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Mealey's California Section 17200

  • September 06, 2024

    Consumer Drops Suit Accusing Arrowhead Water Of Microplastics Contamination

    LOS ANGELES — A consumer filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in California federal court weeks after filing a third amended complaint accusing the company that sells Arrowhead-brand bottled water of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling its product as “100% Mountain Spring Water” when it allegedly contains microplastics that may be detrimental to human health.

  • September 05, 2024

    Judge Again Rejects Gaming Company’s Bid To Arbitrate False Advertising Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — After soliciting another round of supplemental briefing on new state law precedent, a California federal judge on Sept. 4 again denied a gaming company and its co-founders’ motion to compel arbitration of putative class claims against them for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by falsely advertising their mobile games as offering live competition, reiterating that the arbitration agreement is unconscionable and unenforceable.

  • September 03, 2024

    StubHub Pays $300K To Settle California Suit For Failure To Refund For COVID

    LOS ANGELES — The California Attorney General’s Office and StubHub Inc. filed a joint stipulation in California state court resolving the state’s claims that the ticket reselling website wrongly denied cash refunds to customers in violation of California consumer protection laws after it agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in civil penalties and previously paid roughly $20 million in cash refunds to customers.

  • September 03, 2024

    Judge Won’t Remand Putative Class Suit Against Wal-Mart Over Avocado Oil Sales

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge denied a consumer’s motion to remand his putative class action against Walmart Inc. for allegedly deceptively labeling its avocado oil product as pure avocado oil in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, finding that Walmart properly removed the suit after calculating that the amount in controversy is greater than $5 million.

  • August 30, 2024

    Judge Won’t Reconsider Certification Of Class Action Against Pasta Company

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 29 denied an Illinois-based pasta manufacturer’s motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration of the court’s order certifying a class action against it for allegedly deceiving consumers into believing its products originated in Italy based on its label bearing the statement “Italy’s #1 Brand of Pasta” and Italian flag colors.

  • August 30, 2024

    Judge Relates Suits Over YouTube Video AI Training

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California related two California unfair competition law (UCL) cases brought by a man who claims companies illegally downloaded and transcribed YouTube videos for use in training their artificial intelligences.

  • August 29, 2024

    Consumer Groups Urge 9th Circuit To Rehear Baby Food UCL Case

    PHOENIX — Consumer and food associations filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to grant a baby food company’s petition for panel or en banc rehearing, writing that a panel’s reversal of the dismissal of class claims accusing it of deceptive labeling will create “confusion.”

  • August 29, 2024

    Yelp Files Antitrust Suit Against Google, Alleges Online Search ‘Monopoly Power’

    SAN FRANCISCO — Internet search platform Yelp Inc. on Aug. 28  sued multinational search engine tech company Google LLC in a California federal court, asserting antitrust violations pursuant to the Sherman Act regarding Google’s alleged “numerous anti-competitive practices, including stealing information from Yelp’s website and passing it off as Google’s own.”

  • August 29, 2024

    Judge Dismisses Advertiser’s ‘Click-Through Fraud’ Claims Against Reddit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted Reddit Inc.’s motion to dismiss a tech company’s putative class action accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and of breach of contract by allegedly charging fraudulent fees per click on digital advertisements, finding that the plaintiff lacks standing but granting it leave to amend.

  • 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.