Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

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.”
April 09, 2025
Google, Class Plaintiffs Settle 14-Year-Old AdWords Suit For $100M

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A consumer and his company representing two certified classes of advertisers who claim that Google LLC misrepresented the benefits of its AdWords advertising service have moved in California federal court for preliminary approval of a $100 million settlement to claims against Google first filed in 2011 and say their attorneys will seek a 33% attorney fees award.
April 08, 2025
Judge: Insurers Fail To Allege Subrogation Claims In Suit Over Ransomware Attack

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted an application service provider’s motion to dismiss with prejudice insurers’ amended complaints because the insurers failed to properly assert subrogation claims seeking recovery from the provider for the amount paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack.
April 08, 2025
Trump Issues 2nd Order, Again Pausing Enforcement Of Act Banning TikTok

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump issued a second executive order pausing enforcement of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act until June 19, requiring the Department of Justice not to enforce the act, which would have resulted in a ban on the popular social network TikTok absent a corporate ownership change.
April 07, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Ruling Dismissing Suit Over Alleged Faulty Internet Service

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 4 affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a breach of contract suit against an internet provider and related parties in an appeal in which the appellant, an attorney, seeks vacatur of every ruling issued by a magistrate judge and alleges that inadequate internet services led to two underlying suits being dismissed for late filings, finding “minimal risk of prejudice” regarding the magistrate judge’s recommendations and “no ground to question the district court’s dismissal” of certain parties.
April 07, 2025
Class Claims Against Apple For Slowing Iphones With Update May Proceed, Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part Apple Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action brought against it by users of an older iPhone model who accuse it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by deceiving them into downloading an iPhone software update that was optimized for newer-model iPhones and allegedly caused a slowdown in their devices.
April 04, 2025
Panel Affirms Ruling Tossing Gun Marketplace Free Speech Suit Against Facebook

PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Superior Court on April 3 affirmed a lower court order dismissing a suit filed by a gun marketplace platform, an automotive marketplace platform and their owner against Facebook Inc. and Instagram LLC alleging free speech violations under the Pennsylvania Constitution for removal of their social media accounts, finding that the platforms and their owner failed to show the removal “constituted acts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
April 04, 2025
6th Circuit Finds Online Newsletter Subscriber Wasn’t A ‘Consumer’ Under VPPA

CINCINNATI — Affirming a trial court’s ruling on April 3, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority found that a man’s suit over a sports website’s purported sharing of his video viewing history merited dismissal because he did not qualify as a “consumer” under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
April 04, 2025
9th Circuit Reverses Denial Of Discovery Of Online Article Author’s Identity

SAN FRANCISCO — A district court erred in denying a foreign party’s request for discovery to learn the identities of the author of a purportedly defamatory online article and the operator of a website where it was posted, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that the court wrongly based its denial on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution without determining whether any such rights were implicated.
April 03, 2025
Class Representative Seeks $73M Judgment Against Company For Fake Reviews

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A plaintiff representing a certified class of consumers who claim that they were deceived by a Chinese manufacturer-owned company’s practice of faking reviews on Amazon.com to sell shoddy electronics in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws filed a motion in California federal court for default judgment following the withdrawal from proceedings by the defendant.
April 03, 2025
Motions To Quash Denied In FTC ‘High Stakes’ Antitrust Suit Against Meta

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on April 2 denied nonparty witnesses’ motions to quash subpoenas, while allowing several witnesses to testify remotely, in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) regarding its alleged monopolization of the personal social networking market, finding that pursuant to the Clayton Act, nationwide service of subpoenas on behalf of the government in antitrust suits is appropriate for good cause.
April 02, 2025
Judge Permanently Enjoins Arkansas Law Restricting Minors’ Social Media Access

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An Arkansas federal judge granted summary judgment to an internet trade association in its suit against Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin seeking to enjoin enforcement of a state law restricting minors’ access to social media platforms, finding that the act is unconstitutional and violates rights of Arkansas residents under both the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.