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August 27, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate court panel on Aug. 26 affirmed the dismissal of a homeowner’s third amended complaint accusing her insurer of failure to properly investigate a claim in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the latest appeal in the long-running case, which was remanded to the trial court after the California Supreme Court deemed the claims not time-barred, is “woefully inadequate” and violates the appellate court’s rules.
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August 26, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge partially dismissed claims brought against Otter.ai Inc. by individuals who argue that the company does not obtain prior consent of all participants in a virtual meeting before its Notetaker transcription function is engaged to record a conversation, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to sufficiently plead unauthorized computer access, and as to several plaintiffs, a reasonable expectation of privacy, but allowed claims predicated on real-time interception, third-party eavesdropping and collection of biometric voice data to proceed.
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August 25, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A car manufacturer urges the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for a writ of certiorari to resolve “a 5-4-1 circuit split” over the enforceability by nonsignatories of delegation clauses in arbitration agreements, writing that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals by denying arbitration in a dispute over an alleged defect with vehicle headrests wrongly gave itself the discretion to determine if such agreements can be enforced.
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August 24, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted final approval to a settlement in a class action alleging ZOA Energy LLC violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by advertising, labeling and selling its energy drink products with the false claim that they contained “0 preservatives” but were formulated with citric and ascorbic acids and sodium and potassium citrate.
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August 19, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A group of California homeowners filed a second amended complaint (SAC) in a California state court, narrowing their claims against a collection of insurers to Cartwright Act and unfair competition law (UCL) claims alleging that the insurers conspired to restrict conventional homeowners coverage and force policyholders into the California FAIR Plan, following an order that overruled the insurers’ joint demurrer to those claims but sustained with leave to amend some defendant-specific demurrers.
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August 18, 2026
NEW YORK — The plaintiffs in a consolidated action against the operators of an AI-powered marketing and consumer data platform told a New York federal judge that they intend to seek reconsideration of a ruling that dismissed their complaint; in that ruling, the judge held that the plaintiffs lacked standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution because they failed to plausibly allege a concrete injury from the operators’ alleged collection and monetization of their email addresses, device information and browser information.
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August 18, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A cosmetic company and its commercial general liability insurer filed a stipulation in a California federal court to dismiss with prejudice the insured’s action seeking coverage for three underlying putative class action lawsuits alleging that the company deceptively sold beauty products by failing to disclose the dangerous risks and side effects of lash enhancement serums’ “key ingredient.”
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August 14, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Consumers who sued Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. alleging that benzoyl peroxide (BPO) acne products contained or could degrade into benzene should be allowed to proceed with most of their claims, according to findings and recommendations issued Aug. 13 by a California federal magistrate judge, although he said the named plaintiffs lack standing to sue over products they did not purchase and that a “Walgreens Pharmacist Recommended” label is nonactionable puffery.
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August 13, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied an auto dealership management system (DMS) software maker’s motion for leave to file an amended complaint in its lawsuit against a competitor in the market for allegedly hacking proprietary data and violating antitrust law by blocking access to the market in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the request is untimely and would prejudice the defendant.
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August 13, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed with prejudice a consumer’s putative class action accusing a manufacturer of food pouches of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling its products as containing a “fruit and veggie blend,” ruling that the label is not false because the product contains avocados, which “can be and have been considered vegetables.”
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August 12, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Aug. 11 sent to arbitration damages claims under the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) and false advertising law (FAL) that remained following a summary judgment ruling in a putative class action brought by consumers seeking injunctive relief or restitution related to StubHub Inc.’s refund policy changes implemented for events canceled or rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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August 12, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge largely denied a company’s motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging that the company deceives consumers into believing they have found a bargain by selling items such as watches at its outlet stores at an advertised “sale” price when the items are never sold at their full list price, but granted the motion in part and dismissed one of the plaintiff’s claims for damages based on the attempted incorporation of a prelitigation notice into the pleadings.
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August 11, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Two consumers claim in a putative class complaint against Mercedes-Benz USA LLC (MBUSA) that the company violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by failing to warn them that the “raised metallic logo” badge on the driver’s and passenger’s seats of their Mercedes vehicles can become overheated due to sunlight exposure, allegedly causing them both to experience painful burns.
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August 11, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An anonymous music producer filed a complaint in California state court accusing rapper Kanye West, now known as “Ye,” two of his companies and 20 unknown Doe defendants of failing to pay the producer or provide a written contract for his AI music production services used on two albums commercially released by Ye, allegedly in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), as well as city and state laws protecting freelance workers.
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August 10, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part two motions to dismiss putative class claims against DraftKings Inc., its subsidiary and its executives for violating state gambling laws, California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and racketeering laws, finding that while the legality of online fantasy sports betting is “murky,” the plaintiffs adequately alleged that they were deceived into losing money on DraftKings based on its representations that its games are legal but failed to properly plead racketeering claims.
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August 10, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A company that imports and distributes marble and porcelain slabs for use in countertops filed a cross-complaint in California state court in which it denies responsibility for a toxic tort complaint brought against it and other companies by a stone cutter suffering from silicosis and brings claims for indemnity, apportionment and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) against 100 unidentified parties who it says violated workplace safety rules.
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August 06, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 5 vacated a federal judge’s decision granting an insured’s motion to remand her putative class action against an insurer for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) based on its alleged termination of her late husband’s life insurance policy, writing that in light of recent precedent the judge should have given the insurer an “opportunity to waive” its adequate-remedy-at-law defense before remanding due to lack of equitable jurisdiction.
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August 06, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a mobile game platform’s motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit in which three players accuse it of racketeering, wire fraud and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), as well as New York and Texas consumer protection laws, by deceiving them into spending thousands of dollars on its games with deceptive advertising, finding that the players failed to allege that they relied on the alleged misrepresentations.
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August 06, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal magistrate judge denied an American wet wipes reseller’s motion to dismiss a Chinese company’s breach of contract claim against it for terminating orders made during the coronavirus pandemic for 242,000 canisters of wet wipes but granted its motion to dismiss the claim against it for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), which the judge said is foreclosed because the Chinese company’s breach of contract claim provides an adequate remedy at law.
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August 04, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a defense motion to dismiss a putative class action brought by a consumer who claims that “Beats” headphones were deceptively advertised in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) as fully compatible with devices using the Android operating system when not all Beats features work on Android, declining to dismiss the plaintiff’s substantive claims but denying her claim for injunctive relief.
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August 03, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — Finding that new allegations in a consumer’s third amended complaint resolved previously identified deficiencies, a California federal judge denied Shopify Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action against it for allegedly collecting customer data to create and sell individualized profiles in violation of California privacy laws and the state’s unfair competition law (UCL).
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July 31, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Plaintiffs may proceed anonymously in their proposed class action alleging that users of the Grok artificial intelligence platform created fake images of them either naked or in compromising positions, a federal judge in California said July 30.
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July 30, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied Delta Air Lines Inc.’s motion to strike a flier’s alleged “sham” declaration after finding that contradictions in the flier’s deposition testimony regarding when she saw the airline’s allegedly misleading advertisements describing itself as “carbon-neutral” based on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments were not proven to be a “sham” instead of “an honest mistake.”
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July 29, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of an antitrust dispute with Apple Inc. over Apple’s alleged rejection of an app maker’s revamped app to reflect COVID “hot spots,” finding that the proffered complaint fails to “plausibly allege a relevant product market” under the Sherman Act.
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July 29, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied Visa Inc.’s motion for sanctions against counsel for a plaintiff who accuses it of conspiracy to violate sex-trafficking laws and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for processing payments for the pornography website Pornhub while it allegedly knew or should have known the site had monetized child sex abuse material (CSAM), writing that the plaintiff’s allegations against Visa are not so “baseless” as to be sanctionable.