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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • October 17, 2025

    Unions Sue USCIS, DHS, ICE, State Department Over AI Social Media Surveillance

    NEW YORK — Three labor unions on Oct. 16 sued the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and their leaders in New York federal court, asserting that the defendants have “targeted” U.S.-based visa holders and permanent residents by using artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance of social media to “detect disfavored viewpoints and to take adverse immigration action based on those viewpoints” in violation of the First Amendment rights of “noncitizens lawfully present” in the United States.

  • October 17, 2025

    Delaware Judge Tosses Suit Against Snap, Verizon, Apple Related To Assault Of Child

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware state court judge dismissed with prejudice a suit filed by a woman and her daughter against Snap Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Apple Inc. and the man convicted of sexually assaulting the daughter after communicating with her on Snapchat, asserting that the corporate defendants played “a critical role in facilitating the harm,” finding that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) provides immunity for the “third-party communications” between the man and the daughter.

  • October 16, 2025

    Motion To Compel Discovery Partly Granted In Software Data Sharing Class Dispute

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal magistrate judge on Oct. 15 granted in part a motion to compel discovery for production of documents and responses to interrogatories by a health care provider in a putative class suit filed by former and current patients alleging that the provider collected and shared patient medical data with third parties through use of pixel software developed by Meta Platform Inc., finding that the request for production related to social media use is “relevant to” the claims of the patients and the provider’s defenses.

  • October 16, 2025

    Dismissal Denied In Class Suit Against Sirius Alleging ‘Deceptive Pricing Scheme’

    PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon federal judge denied dismissal to Sirius XM Radio LLC in a putative class action alleging that Sirius XM was “deceptive” in falsely advertising its music streaming plans at prices lower than what it actually charged subscribers, finding that the allegations in the complaint are sufficient at this point in the litigation.

  • October 16, 2025

    Labels Tell High Court ISP Knowingly Provided Service To Infringers

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Record labels and music publishers tell the U.S. Supreme Court in an Oct. 15 response brief that an internet service provider (ISP) continued to provide internet service to individuals it knew were “‘habitual offenders’” of piracy, thus making the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding of contributory infringement correct.

  • October 15, 2025

    Online Merchant Gets More Time To Oppose Rehearing Of 9th Circuit Remand Ruling

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted an extension to an online collectibles seller for more time to oppose a petition filed by a consumer seeking rehearing of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that district courts may remand cases to state court for lack of equitable jurisdiction to avoid a “perpetual removal-dismissal loop” only after courts give defendants an opportunity to keep the case in federal court.

  • October 15, 2025

    Plaintiff Must Provide Discovery Showing Audible Subscription Was Unwanted

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on Oct. 14 granted a motion by Amazon.com Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Audible Inc. to compel responses by a putative class action plaintiff to interrogatories supporting “her central legal theory” that the defendants violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by enrolling her in an Audible subscription and charging renewal fees without consent.

  • October 15, 2025

    California Governor Vetoes 1 Chatbot Safety Measure As Other AI Bills Become Law

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill imposing some restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence and providing some civil penalties for noncompliance while vetoing a more restrictive chatbot measure that would have required such technology to be unable to encourage self-harm, suicidal ideation, violence, the use of illegal substances or disordered eating.

  • October 14, 2025

    Finding ‘Good Cause,’ Judge Grants Amazon Bid To Move Trial Date In Antitrust Suit

    SEATTLE — Finding “good cause,” a Washington federal judge granted Amazon.com Inc.’s motion to reset the trial date in a Sherman Act antitrust suit against the company for its alleged monopolization of the market by stopping rivals from lowering prices related to the purchase on Amazon Marketplace of physical goods from third-party sellers.

  • October 14, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review Grindr User’s Claims Of ‘Wrong’ Ruling In CDA Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 14 denied a petition for certiorari filed by an individual alleging that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was “wrong” in affirming a lower court’s ruling dismissing with prejudice as barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) the man’s negligence, product liability and federal sex trafficking suit against the operators of the Grindr app, Grindr Inc. and Grindr LLC, related to injuries the man sustained while using the app.

  • October 14, 2025

    Microsoft Accused Of Harming Competition With OpenAI Partnership

    SAN FRANCISCO — A group of ChatGPT Plus subscribers on Oct. 13 filed a putative class action in California federal court against Microsoft Corp., seeking treble damages and injunctive relief — including “the divestiture or segregation of Microsoft’s Generative AI” business — based on allegations that Microsoft limited OpenAI’s access to computational power and drove up ChatGPT prices while promoting its own chatbot in competition with OpenAI.

  • October 14, 2025

    Same Disposition In Firm’s CFAA Suit Against Ex-Workers After 3rd Circuit Rehearing

    PHILADELPHIA — After granting a petition for rehearing of a decision affirming that two former employees of a national debt-collection firm did not commit computer fraud, steal trade secrets or violate other state and federal laws through the creation and sharing of a spreadsheet containing passwords and protected login information, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the original opinion and issued an amended opinion but did not ultimately change the disposition of the appeal.

  • October 13, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Judgment For Car Maker In ‘Lambo’ Cybersquatting Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found no error in an Arizona federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. (Lamborghini) in a cybersquatting dispute with a web domain holder, agreeing that the attempt to sell the domain “lambo.com” to the luxury carmaker for $75 million was indicative of bad faith.

  • October 10, 2025

    9th Circuit Tosses Appeal As Lacking Jurisdiction In Anti-SLAPP Online Review Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — An en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 9 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction an interlocutory appeal by a digital marketing agency and its owner of a lower court order denying a motion to strike under the California anti-SLAPP statute related to counterclaims for defamation and libel for online reviews in a suit alleging violations of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) related to a dispute over parking spaces, finding no jurisdiction because the order denying the motion to strike was not a final appealable order.

  • October 09, 2025

    NYC Sues Meta, TikTok, Google For ‘Negligence’ Over Youth ‘Mental Health Crisis’

    NEW YORK — New York City and its school district and hospitals on Oct. 8 sued Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., TikTok Inc. and Google LLC and related parties in New York federal court, asserting claims for nuisance and negligence related to social media addiction and the “mental health crisis” of New York City youth that the plaintiffs assert was “caused or contributed to by the design and operation of Defendants’ social media platforms.”

  • October 08, 2025

    Judge Tosses Athletics Fansite Copyright Suit Against Sports Fan Page Company

    ABERDEEN, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge on Oct. 7 dismissed without prejudice a copyright infringement suit alleging that a company that maintains Facebook fan pages for U.S. professional and college sports violated the intellectual property rights of a Mississippi State University internet fansite, finding that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the suit because the fansite failed to show that the fan page company is “subject to personal jurisdiction” in Mississippi.

  • October 07, 2025

    Order To Quash Subpoena Issued In Suit Seeking Website Operator’s Identity

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted nonparty John Doe’s motion to quash a subpoena issued to website security company Cloudflare Inc., requiring it to produce information about the operators of a website that purportedly defamed a British citizen, finding that the citizen’s court filings and the motion to quash by Doe, a journalist who wrote for the site and wants to keep his identity secret, “make clear that the subpoena should be quashed.”

  • October 07, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Denies Google Stay Request In Epic Games Antitrust Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — For an application presented to Justice Elena Kagan that she referred to the court, the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied Google LLC and related entities’ request for a partial stay of a permanent injunction that Google says “completely” overhauls its app store, the Google Play Store (Play), pending disposition of Google’s petition for a writ of certiorari in an antitrust suit filed against it by Epic Games Inc. over Google’s removal of Epic’s Fortnite game from the Google Play Store.

  • October 07, 2025

    High Court Won’t Address Whether Uber Had Duty Of Care Toward Driver Or Customer

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied the petition for writ of certiorari of a rideshare company seeking review of a pair of Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decisions reversing federal district court rulings that the company did not owe a duty of care to two victims, one a victim of rape by someone posing as a rideshare driver and the other a victim of murder by rideshare customers.

  • October 06, 2025

    High Court Denies Online Service’s Cert Bid To Review Antitrust Standing Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an online pharmacy monitoring service seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a lower court’s ruling denying the monitoring service’s motion for summary judgment based on a lack of standing in a suit against it alleging Sherman Act violations for a purported group boycott.

  • October 06, 2025

    U.S. High Court Won’t Decide Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s FAA Reach Questions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Ticketmaster LLC asking whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) protects all or only certain arbitration agreements and whether the federal act preempts California’s severability doctrine.

  • October 06, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review California Bar Of Arbitration In Coinbase Hacking Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied cryptocurrency exchange operators’ petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a California state court ruling barring enforcement of its arbitration agreement with customers because the customers seek public injunctive relief under California’s unfair competition law (UCL), which the crypto company claimed undermined the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

  • October 03, 2025

    Meta’s Motion To Compel Arbitration Granted In Civil Rights Act ‘Retaliation’ Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted Meta Platforms Inc.’s (formerly Facebook Inc.) motion to compel arbitration and to stay the proceedings by in a former employee’s suit asserting claims for violations of New York human rights laws and the U.S. Civil Rights Act for complaining about Meta’s treatment of female employees, finding that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (EFAA) “does not preclude enforcement of the arbitration agreement” the former employee signed because the “case does not involve conduct that is alleged to constitute sexual harassment.”

  • October 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit Vacates PTAB Obviousness Finding For Social Media Map Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Oct. 1 that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) correctly held that a technology company’s substitute claims in a patent related to displaying social media posts on a geographic map satisfy the written description requirement under the Patent Act; however, the panel also decided that PTAB erred in its consideration of the obviousness of those substitute claims.

  • October 01, 2025

    YouTube Settles Trump 1st Amendment ‘Censorship’ Suit For $24.5 Million

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Parties agreed to a $24.5 million settlement in a putative class action filed in 2021 by President Donald J. Trump, individuals and putative class members against YouTube LLC and Sundar Pichai, CEO of its parent company, alleging that the plaintiffs were “de-platformed or censored” by having their content removed from YouTube.