brief Monday (docket 5:22-cv-08861) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose in support of the injunction NetChoice seeks to block the social media design law from taking effect in July 2024 (see 2303130003).
T-Mobile’s May 4 brief on discovery documents it designated as confidential under the protective order in the fake ring tones class action brought by plaintiffs Craigville Telephone and Consolidated Telephone “fails to show that its confidentiality designations are valid,” said the plaintiffs’ response Tuesday (docket 1:19-cv-07190) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago.
SiriusXM removed to U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco a fraud class action that alleges the company falsely advertises its music plans at lower prices than it actually charges. Pro se plaintiffs Ayana Stevenson and David Ambrose filed the lawsuit April 14 in California Superior Court for Contra Costa County.