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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

April 29, 2025
3rd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Online Gambler’s Fraud Suit Against BetMGM

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 28 affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of an online gambler’s New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) and negligence suit against BetMGM LLC and other online gaming owners and operators over their alleged breach of duty of care owed to him, finding that because the gambler failed to assert claims for CFA and negligence, the complaint was correctly dismissed.
April 29, 2025
Wedding Planning Website Accused Of Selling Vendors Deceptive ‘Leads’

LOS ANGELES — A group of vendors that provide wedding-related services on April 28 filed a putative class complaint in California federal court against the operator of wedding planning website “The Knot,” accusing it of fraudulent inducement and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for deceiving them into paying thousands of dollars for access to its “lead-generating” service, which either did not produce leads or generated mostly fake leads.
April 29, 2025
WhatsApp, Meta File Jury Instructions In Computer Fraud Suit Against Spyware Firm

OAKLAND, Calif. — One day before the start of a jury trial, plaintiffs WhatsApp LLC and Meta Platforms Inc. and defendants NSI Group Technologies Limited and Q Cyber Technologies Limited filed their proposed jury instructions in a California federal court in a dispute over alleged computer fraud, with each side submitting their own instructions on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
April 24, 2025
4th Circuit Won’t Rehear Ruling Affirming Injunction In Electronic Records Dispute

RICHMOND, Va. — Noting that “[n]o judge requested a poll” on a petition for rehearing en banc, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 23 denied rehearing and rehearing en banc of its ruling affirming a lower court order granting a preliminary injunction to a health analytics company alleging tortious interference against an electronic health records (EHR) company that the analytics company says restricted its access to EHR of nursing home residents to monitor their health trends.
April 23, 2025
Partial Dismissal Issued In Yelp Antitrust Suit Against Google For ‘Stealing’ Info

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge on April 22 granted Google LLC’s request for consideration of documents incorporated by reference and granted in part and denied in part with leave to amend Google’s motion to dismiss in a California unfair competition law (UCL) and Sherman Act antitrust suit against Google by Yelp Inc. for “numerous anti-competitive practices, including stealing information from Yelp’s website and passing it off as Google’s own,” finding that “Yelp has sufficiently alleged monopoly power” but that tying of local search services to general search services is time-barred.
April 23, 2025
FTC Sues Uber Over Alleged Violations Of FTC Act By Recurring Subscription Service

SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Trade Commission sued Uber Technologies Inc. and Uber USA LLC (collectively, Uber), a provider of ride-hailing and food delivery services, in a California federal court, alleging that Uber violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) related to its Uber One delivery subscription service, alleging in part that Uber “failed to provide a simple method to cancel Uber One.”
April 22, 2025
Judge Allows Bulk Of Roblox’s Claims Against Third-Party ‘Gambling’ Developer

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a third-party developer’s motion to dismiss cross-claims brought against it by Roblox Corp. in a putative class action filed by parents who say Roblox allowed their minor children to access gambling games through the Roblox platform, finding that the developer consented to Roblox’s terms of use and may have confused consumers by using “Blox” in its game’s name.
April 22, 2025
En Banc 9th Circuit Finds Jurisdiction Over Shopping App For Cookie Collecting

SAN FRANCISCO — The en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 21 reversed a panel’s ruling and found that personal jurisdiction exists over putative class claims against a payment processing and shopping app accused of violating California privacy and unfair competition laws by concealing that it was using cookies to collect California consumers’ personal data for resale.
April 21, 2025
Judge Finds Google Liable For Sherman Act Violations In Ad Tech Antitrust Suit

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After conducting a bench trial, a Virginia federal judge said Google LLC is liable for antitrust violations, finding that the U.S. government and 17 states proved that Google violated the Sherman Act by monopolizing the publisher ad server market and the ad exchange market and by unlawful tying.
April 21, 2025
5th Circuit Vacates Injunction That Halted Law Regulating Minors’ Internet Access

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s preliminary injunction sought by internet trade association NetChoice LLC that stopped the enforcement of a Mississippi statute seeking to regulate minors’ access to certain internet platforms by requiring parental consent, remanding for a factual analysis pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, “which reframed the analysis for facial challenges” and was decided after the issuance of the preliminary injunction.
April 21, 2025
Xerox Mobile Device Data Patent Invalid As Obvious, Federal Circuit Agrees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Xerox Corp. failed to overcome a finding of obviousness from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a series of appeals involving social media entities, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.
April 18, 2025
OnlyFans’ California Profits Create Jurisdiction, Subscribers Tell 9th Circuit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two subscribers of adult website OnlyFans urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a California federal judge’s dismissal for lack of jurisdiction of their lawsuit accusing OnlyFans’ foreign owner of unlawful subscription renewals in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the website purposefully avails itself of California and makes $400 million in annual revenue from the state.
April 17, 2025
Ohio Attorney General Can’t Enforce Social Media Law Monitoring Minors’ Access

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio federal judge on April 16 granted summary judgment to NetChoice LLC, an internet trade association, but denied summary judgment to the Ohio attorney general in NetChoice’s suit seeking to enjoin enforcement of an Ohio law that requires parental consent for minors under age 16 to access certain social media platforms, finding that the act “fails to pass constitutional muster and is constitutionally infirm.”
April 16, 2025
Protect Democracy Project Sues OMB Over Removal Of Public Apportionment Website

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nonprofit organization Protect Democracy Project filed a complaint against the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its director in a District of Columbia federal court, asserting that the defendants violated the Administrative Procedure Act by removing a “required apportionments website” that it says was mandated by congressional law to require OMB to make public “the apportionment of congressionally appropriated funds.”
April 15, 2025
2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Qui Tam Suit Against Zocdoc Over Booking Fee

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 14 affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a qui tam suit alleging violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) against Zocdoc Inc., an internet-based company that enables individuals to search for medical providers, finding that the lower court correctly dismissed the suit and that the complaint failed to allege that Zocdoc acted with the scienter required under the FCA and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) in assessing a booking fee for medical providers.
April 15, 2025
Nonprofits Sue Federal Agencies Over Removal Of Climate Change, Environmental Sites

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of environmental nonprofits on April 14 sued several federal agencies over the recent removal of “webpages that served as key sources for information about environmental justice and climate change,” alleging violations of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) and Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
April 14, 2025
Federal Judge Rules GoDaddy TCPA Class Settlement Ruling Is Appealable

MOBILE, Ala. — A February order declining enforcement of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class settlement must be appealable as the decision involved a controlling question of law, “‘substantial’” differences of opinion exist and “‘immediate appeal may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation,’” a federal judge in Alabama ruled, quoting from 28 U.S. Code Section 1292(b).
April 14, 2025
Magistrate Outlines Authority Under DOJ Communication Services Subpoenas

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request for nondisclosure orders (NDO) to prevent two providers of electronic communication services from notifying anyone of grand jury witness subpoenas of the providers for two years, a Virginia federal magistrate judge issued an order stating that the court has the authority to refuse to enter an NDO if it believes the “subpoena requests more information than authorized by the Stored Communications Act.”
April 11, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees SAP Can’t Transfer Patent Case To Other Federal Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 10 denied a software company’s petition for a writ of mandamus compelling the transfer of a patent suit from one division of a Texas federal district court to another division in the same district, holding that the company failed to show that a federal judge’s decision to deny the transfer motion was not “patently erroneous.”
April 11, 2025
Judge Keeps UCL Suit Against ‘Social’ Gambling Site In Federal Court

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied a motion filed by a plaintiff with a gambling addiction to remand his “representative” complaint asking the court to shut down an online “social” gambling website he says is operated in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), finding that the amount in controversy for federal jurisdiction is met based on the potential costs of the plaintiff’s sought relief to the website operator.
April 11, 2025
Judge Grants Summary Judgment On ‘Fraud’ Claims For Facebook Ad Removal

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted Meta Platforms Inc.’s motion for summary judgment against a content publisher that accused Meta of breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for removing its content from Facebook after the publisher spent more than 53 million Canadian dollars on Facebook advertising, finding that its claims were untimely.
April 11, 2025
Patent Holder To High Court: Federal Circuit Wrong To Scrap Its Jury Win

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A software company patent holder tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to vacate a jury’s verdict of $13.2 million in damages; the company says in its petition for certiorari that a Texas federal judge was right in the first place to deny judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of no direct infringement on the respondent company’s part.
April 11, 2025
Judgment Entered For Nonprofit In Trademark Row Involving Website, Advertisements

ORLANDO, Fla. — Having been advised that the parties reached an agreement to settle the case, a Florida federal judge entered final judgment for a nonprofit Florida health care company that sued an operator of Florida post-acute care and skilled nursing facilities for trademark infringement, granting a permanent injunction due to evidence of confusion between the two entities and enjoining the operator from engaging in trademark infringement, including in advertising and on its website.
April 10, 2025
Class Suit Against OnlyFans Over ‘Chatter’ Scheme May Proceed Anonymously

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge on April 9 declined to dismiss putative class claims brought by California subscribers of adult website OnlyFans for an alleged “chatter scheme” in which they were allegedly deceived into paying to communicate with adult content creators, but instead were connected to “professional chatters,” and said the plaintiffs may proceed anonymously to avoid the risk of embarrassment from revealing private messages discussing their “sexual interests.”
April 10, 2025
Claims Tossed In Cyberbullying Suit Against Daughter Over ‘Extreme’ Conduct

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma federal judge on April 9 dismissed most claims in a suit filed by a mother and daughter for alleged online stalking and “extreme” conduct against another daughter who says they are “estranged” from her, finding that the plaintiffs do not adequately state a claim for defamation, harassment, cyberbullying or assault but that the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress “narrowly survives dismissal.”