Consumer Protection

  • December 09, 2024

    Congress Set To Let FCC Borrow $3B For 'Rip And Replace'

    Lawmakers are considering funding a $3.08 billion shortfall in the program to rid U.S. networks of Chinese-made equipment by letting the Federal Communications Commission borrow the money from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, repaid with spectrum auctions.

  • December 09, 2024

    CFPB Gets Final OK For $950K Student Lender Settlement

    A New York federal judge has granted final approval to a $950,000 settlement reached between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an online private student lender and its venture capital backer over claims that they duped borrowers into taking out loans for coding school and other vocational programs with false claims about their educational "return-on-investment."

  • December 09, 2024

    EPA Finalizes Bans On Two Carcinogenic Chemicals

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a pair of final rules on Monday banning all uses of trichloroethylene and all consumer uses of perchloroethylene, which are cancer-causing chemical solvents used in brake cleaner and adhesive products.

  • December 09, 2024

    Prevagen Maker Ordered To Cease Memory Claims

    A New York federal judge on Friday upheld an injunction blocking Quincy Bioscience Holding Co. Inc. nationally from making claims that its supplement Prevagen can treat memory problems.

  • December 09, 2024

    TikTok Seeks Halt On Sale-Or-Ban Law For High Court Appeal

    TikTok Inc. and its users are pressing the D.C. Circuit to put on hold the implementation of a law that is set to bar the platform from the U.S. market next month while they appeal a ruling backing the measure to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

  • December 09, 2024

    NC Hemp Store Owners Say Raids Targeted Their Race

    North Carolina sheriff's deputies allegedly "ransacked" and robbed two hemp stores and harassed their Middle Eastern owners in an effort to run them out of their community despite the businesses being legal, according to a new complaint filed in federal court.

  • December 06, 2024

    USDA Orders Raw Milk Be Tested For Bird Flu

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday issued a federal order requiring raw milk across the country to be tested as part of an effort to control and stop the spread of bird flu.

  • December 06, 2024

    CFPB Loses Bid To Unfreeze Credit Card Late Fee Rule

    A Texas federal judge Friday refused to lift a preliminary injunction blocking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule from taking effect, ruling that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups are likely to succeed in their challenge to the rule.

  • December 06, 2024

    DC Circ. Ruling Far From Last Word On Looming TikTok Ban

    The D.C. Circuit's decision Friday paving the way for a U.S. ban on TikTok to take effect next month sparked immediate concerns about the loss of a social platform that millions rely on to freely express themselves, but a likely appeal and upcoming administration change could end up flipping the script.

  • December 06, 2024

    Ill. Judge Sends Hair Restoration Text Suit To Arbitration

    An Illinois federal judge paused litigation against a hair restoration company accused of sending a website user unwanted text promotions and ordered the parties Friday to arbitrate their dispute, following a Seventh Circuit ruling that upheld an arbitration agreement with less to go off of.

  • December 06, 2024

    US Ukrainian Group Wants FCC SpaceX Approvals Halted

    The FCC needs to put any decisions related to SpaceX on ice until an ethics committee can decide how to handle them now that the company's billionaire owner Elon Musk has been tapped for an oversight role in the upcoming Trump administration, the agency has been told.

  • December 06, 2024

    Google Must Face Trimmed BIPA Suit Over IBM Dataset

    A California federal judge on Thursday permitted Illinois residents to proceed with a pared-down version of their proposed class action accusing Google of violating biometric privacy laws with facial data collected by IBM, ruling they've adequately alleged a violation of the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act.

  • December 06, 2024

    Rugby League, Fox Sports Move To End Meta Tracking Row

    Fox Sports Australia and the National Rugby League are urging a California federal court to nix a proposed class action accusing them of disclosing viewers' personal data to Meta and other third parties without their knowledge or consent, saying the dispute belongs in Australia.

  • December 06, 2024

    Lawmakers Say DraftKings, FanDuel May Be Blocking Rivals

    A pair of lawmakers have sent a letter to the heads of two U.S. antitrust agencies raising concerns that DraftKings and FanDuel are blocking competition from emerging sports betting operators.

  • December 06, 2024

    High Court Bar's Future: Gupta Wessler's Jennifer Bennett

    As a litigator for workers and consumers, Jennifer D. Bennett made her debut at the U.S. Supreme Court at an inauspicious time, when conservative justices were consistently helping corporations move major cases onto advantageous turf in arbitration. But since then, Bennett has amassed a flawless argument record and helped to turn the tide, making her one of the high court's most promising young advocates.

  • December 06, 2024

    J&J Seeks New Talc Trial As Developer Seeks $30M More

    As Johnson & Johnson seeks to toss the underlying verdict, a real estate developer and cancer patient who was awarded $15 million in compensation from a talc trial jury has asked a Connecticut state judge to award another $30 million to punish the company for allegedly putting "profits over people."

  • December 06, 2024

    FTC Dems Tout Impact of Handbag Merger Win

    The Federal Trade Commission's leader said a recent court ruling that led the owners of Coach and Michael Kors to abandon their planned $8.5 billion tie-up should make it easier to prove mergers hurt competition without needing to rely on expensive economic experts.

  • December 06, 2024

    ​​​​​​​Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

    The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates more than 80 times in November as they sought to sway the FCC on new rules for hyper-local FM broadcasts, making it easier to attach broadband gear to utility poles, revamping the 6 gigahertz band and more.

  • December 06, 2024

    New EU Antitrust Head Leaves Google Breakup 'On The Table'

    A potential breakup of Google, particularly its advertising placement technology business, remains on the table on both sides of the Atlantic, based on comments from the European Union's brand new antitrust chief.

  • December 06, 2024

    Google's Payments Unit Sues Over CFPB Supervision Order

    Google on Friday sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in D.C. federal court almost immediately after the regulator said it ordered formal supervision for the tech giant's payments arm based on potential risks to consumers, a designation to which Google previously objected.

  • December 06, 2024

    Nat'l Spectrum Strategy Advances With Move On 37 GHZ

    The Biden administration made a late push to advance its National Spectrum Strategy by floating a plan in recent days to open the lower 37 gigahertz band for shared federal and commercial use, but experts say there's still much work ahead on the proposal.

  • December 06, 2024

    Trump DOJ Antitrust Pick Means 'Google Should Be Nervous'

    President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division signaled the aggressive push against major technology giants is likely to continue, but may also suggest a somewhat friendlier reception for mergers.

  • December 06, 2024

    CFTC Tells DC Circ. Election Bets Turned Kalshi Into 'Casino'

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has told the D.C. Circuit that trading platform KalshiEx LLC "promptly turned its futures exchange into an online casino" when courts gave it the green light to list election contracts, urging the appeals court to overturn a lower court decision that the contracts don't involve unlawful gaming.

  • December 06, 2024

    CFPB Sues Comerica Over Gov't Benefit Card Management

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday sued Comerica Bank in Texas federal court over its handling of Direct Express benefits cards, marking the first contested enforcement action that the agency has brought against a bank in more than four years.

  • December 06, 2024

    AngioDynamics Port Defect Caused Infection, Ga. Man Says

    A medical device manufacturer and one of its subsidiaries have been sued in Georgia federal court over allegations that their implantable port for delivering medications directly into patients' bloodstreams has a defect that can lead to increased risk of infection and sepsis.

Expert Analysis

  • Teaching Your Witness To Beat The Freeze/Appease Response

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    In addition to fight-or-flight, witnesses may experience the freeze/appease response at trial or deposition — where they become a deer in headlights, agreeing with opposing counsel’s questions and damaging their credibility in the process — but certain strategies can help, says Bill Kanasky at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • FTX Exec's Sentencing Shows Pros And Cons Of Cooperation

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    The sentencing of former FTX tech deputy Gary Wang, whose cooperation netted him a rare outcome of no prison time, offers critical takeaways for attorneys and clients navigating the burgeoning world of crypto-related prosecutions, says Andrew Meck at Whiteford.

  • SEC Custody Rule Creates Crypto Compliance Conundrum

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's application of the custody rule may be a good faith attempt to enhance consumer protections for client assets, it doesn't appreciate the unique characteristics of crypto-assets, forcing advisers to choose between pursuing their clients' objectives and complying with the rule, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Tracking The Uncertainty Of The FTC's Negative Option Rule

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    The fate of the Federal Trade Commission's final rule requiring businesses that utilize negative options to provide consumers with a simple cancellation method remains in limbo as it faces multiple legal challenges and the threat of possible congressional action looms, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Antitrust in Retail: Handbag Ruling Won't Go Out Of Fashion

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    Although a New York federal court’s recent decision to enjoin a proposed $8.5 billion merger between the owners of Michael Kors and Coach applied noncontroversial antitrust interpretations, several notable aspects of the opinion stand out as likely candidates for further discussion in future merger litigation, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • SEC Prioritized Enforcement Sweeps As Cases Slowed In '24

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    Following three consecutive years of increasing activity, fiscal year 2024 marked the lowest number of cases the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has brought since Gary Gensler assumed office in April 2021, buttressed by some familiar enforcement sweeps, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review

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    For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Key Takeaways From FDA's Latest Social Media Warnings

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest untitled letter concerning a drug company's social media promotion provides lessons for how companies should navigate risk presentation, FDA labeling requirements and superiority claims, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 2 Cases Show DAOs May Face Increasing Legal Scrutiny

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    Two ongoing cases that recently survived motions to dismiss in California federal courts concerning Compound DAO and Lido DAO threaten to expand the potential liability for activity attributed to decentralized autonomous organizations — and to indirectly create liability for their participants, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Expect More State Scrutiny Of PE In Healthcare M&A

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    While a California bill that called for increased antitrust scrutiny of many healthcare private equity transactions was recently vetoed by the governor, state legislatures are likely to continue introducing similar laws, particularly if the Trump administration eases federal enforcement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • How CFIUS' Updated Framework Affects Global Investors

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    The recent change to the monitoring and enforcement regulations governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States will broaden administrative practices around nonnotified transaction investigations, increase the scope of information demands from the committee and accelerate its ability to impose mitigation on parties, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Service Providers Must Mitigate 'Secondary Target' Risks

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    A lawsuit recently filed in an Illinois federal court against marketing agency Publicis over its work for opioid manufacturers highlights an uptick in litigation against professional service providers hired by clients that engaged in alleged misconduct — so potential targets of such suits should be sure to conduct proper risk analysis and mitigation, say attorneys at Dechert.

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