FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova broke the news of the FTC's success on its motion for partial summary judgment as to relevant market and monopoly power at the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law 71st Spring Meeting “Agency Update with the FTC Bureau Directors” on March 31. In the long-running electronic prescriptions FTC antitrust action against Surescripts, LLC (Surescripts), the federal district court in Washington, D.C., gr...
The new rule implements the data collection requirements of section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act by requiring lenders to report small business credit applications details, including demographic data, le...
Police and firefighter unions had sought the injunction against the mayor’s unilateral change in policy to mandate that all city employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. Unions representing Boston police and firefighters were not entitled to a preliminary injunction against implementation of an amended policy requiring all city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment, ruled the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Reversing and vacating an injunction issued by a…
The court emphasized that the bespeaks caution doctrine applied broadly to the asserted claims and that liability for opinions was similarly beyond the plaintiff’s grasp because the company had adequately disclosed “dire” risks to its business. Shareholders of Zhangmen Education, Inc. filed a putative class action lawsuit alleging that the company and those who signed its registration statement in advance of an IPO of American Depositary Shares negligently misled investors about the risks to…
The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) has finalized their first rulemaking package to further implement the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by updating existing regulations to “harmonize them with amendments adopted pursuant to Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA),” the agency announced yesterday. The rulemaking package approved by the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) will also “operationalize new rights and concepts introduced by the CPRA to…
Employers and individuals wanted a health insurance option that excluded the required offering of preventive care, and they mostly succeeded. On Thursday, March 30, certain preventive health care measures required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were limited by a federal district court decision in Texas. The court mostly found in favor of individuals and employers seeking a health insurance option without preventive care mandates. Reproductive care, however, remains required, with the…
The “Failed Bank Executive Clawback Act” would allow federal regulators to recover all or part of the compensation paid to bank executives in the five years preceding a bank’s failure. After President Biden called upon Congress to take action to strengthen and expand regulators authority in the wake of the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (see Banking and Finance Law Daily , March 20, 2023), U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev), Josh Hawley…
The Federal Circuit had vacated the Board’s earlier invalidation of the patents, but substantial evidence supported the Board’s finding of anticipation on remand. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 30 affirmed two Patent Trial and Appeal Board inter partes review decisions finding all challenged claims of two internet security patents owned by VirnetX invalid as anticipated. In 2019, the Federal Circuit had vacated the Board’s earlier decision invalidating the patents,…
Court nixes proposed class representative whose cost-plus percentage of cost pricing practices created an intra-class conflict of interests because its profits would increase as pork prices increase. A federal district court in Minneapolis, Minnesota has certified the proposed classes in the class action antitrust litigation against national pork producers. Plaintiff damage classes were certified for (1) direct purchasers; (2) commercial and institutional indirect purchasers; and (3) consumer…
The manufacturer’s defenses pertaining to product misuse and lack of foreseeability went to liability, not to jurisdiction. In an action brought against a South Korean battery manufacturer by an Illinois resident who sustained injuries from the explosion of a battery in his vaping device, the Appellate court of Illinois determined that it had specific personal jurisdiction over the claims. The court found that the manufacturer had “purposely availed” itself of the Illinois market by selling…
The laboratory assistant’s request for leave stemmed from his desire to isolate his allegedly immunocompromised infant son from the risk of contracting COVID-19. A jury will hear the FMLA interference claim of a laboratory assistant who was fired after he informed his employer, East Georgia Regional Medical Center, LLC, that he was unable to return from an approved leave he had sought to isolate his infant son—born prematurely in December 2019 and allegedly immunocompromised—from the risk of…
UPDATE: Governor Hochul has signed the below amendments into law - the amended New York State pay transparency rules will become effective September 17, 2023. Coming on the heels of Governor Hochul signing into law New York State’...
The Board sent shockwaves through employment law in its February 21, 2023, decision in McLaren Macomb , which held that simply offering a draft settlement agreement with broad confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions viola...
Judge grants leave to amend giving the plaintiff 20 days to file an amended complaint. A judge in the Southern District of New York has dismissed, with leave to amend, 1934 Act Section 16(b) claims against multiple defendants on t...
None of a drug company's statements about an Alzheimer's treatment were false when made. A securities fraud complaint unsuccessfully alleged that Biogen Inc. made a number of misleading statements surrounding the commercial rollou...
The Indiana state House Committee on Judiciary meets April 5 to consider a proposed consumer data protection bill. SB 5, which is sponsored by Sen. Liz Brown (R.), affords certain rights to consumers, effective Jan. 1, 2026, relat...
A draft order and notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) tentatively up for consideration at the FCC’s April 20 meeting would propose requiring carriers to renew international operating authorizations under section 214 of the Commun...
She alleged that when her religious exemption from the COVID vaccine was granted, she was told she would have to administer COVID boosters, even though that was outside of her job duties as the direct-system care coordinator. A nu...
A manufacturer’s failure to state a claim argument was not sufficient to support a motion to dismiss in a matter involving alleged false advertising on baby and toddler food labels. A federal district court in California denied a ...
The report, which was based on data from 2020 and 2021, highlights the most common practices BEC attackers use and includes recommendations for how to thwart these incidents, including. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fi...
The president urged the federal banking agencies, in consultation with the Treasury Department, to strengthen banking supervision efforts under existing legal authority. On March 30, 2023, President Joe Biden issued a statement ca...
The court dismissed the lawsuit based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens and, in the alternative, due to the lack of personal jurisdiction over the defending foreign press agency. A Portuguese photographer’s lawsuit against G...
A young producer who claimed that French Montana stole his riffs was not entitled to summary judgment. A chart-topping song from a popular rapper was not so strikingly similar to an earlier song from an aspiring musical producer t...
Three consumers who alleged that they were deceived into buying Nature’s Path Foods breakfast and snack products based on the statements made on the packaging about the amount of protein in the products, will move forward with the...
The company’s practices surrounding Chat demonstrated its intent to subvert the discovery process. The federal district court in San Francisco has concluded that Google must be sanctioned under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e...
An insurance company, acting as subrogee of its insureds whose home was damaged by a fire, could not sustain its product liability claim against the manufacturer of corrugated stainless steel tubing gas lines because it filed its ...
Consumers should close the bottle tightly, without emptying its contents, and place it in the household trash. The Laundress, a subsidiary of Conopco Inc., d/b/a Unilever, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, is recalling approximatel...