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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

March 27, 2025
9th Circuit Orders Meta To Respond To Mandamus Petition Over Discovery Order

SAN FRANCISCO — Without providing explanation, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 26 ordered states and Meta Platforms Inc. to respond to a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to direct a district court to grant state attorneys general’s objection to a discovery order and stay the order in a product liability multidistrict ligation over the purported addictive qualities for adolescents of several of the largest social media platforms.
March 27, 2025
High Court Hears Oral Arguments On FCC Authority Under Nondelegation Doctrine

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 26 heard oral arguments in consolidated cases filed by the Federal Communications Commission and telecom providers urging reversal of an en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a subsidy program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine.”
March 26, 2025
Seal Motions Granted In Computer Fraud Row Between Spyware Firm And WhatsApp

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part motions to seal in WhatsApp’s suit against a spyware firm related to the firm’s alleged computer fraud, granting WhatsApp’s motion as to some requests because the “redactions are sufficiently narrow” and granting some of the spyware firm’s requests to seal regarding “limited redactions.”
March 24, 2025
Apple Misled Consumers As To IPhone 16’s ‘AI-Driven’ Functions, Consumer Says

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A consumer filed a putative class action lawsuit in California federal court accusing Apple Inc. of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other state consumer laws by misleading millions of consumers into buying its latest iPhone models by misrepresenting the artificial intelligence capacities that the iPhone 16’s “Apple Intelligence” and Siri software would offer.
March 24, 2025
Partial Dismissal Granted In Antitrust Suit Involving Broker And Alleged ‘Phishing’

GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal judge granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss by stock exchange market makers and market participants and a broker-dealer in a Sherman Act and Exchange Act violation suit alleging that the broker used “phishing” emails to illegally access the plaintiff’s brokerage accounts and that the other defendants conspired to defraud the plaintiff by manipulating prices of certain securities.
March 21, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Ruling Tossing ‘Illicit’ Ink Cartridge UCL Suit Against Amazon

PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 20 affirmed a lower court ruling that dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by a remanufacturer of ink cartridges accusing Amazon.com Inc. and its subsidiaries of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), the Lanham Act and other laws by allowing third-party sellers to post allegedly deceptive listings for recycled printer ink cartridges, thereby diverting business from authentic ink cartridge recyclers, finding that “to the extent claims” against Amazon “survive” the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the remanufacturer “has failed to allege an actionable false statement by Amazon.”
March 21, 2025
Amazon Seeks Clawback Of Documents ‘Inadvertently Disclosed’ In Antitrust Suit

SEATTLE — In three related Sherman Act antitrust suits filed against it in a Washington federal court, Amazon.com Inc. filed a motion to claw back three privileged documents it says were cited in a motion for class certification filed by the plaintiffs in one of the suits, arguing that Amazon’s motion should be granted due to the company’s prompt action to submit a clawback request for the inadvertent disclosure.
March 20, 2025
Wiretapping, Chatbot Class Suit Against Kroger Tossed As Lacking ‘Plausible’ Claim

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed a putative class action suit against The Kroger Co., a U.S.-based company that operates retail grocery stores, for alleged violations of California’s wiretapping statute by using third-party software to purportedly eavesdrop on chat-based conversations on Kroger’s website, finding that the plaintiff’s “allegations do not render plausible her claim of violation” of the wiretapping statute.
March 19, 2025
Copyright Act Contemplates Human Authors, Not AI, D.C. Circuit Affirms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Copyright protections require a human author and the U.S. Copyright Office properly denied an application listing an artificial intelligence as the author, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 18 in affirming a district court ruling.
March 19, 2025
Magistrate Denies Motion To Compel Production Of Source Code In Patent Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”
March 19, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
March 18, 2025
App’s Arbitration Agreement Was ‘Rife With Unfair Surprise,’ 9th Circuit Told

SAN FRANCISCO — Mobile app game players who contend in a putative class suit that they were tricked into paying to play against bots instead of real people urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a March 17 appellee brief to affirm a lower court’s ruling barring arbitration of their claims against the app’s developer and its co-founders, saying the agreement was unconscionable and required “batching” of claims that would have lasted “a century or more.”
March 18, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
March 17, 2025
Judge Grants Hunter Biden's Request To Drop Lawsuit Over Laptop Files

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted Hunter Biden’s ex parte application for an order of voluntary dismissal of his lawsuit against a conservative activist and his organization for violating computer fraud laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by posting data from Biden’s private laptop online, but citing defense claims of “legal prejudice” and the timing of the filing entered dismissal with prejudice instead of without as Biden had requested.
March 17, 2025
Injunction Granted In 1st Amendment Challenge To Children’s Online Privacy Act

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge again granted a motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA) in a suit filed by a trade association of online businesses challenging the CAADCA, which was enacted to provide online privacy protections for children under 18, finding that the association “is likely to prevail on its claim of facial invalidity” regarding the act’s requirement for businesses to enforce their “content policies” and “community standards.”
March 17, 2025
ISP To High Court: 5th Circuit Wrong To Find Liability In Piracy Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An internet service provider (ISP) tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the question of whether ISPs can be held to be vicariously liable for copyright infringement based on the behavior of internet customers is a “major question” that could have far-reaching impact on ISP companies; according to the ISP, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to find in favor of plaintiff-appellee music labels that it was liable for failure to prevent instances of infringement.
March 03, 2025
COMMENTARY: ADA Title II Revision – Addition of Technical Requirements For Accessibility Of Web Information And Services Of State And Local Government Entities

By Hiram Kuykendall
March 14, 2025
Parents Say Fortnite Provokes ‘FOMO’ In Youths To Spur In-Game Item Sales

SAN FRANCISCO — Two parents filed a putative class action in California federal court accusing Epic Games Inc., the developer of “Fortnite,” of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by using “deceptive countdown timers” and other marketing tactics to pressure vulnerable youths into purchasing in-game items, in part due to their youthful susceptibility to the “fear of missing out” (FOMO).
March 14, 2025
Associations Urge High Court Reversal Of Ruling Finding Nondelegation Violation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Telecom provider petitioners and broadband association petitioners filed reply briefs on March 13 in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging reversal of an en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a subsidy program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine” after the high court granted two petitions for a writ of certiorari and consolidated cases concerning whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate to a private entity.
March 14, 2025
San Francisco, Nonprofit Seek Restoration Of EO ‘Gender Ideology’ Webpages

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Doctors for America and the city and county of San Francisco moved for a preliminary injunction and expedited summary judgment in a District of Columbia federal court seeking to require the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and government health agencies to restore webpages in a suit accusing OPM of exceeding its authority in directing the agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to remove webpages containing “a broad range of health-related data” in response to President Donald J. Trump’s executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
March 14, 2025
Developer Accused Of Using Roblox To Start Robux Gambling Games Seeks Dismissal

SAN FRANCISCO — A third-party developer filed a motion in California federal court to dismiss cross-claims brought against it by Roblox Corp. in a putative class action lawsuit filed by parents who say their minor children accessed gambling games through the Roblox platform, writing that the court lacks jurisdiction, the claims are untimely and the claims against it are deficient on the merits.
March 13, 2025
Facebook Swimsuit-Photo App Loses Appeal Of Anti-SLAPP And Attorney Fees Rulings

SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate panel on March 12 affirmed an order striking claims against Facebook Inc., CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other employees for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by restricting the developer of an app that searched Facebook for photos of people wearing swimsuits from accessing user data and affirmed a roughly $683,000 attorney fee award against the developer.
March 13, 2025
4th Circuit Affirms Issuance Of Injunction In Electronic Health Records Dispute

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 12 affirmed a lower court order granting a preliminary injunction to a health analytics company alleging tortious interference against an electronic health records (EHR) company the analytics company says restricted its access to electronic health records of nursing home residents to monitor their health trends, finding that the analytics company has shown “a sufficient likelihood of the success on the merits.”
March 13, 2025
GoDaddy’s Deadline Extended For Response To Motion To Appeal Settlement Ruling

MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge in Alabama on March 12 set April 3 deadlines for a response from GoDaddy.com LLC to a motion by class representatives to certify for appeal a February order declining enforcement of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class settlement and for a response from class representatives to GoDaddy’s motion to dismiss claims by a deceased class representative; that order was filed one day after the judge declined to reconsider the February decision and directed GoDaddy to respond to the motion to certify the order for appeal.
March 13, 2025
Crypto Companies Seek Interpretation Of CEA Venue, Nationwide Service Provisions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two cryptocurrency companies filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in a suit brought against them by an investor alleging that they conspired to deflate the value of a crypto asset, asking the court to determine whether the paired venue and nationwide service provisions of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) should be interpreted independently or as a whole.