Mealey's California Section 17200

  • August 28, 2024

    Preliminary Approval Granted To $19M Settlement In Recalled Baby Sleeper Suit

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $19 million class settlement between consumers and Fisher-Price Inc. and its corporate parent, Mattel Inc., in a multidistrict litigation alleging that the safety risks of the now recalled Rock ’n Play Sleeper (RNPS) were not disclosed when the units were being sold in violation of various consumer protection laws.

  • August 28, 2024

    Epic Games Agrees To Pay Nearly $400K To Google Over Antitrust Counterclaim

    SAN FRANCISCO — Eight months after a jury entered a verdict in favor or Epic Games Inc. in its antitrust dispute with Google LLC over the Android app market, Epic agreed to pay $398,931.23 to settle Google’s counterclaim against it for breach of Google’s Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) in violation of the Sherman Act, stating that Epic will “forgo adjudication” of its defense that the DDA provisions Epic is accused of violating were found unlawful during a jury trial to avoid further delay of the final judgment in the case.

  • August 27, 2024

    Certification Of Arbitration Order For Appeal Denied In Citibank ‘Redlining’ Case

    LOS ANGELES — A California woman who filed a putative class complaint against Citibank N.A. under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for allegedly “redlining” customers with Armenian names failed to show that a difference of opinion exists surrounding an April ruling granting the credit card issuer’s motion for arbitration, a federal judge in California ruled, denying a motion for certification of the order for interlocutory appeal.

  • August 26, 2024

    Federal Judge: Artist’s Trademark, Copyright Claims Against Amazon Largely Survive

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal judge in California partly denied a motion from Amazon.com Inc. to dismiss a complaint brought against it by an artist, holding that the artist adequately established that the defendant infringed upon his trademarks by selling counterfeited works, but noted that the artist conceded that he failed to establish other elements of his claims.

  • August 22, 2024

    9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Data Theft Claims Against Auto Insurer

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 21 affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a putative class action brought against an auto insurer for failure to protect three individuals’ personal data, specifically their driver’s license numbers, from a hack of its online insurance quoting system, after finding that none of the appellants suffered an injury.

  • August 22, 2024

    9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of AIDS Group’s Drug-Pricing Claims Against Vendor

    PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 21 affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a nonprofit AIDS health care provider’s lawsuit against a vendor for violating federal health care regulations and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by failing to negotiate “sub-ceiling” prices on its behalf, finding that the provider is not an “intended beneficiary” under the relevant regulations.

  • August 21, 2024

    9th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment In Chrome Users’ Data Collection Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 20 reversed a California federal judge’s entry of summary judgment on claims brought by users of Google LLC’s web browser app Chrome for collecting their personally identifiable information (PII) allegedly in violation of privacy laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the District Court did not properly apply the “reasonable person” standard.

  • August 20, 2024

    Consumers Oppose Store’s Petition In Class Arbitration, Severing Claims Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Questions presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition by the operator of household rental stores that concern a court’s right to refuse to sever and compel arbitration of individual portions of a claim should be denied as the question concerning a severance clause “has no practical implications outside the unique severance clause at issue in this case” and the questions regarding the rental store’s processing fee and an arbitration agreement “involve the application of well-settled law to the particular facts of this case,” consumers argue in their Aug. 19 opposition brief.

  • August 19, 2024

    Man Files Putative Class Alleging Some Shale Oil Producers Fixed Gas Prices

    SAN FRANCISCO — A man filed a putative class action on Aug. 16 against multiple hydraulic fracturing companies in California federal court contending that they engaged in a conspiracy “to coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production, which has had the effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of retail gasoline” in violation of the Sherman Act.

  • August 19, 2024

    9th Circuit Affirms Remand Of Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths Lawsuit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 16 affirmed the remand to a state court of a lawsuit brought by relatives and successors of 15 people who died in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding no federal jurisdiction exists over their claims against the facility and affiliated defendants for elder abuse, wrongful death and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), and affirmed an attorney fees award against the nursing home defendants.

  • August 16, 2024

    Nvidia Skirted Rules, Illegally Trained AI On YouTube Videos, Man Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — Nvidia Corp., a company valued at $2.4 trillion, trained its Cosmos artificial intelligence by scraping millions of YouTube videos without obtaining consent or compensating creators behind the videos in violation of the California unfair competition law (UCL), a man claims in a class action filed in federal court.

  • August 16, 2024

    California Sues AI Websites Designed To ‘Nudify’ Women, Girls

    SAN FRANCISCO — California on Aug. 15 sued the owners of the 16 most popular artificial intelligence websites designed to create and distribute deepfake nudes of women and girls, hitting the websites and various Doe defendants with claims under the state’s unfair competition law.

  • August 14, 2024

    FTC Offers Principles For ‘Relief’ In Google Antitrust Litigation With Epic Games

    SAN FRANCISCO — Eight months after a jury entered a verdict in favor or Epic Games Inc. in its antitrust dispute with Google LLC over the Android app market, the Federal Trade Commission filed an amicus curiae brief in a California federal court seeking to assist the court with its remedy to address Google’s “illegal conduct,” asserting that the court should “consider the particular characteristics of digital markets” and their dynamics to address “the need for remedies that go beyond purely prohibitory injunctions in digital markets.”

  • August 13, 2024

    After Dismissing UCL Claim, Judge Relieves Plaintiffs Of ChatGPT Discovery

    SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney-created prompts and testing of ChatGPT constitute protected opinion work product, and copyright infringement plaintiffs did not waive work product protections by including some results in their complaint, and the protections are not overcome simply because production would shed light on the case, a federal judge in California said in granting relief from a magistrate judge’s ruling.

  • August 12, 2024

    Judge Won’t Dismiss Class Suit Over ‘Liquid Smoke’ Claims Against Gouda Maker

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on Aug. 9 denied a gouda cheese maker’s motion to dismiss a putative class action brought against it by a customer who claims the company violated California consumer protection laws by deceptively labeling its product as “smoked gouda” when the gouda was not smoked but had liquid smoke flavor added.

  • August 12, 2024

    Approval Of $18.2M Class Settlement Granted In Care Home Understaffing Suit

    SANTA ANA, Calif.  — A California federal judge granted preliminary approval of an $18.2 million class settlement in a suit over inadequate staffing at memory care and assisted living facilities, also approving the class representatives and class counsel to act on the settlement class’s behalf.

  • August 09, 2024

    Man Says OpenAI Illegally Transcribed, Trained AI On YouTube Videos

    SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. and related entities violated the California unfair competition law (UCL) by covertly transcribing millions of videos hosted on the popular YouTube site for use in training ChatGPT artificial intelligence despite lacking consent to do so, video creators allege in a class action filed in California federal court.

  • August 09, 2024

    Class Suit Filed Against Delta Over CrowdStrike Crash Causing Flight Cancellations

    ATLANTA  — Delta Air Lines passengers whose flights were canceled as a result of an automatic update to CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software that caused computers, including those used by Delta, to crash filed a putative class action suit in a Georgia federal court, asserting that Delta violated its policies to provide flight refunds, hotel accommodations and related expenses when flights were canceled by breaching its contract with customers, resulting in them spending additional funds for alternative transportation methods.

  • August 09, 2024

    Judge Denies Roblox’s Bid To Arbitrate Couple’s ‘Child Exploitation’ Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 8 denied online video game developer Roblox Corp.’s motion to compel arbitration of putative class claims that it violates California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by intentionally addicting children to its online game, which requires purchases of in-game currency to play, writing that Roblox did not show that the parents who filed the suit ever read or consented to its arbitration agreement.

  • August 08, 2024

    Impacted Air Travelers Sue CrowdStrike For Causing ‘Catastrophic’ Outage

    AUSTIN, Texas — A group of airplane travelers filed a putative class complaint in Texas federal court against tech company CrowdStrike Inc. accusing it of harming them by failing to properly test its cybersecurity software before issuing an update that allegedly caused 8.5 million computers and devices to go offline, including at airports, delaying their flights in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws.

  • August 06, 2024

    Applebee’s Accused Of Charging Online Customers Hidden Fees In Putative Class Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A customer filed a putative class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing Applebee’s Restaurants LLC and its parent company of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by charging delivery order customers a “carefully concealed” 11% service fee.

  • August 06, 2024

    Elon Musk Takes 2nd Swing At Suing OpenAI Founders With Contract, UCL Action

    SAN FRANCISCO — Former OpenAI Inc. founder Elon Musk on Aug. 5 once again sued the company’s various entities, alleging in a 15-count complaint filed this time in federal court that the company and founders Samuel Altman and Gregory Brockman performed a long-con by selling him on the creation of a safer artificial intelligence only to abandon those principles when associating with Microsoft Corp.  The lawsuit reiterates and adds to the violations alleged in the five-count state court action he filed in March, including a claim for violation of the California unfair competition law (UCL).

  • August 02, 2024

    JPMDL Denies Request To Centralize Cases Alleging Benzene In Acne Products

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) on Aug. 1 declined to centralize cases that allege that users of benzoyl peroxide (BPO) products for the treatment of acne vulgaris, including creams, washes, scrubs and bars, were inadequately warned about the presence of benzene after finding that many allegations will be specific to the individual defendants.

  • August 02, 2024

    Judge Dismisses Suit Accusing Air Purifier Makers Of False Germ-Killing Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed consumers’ putative class claims that air purifier makers violated California consumer protection laws by misleadingly marketing their products as capable of killing airborne pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the consumers’ theory of deception was based on marketing claims the defendants did not make.

  • August 01, 2024

    Judge: Republicans’ UCL Suit Viable Against Google, But Fails On Merits

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge in a mixed ruling on July 31 found that Google LLC cannot claim immunity as an online publisher from claims that it violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by diverting Republican National Committee (RNC) fundraising emails to users’ spam folders but granted Google’s motion to dismiss on the merits.