Mealey's California Section 17200
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March 04, 2024
Consumer Accuses Apple Of ‘Rigging’ Devices To Monopolize Cloud Storage
SAN FRANCISCO — A consumer on March 1 filed a putative class action complaint against Apple Inc. in California federal court, accusing it of monopolizing access to its iCloud data storage service by configuring Apple mobile devices to require users to sign up for iCloud to store certain digital files, allegedly in violation of federal and state antitrust laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
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March 01, 2024
Elon Musk Takes On OpenAI’s Altman With Contract, UCL Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI’s founders breached the company’s founding agreements dictating that it operate as a nonprofit and be open source when they partnered with Microsoft in exchange for millions of dollars, Elon Musk alleges in a Feb. 29 lawsuit filed in California against Sam Altman for breach of contract and violation of the California unfair competition law (UCL).
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February 29, 2024
Plaintiffs Say PFAS Complaint Against L’Oreal Is Supported By Lab Test Results
NEW YORK — The plaintiffs who argue that L’Oreal USA Inc. is liable for making and selling mascara that contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have filed a brief in New York federal court contending that L’Oreal’s motion to dismiss their claim should be denied because it has concealed the fact that its products contain PFAS, knowing that that information would cause consumers to purchase another product.
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February 29, 2024
Panel Reverses Dismissal Of UCL Claim Brought By Car Purchaser Who Lost $300,000
LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the prospective buyer of “high-end vehicles” who accused the woman who organized the purchase of deceiving him into paying $300,000 but ultimately providing no vehicles, finding that the plaintiff sufficiently alleged unfair conduct in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
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February 29, 2024
Plaintiff Dismisses Suit Claiming ‘Sweepstakes’ App Caused Gambling Losses
LOS ANGELES — A putative class plaintiff on Feb. 28 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in California federal court of his claims against an app company for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by allegedly enticing him into illegal sports gambling two months after a judge granted a motion to compel arbitration of his all his claims.
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February 29, 2024
Justices Suggest Remand, Express Confusion In Crypto Sweepstakes Arbitration Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Feb. 28 oral arguments, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly returned to questions about why a dispute about contractual arbitration and delegation provisions between a cryptocurrency exchange and sweepstakes entrants ended up before them, with the option of remand seeming to gain momentum over the course of the session.
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February 28, 2024
Initial OK Given To $2.45 Million Settlement Of Debt Collector Data Breach Suit
SEATTLE — Two months after the proposed settlement of a class action over the 2022 breach of a debt collector’s network was sent back for some fine-tuning, a Washington federal judge granted a renewed motion for preliminary approval of a $2.45 million agreement, finding that the parties cured ambiguous language in its scope of release and sufficiently identified the range of attorney fees and costs amounts sought.
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February 27, 2024
Judge: PREP Act Applies To Class Action Alleging Injuries From COVID-19 Drug
LOS ANGELES — Patients and their family members who allege injuries after being prescribed and ingesting an antiviral drug used to treat severe COVID-19 symptoms saw their putative class action dismissed by a California federal judge who found that the manufacturer has immunity under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
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February 27, 2024
Call Of Duty Players Say Activision’s Esports Monopoly Caused $120M In Damages
LOS ANGELES — Two professional players of the video game “Call of Duty” (CoD) and one affiliated business entity allege in a complaint filed in California federal court that developer Activision Blizzard Inc. has violated the federal Sherman Act, California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by monopolizing all CoD-related esports and excluding existing teams, allegedly causing the plaintiffs more than $120 million in damages.
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February 23, 2024
Gig Economy Company Agrees To Settlement Including Worker Reclassification
SAN FRANCISCO — A gig economy staffing company accused of violating California’s unfair competition law, the state’s labor code and San Francisco ordinances by misclassifying its workers as independent contractors has agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit in California court to convert its misclassified California workers to employees, according to a final judgment and injunction filed Feb. 22.
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February 22, 2024
Epic Calls Apple’s $73 Million Costs, Fees Tab In Antitrust Dispute An Overreach
OAKLAND, Calif. — Responding to Apple Inc.’s motion that it be required to indemnify more than $73 million in court costs and other fees related to their 3-1/2-year monopolization row, Epic Games Inc. tells a California federal court that most of the amounts sought are unrecoverable under controlling precedent, California law and the very agreement under which the defendant seeks indemnification.
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February 21, 2024
Panel Trims $933K From $22.3M Penalty Against Online School For Misrepresentations
SAN DIEGO — A California appeals court panel on Feb. 20 reduced a $22.3 million judgment in civil penalties against an online education company and its former online university by approximately $933,000 but otherwise affirmed the judgment after finding that the California attorney general’s office properly established more than 1 million violations of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and false advertising law (FAL) based on deceptive calls to lure in students.
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February 21, 2024
Judge Grants Stipulated Dismissal In AI-Tax Prep, UCL, Advertising Suit
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge on Feb. 20 approved a stipulated dismissal in a case involving two companies locked in a battle over whether the advertising of artificial intelligence tax preparation software violated the California unfair competition law.
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February 21, 2024
Magistrate Judge Grants Motion To Strike Bad Faith Claim In Water Damage Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge denied a business insurer’s motion to dismiss claims for promissory estoppel and unfair competition but granted the insurer’s motion to strike a bad faith claim in the insured’s complaint, which seeks coverage for water damages at the insured’s business, after determining that the bad faith claim is duplicative of the insured’s claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
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February 20, 2024
Google Says UCL, Other Claims In AI Training Lawsuit Fail
SAN FRANCISCO — Vague allegations and hypothetical damages involving the scraping of websites and other sources for data used in the training of artificial intelligence cannot form the basis of California unfair competition law (UCL) and other claims because the potential usage was adequately disclosed and individuals lack a privacy interest in information they themselves publicly disclosed, Google LLC tells a federal judge in California in seeking dismissal.
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February 20, 2024
High Court Won’t Hear Meta’s Appeal Over Standing In Biased Housing Ads Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Feb. 20 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) in a putative class action in which it has been accused of participating in housing discrimination, leaving unanswered the social network operator’s question over the proper standard for determining whether a plaintiff has standing to sue under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
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February 16, 2024
Class Certification Affirmed In Dispute Over Insurer’s Square Footage Calculation
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling that granted an insured’s motion for class certification in a lawsuit alleging that a homeowners insurer improperly calculated the square footage of California homes, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in redefining the certified class.
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February 16, 2024
Judge Disqualifies Law Firm From Job Search Sites’ Row Over Prior Representation
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge hearing a lawsuit brought by the operators of a job search and resume-creation website against a competitor for copyright infringement and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) granted the plaintiffs’ motion to disqualify a law firm whose attorneys included the defendant’s general counsel and one defendant’s wife, due to the firm’s prior representation of the plaintiffs.
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February 15, 2024
Judge Dismisses UCL Suit Accusing Gas Stove Maker Of Concealing Pollutants
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge found that a consumer has standing to bring claims that he was deceived into overpaying for a gas stove because the manufacturer allegedly concealed that it emits air pollutants when used as directed, but granted the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s California consumer protection law claims with prejudice for failure to comply with presuit notice requirements for toxic exposure claims.
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February 15, 2024
California AG, Company Settle Medical Waste, Patient Records Disposal Suit For $5M
STOCKTON, Calif. — The California Attorney General’s Office and a medical diagnostics company filed a stipulation for entry of final judgment and permanent injunction in a state court, under which the company will pay roughly $5 million in part for civil penalties under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) due to the company’s improper disposal of medical waste and patient records.
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February 14, 2024
Consent Decree Entered Under 1 Dismissal In Case Over Alleged Counterfeit Policies
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A variety of claims and parties have been dismissed under agreements in a sprawling suit over allegations of fraud, trademark counterfeiting and trademark infringement involving captive reinsurance programs, with a Kentucky federal court permanently enjoining two defendants “from future infringement of Plaintiffs’ trademarks.”
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February 14, 2024
Judge Unseals Grant Of Summary Judgment In Apple Watch Heart Rate Tracking Row
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Feb. 13 unsealed a partly redacted version of his order granting Apple’s Inc.’s motion for summary judgment on claims that it violated federal antitrust law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by impairing a competitor’s heart rate tracking app tailored for the Apple Watch to monopolize the market.
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February 14, 2024
Judge Dismisses Bulk Of Writers’ Copyright-Based Claims Against OpenAI
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion by OpenAI Inc. and its affiliated companies involved in developing the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) program to dismiss claims brought against it in two putative class actions filed by authors who say ChatGPT’s development and operations infringe their copyrights.
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February 14, 2024
Magistrate Judge Denies Daubert Motions In Mislabeling Suit Against Rust-Oleum
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge denied a plaintiff’s and a defendant’s motions to disqualify each other’s expert witnesses in a class action against Rust-Oleum Corp. for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by deceptively labeling its KRUD KUTTER cleaning products as “non-toxic” and “Earth friendly.”
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February 13, 2024
Amazon Accused Of Unfairly Imposing New Ad-Free Streaming Costs In Class Suit
SEATTLE — A California resident filed a putative class action in Washington federal court accusing Amazon.com Inc. of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by abruptly inserting ads into its Amazon Prime video streaming services unless subscribers pay a higher monthly fee.