Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

April 09, 2025
Google, Class Plaintiffs Settle 14-Year-Old AdWords Suit For $100M

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A consumer and his company representing two certified classes of advertisers who claim that Google LLC misrepresented the benefits of its AdWords advertising service have moved in California federal court for preliminary approval of a $100 million settlement to claims against Google first filed in 2011 and say their attorneys will seek a 33% attorney fees award.
April 08, 2025
Judge: Insurers Fail To Allege Subrogation Claims In Suit Over Ransomware Attack

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted an application service provider’s motion to dismiss with prejudice insurers’ amended complaints because the insurers failed to properly assert subrogation claims seeking recovery from the provider for the amount paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack.
April 08, 2025
Trump Issues 2nd Order, Again Pausing Enforcement Of Act Banning TikTok

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump issued a second executive order pausing enforcement of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act until June 19, requiring the Department of Justice not to enforce the act, which would have resulted in a ban on the popular social network TikTok absent a corporate ownership change.
April 07, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Ruling Dismissing Suit Over Alleged Faulty Internet Service

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 4 affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a breach of contract suit against an internet provider and related parties in an appeal in which the appellant, an attorney, seeks vacatur of every ruling issued by a magistrate judge and alleges that inadequate internet services led to two underlying suits being dismissed for late filings, finding “minimal risk of prejudice” regarding the magistrate judge’s recommendations and “no ground to question the district court’s dismissal” of certain parties.
April 07, 2025
Class Claims Against Apple For Slowing Iphones With Update May Proceed, Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part Apple Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action brought against it by users of an older iPhone model who accuse it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by deceiving them into downloading an iPhone software update that was optimized for newer-model iPhones and allegedly caused a slowdown in their devices.
April 04, 2025
Panel Affirms Ruling Tossing Gun Marketplace Free Speech Suit Against Facebook

PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Superior Court on April 3 affirmed a lower court order dismissing a suit filed by a gun marketplace platform, an automotive marketplace platform and their owner against Facebook Inc. and Instagram LLC alleging free speech violations under the Pennsylvania Constitution for removal of their social media accounts, finding that the platforms and their owner failed to show the removal “constituted acts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
April 04, 2025
6th Circuit Finds Online Newsletter Subscriber Wasn’t A ‘Consumer’ Under VPPA

CINCINNATI — Affirming a trial court’s ruling on April 3, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority found that a man’s suit over a sports website’s purported sharing of his video viewing history merited dismissal because he did not qualify as a “consumer” under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
April 04, 2025
9th Circuit Reverses Denial Of Discovery Of Online Article Author’s Identity

SAN FRANCISCO — A district court erred in denying a foreign party’s request for discovery to learn the identities of the author of a purportedly defamatory online article and the operator of a website where it was posted, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that the court wrongly based its denial on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution without determining whether any such rights were implicated.
April 03, 2025
Class Representative Seeks $73M Judgment Against Company For Fake Reviews

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A plaintiff representing a certified class of consumers who claim that they were deceived by a Chinese manufacturer-owned company’s practice of faking reviews on Amazon.com to sell shoddy electronics in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws filed a motion in California federal court for default judgment following the withdrawal from proceedings by the defendant.
April 03, 2025
Motions To Quash Denied In FTC ‘High Stakes’ Antitrust Suit Against Meta

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on April 2 denied nonparty witnesses’ motions to quash subpoenas, while allowing several witnesses to testify remotely, in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) regarding its alleged monopolization of the personal social networking market, finding that pursuant to the Clayton Act, nationwide service of subpoenas on behalf of the government in antitrust suits is appropriate for good cause.
April 02, 2025
Judge Permanently Enjoins Arkansas Law Restricting Minors’ Social Media Access

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An Arkansas federal judge granted summary judgment to an internet trade association in its suit against Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin seeking to enjoin enforcement of a state law restricting minors’ access to social media platforms, finding that the act is unconstitutional and violates rights of Arkansas residents under both the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
April 01, 2025
DOJ Seeks Judgment In Suit Over Webpage Removal Pursuant To ‘Gender Ideology’ EO

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a cross-motion for summary judgment in a suit filed against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and government health agencies accusing OPM of exceeding its authority in directing the agencies to remove webpages containing “a broad range of health-related data” in response to President Donald J. Trump’s executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
March 27, 2025
9th Circuit Orders Meta To Respond To Mandamus Petition Over Discovery Order

SAN FRANCISCO — Without providing explanation, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 26 ordered states and Meta Platforms Inc. to respond to a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to direct a district court to grant state attorneys general’s objection to a discovery order and stay the order in a product liability multidistrict ligation over the purported addictive qualities for adolescents of several of the largest social media platforms.
March 27, 2025
High Court Hears Oral Arguments On FCC Authority Under Nondelegation Doctrine

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 26 heard oral arguments in consolidated cases filed by the Federal Communications Commission and telecom providers urging reversal of an en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a subsidy program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine.”
March 26, 2025
Seal Motions Granted In Computer Fraud Row Between Spyware Firm And WhatsApp

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part motions to seal in WhatsApp’s suit against a spyware firm related to the firm’s alleged computer fraud, granting WhatsApp’s motion as to some requests because the “redactions are sufficiently narrow” and granting some of the spyware firm’s requests to seal regarding “limited redactions.”
March 24, 2025
Apple Misled Consumers As To IPhone 16’s ‘AI-Driven’ Functions, Consumer Says

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A consumer filed a putative class action lawsuit in California federal court accusing Apple Inc. of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other state consumer laws by misleading millions of consumers into buying its latest iPhone models by misrepresenting the artificial intelligence capacities that the iPhone 16’s “Apple Intelligence” and Siri software would offer.
March 24, 2025
Partial Dismissal Granted In Antitrust Suit Involving Broker And Alleged ‘Phishing’

GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal judge granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss by stock exchange market makers and market participants and a broker-dealer in a Sherman Act and Exchange Act violation suit alleging that the broker used “phishing” emails to illegally access the plaintiff’s brokerage accounts and that the other defendants conspired to defraud the plaintiff by manipulating prices of certain securities.
March 21, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Ruling Tossing ‘Illicit’ Ink Cartridge UCL Suit Against Amazon

PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 20 affirmed a lower court ruling that dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by a remanufacturer of ink cartridges accusing Amazon.com Inc. and its subsidiaries of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), the Lanham Act and other laws by allowing third-party sellers to post allegedly deceptive listings for recycled printer ink cartridges, thereby diverting business from authentic ink cartridge recyclers, finding that “to the extent claims” against Amazon “survive” the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the remanufacturer “has failed to allege an actionable false statement by Amazon.”
March 21, 2025
Amazon Seeks Clawback Of Documents ‘Inadvertently Disclosed’ In Antitrust Suit

SEATTLE — In three related Sherman Act antitrust suits filed against it in a Washington federal court, Amazon.com Inc. filed a motion to claw back three privileged documents it says were cited in a motion for class certification filed by the plaintiffs in one of the suits, arguing that Amazon’s motion should be granted due to the company’s prompt action to submit a clawback request for the inadvertent disclosure.
March 20, 2025
Wiretapping, Chatbot Class Suit Against Kroger Tossed As Lacking ‘Plausible’ Claim

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed a putative class action suit against The Kroger Co., a U.S.-based company that operates retail grocery stores, for alleged violations of California’s wiretapping statute by using third-party software to purportedly eavesdrop on chat-based conversations on Kroger’s website, finding that the plaintiff’s “allegations do not render plausible her claim of violation” of the wiretapping statute.
March 19, 2025
Copyright Act Contemplates Human Authors, Not AI, D.C. Circuit Affirms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Copyright protections require a human author and the U.S. Copyright Office properly denied an application listing an artificial intelligence as the author, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 18 in affirming a district court ruling.
March 19, 2025
Magistrate Denies Motion To Compel Production Of Source Code In Patent Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”
March 19, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
March 18, 2025
App’s Arbitration Agreement Was ‘Rife With Unfair Surprise,’ 9th Circuit Told

SAN FRANCISCO — Mobile app game players who contend in a putative class suit that they were tricked into paying to play against bots instead of real people urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a March 17 appellee brief to affirm a lower court’s ruling barring arbitration of their claims against the app’s developer and its co-founders, saying the agreement was unconscionable and required “batching” of claims that would have lasted “a century or more.”
March 18, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.