The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded to U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago the appeal of two hardware stores, Bay Hardware and Lunada Bay Hardware, that had argued unsuccessfully in the lower court that their supplier, Generac Power Systems, inundated them with fax solicitations in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Kohl’s denies that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (RFDCPA) “or any other statute or law alleged” in plaintiff Matilde Cowen’s Feb. 3 complaint (see 2302030043), said the defendant’s answer Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-00199) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego.
McAfee isn’t the proper defendant to pro se plaintiff James Linlor’s allegations it’s cybersquatting on the cyberguard.com internet domain and preventing Linlor from pursuing a similarly named cybersecurity consultancy (see 2301310011), said its motion to dismiss Wednesday (docket 5:23-cv-00385) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.
The plaintiffs who won summary judgment March 8 against defendants Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman for their roles in the threatening and intimidating robocall to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the 2020 election (see 2303090003) plan to seek compensatory and punitive damages, statutory penalties, disgorgement of profits, injunctive relief and attorney’s fees and costs, they wrote U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in a letter Tuesday (docket 1:20-cv-08668). Marrero had ordered the plaintiffs to file a joint letter by the Wednesday deadline on the “prospective relief sought.”
“Sanctions are warranted” against Google for failing to preserve messages on its internal chat system before and during the antitrust multidistrict litigation challenging Google’s Play Store practices as anticompetitive, said a “findings of fact” order signed Tuesday (docket 3:21-md-02981) by U.S. District Judge James Donato for Northern California in San Francisco. The plaintiffs in the four consolidated cases that comprise the MDL include 38 states and the District of Columbia, plus Epic Games, the Match Group and a group of consumers, all alleging Google monopolized Android app distribution and availability through Google Play.
The consolidated class action amended complaint, filed Friday, alleging Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) declined to upgrade the telematics equipment in Audi and VW vehicles they distributed in the U.S. for the shutdown of 3G wireless services deletes the Audi and VW German parent companies as defendants. The German parents never were “validly served,” so a Rule 41(a) dismissal notice “is not required,” plaintiffs’ attorney Lee Squitieri of Squitieri & Fearon wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Kiel for U.S. District Court for New Jersey in a letter Friday (docket 2:22-cv-05896).
Santa Fe’s March 3 response brief objected to a cost-based test for the prohibition standard under Section 253 of the Telecommunications Act, claiming the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “had no authority to adopt such a test,” said NMSurf’s reply brief Friday (docket 22-2131). The wireless ISP is appealing the district court’s upholding of Santa Fe’s 2% revenue-based franchise fee on grounds that the fee isn’t based on the city’s cost of operating the public rights of way (ROW) for service providers and is preempted by the TCA (see 2303060001).
Rochester, New York, “fails to rebut the points raised” in Extenet’s motion in limine to preclude expert testimony from Louie Tobias, the city’s director-telecommunications and special projects, said Extenet’s reply Friday (docket 6:20-cv-07129) to the city’s opposition (see 2303200004) in U.S. District Court for Western New York. A consolidated bench trial is scheduled to begin June 1 on challenges to Rochester’s wireless deployment fees brought by Extenet, Crown Castle and Verizon, saying the fees significantly exceed a reasonable approximation of the city’s actual costs of maintaining the rights-of-way (ROW) used or occupied by telecom service providers.
Three advocacy groups urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court to affirm the lower court’s denial of Verizon’s motion to compel the disputes of 27 California consumers to arbitration, in amicus briefs Friday. The 27 plaintiff-appellees argue the arbitration process that Verizon is attempting to foist upon consumers is an inferior and unfair forum that violates claimants’ rights under federal and state law (see 2303190001).
The Association of American Publishers hailed Friday’s opinion and order granting four book publishers summary judgment in their lawsuit to thwart the Internet Archive from scanning print copies of physical books and lending the digital copies to users of IA’s website without the publishers’ permission. IA and other groups criticized the ruling.