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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • February 03, 2026

    23andMe Bankruptcy Judge Approves $50M Settlement; Data Breach MDL To Be Dismissed

    The parties to multidistrict litigation in California federal court against 23andMe Inc. and affiliates for a data breach in which millions of customers’ genetic data and personally identifiable information (PII) was hacked filed a joint status report on Feb. 2 stating the plaintiffs will move to dismiss the MDL following the final approval in Missouri federal bankruptcy court of a settlement worth up to $50 million to resolve U.S. customers’ claims against 23andMe, with 25% allocated for attorney fees.

  • February 03, 2026

    Roblox Players’ Parents Seek Quick Affirmance Of Arbitration Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — The parents of minor users of Roblox Corp.’s gaming platform asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to summarily affirm a California federal judge’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration or dismiss brought by the developer of the now-defunct “Bloxflip” third-party game where children could allegedly gamble with their digital “Robux,” arguing that the developer never presented evidence that players saw his arbitration agreement.

  • February 03, 2026

    Google Assistant Users Seek Approval Of $68M Settlement For Eavesdropping Claims

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge terminated a hearing date after a group of plaintiffs moved for preliminary approval of a $68 million settlement of their putative class claims against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. (collectively Google) for allegedly eavesdropping on Google Assistant (GA) users in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and privacy laws.

  • February 03, 2026

    Women’s Dating Advice App Seeks To Dismiss ‘Hyperbolic’ Data Hack Complaint

    SAN FRANCISCO — The developer of the “Tea” women’s app for posting information about men in the dating market moved in California federal court to dismiss putative class claims against it for violation of federal privacy laws and state laws including California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after its database of users’ identity-verification and driver’s license photos was hacked, writing that the plaintiffs suffered no injury and fail to state a claim.

  • February 02, 2026

    9th Circuit: Judge Properly Found Securities Claims Against Crypto Firm Barred

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s order granting a motion from an issuer of crypto tokens and its CEO to dismiss class action securities claims against them, finding that the 2017 offering of the tokens was a separate offering from the 2013 offering, making the federal securities claims time-barred.

  • February 02, 2026

    Florida Panel Reverses Damages Order In Mobile App Car Sharing Accident Dispute

    LAKELAND, Fla. — A Florida appellate court on Jan. 30 reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling granting a motion to amend a complaint to add punitive damages to a negligence suit against a mobile app-based car sharing company and the owner of a rented vehicle, finding that the plaintiffs failed to meet their burden under Florida law to recover punitive damages and show that the company was grossly negligent .

  • January 30, 2026

    Federal Circuit Affirms Noninfringement Finding In Streaming Patent Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 29 affirmed a California federal judge’s summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Hulu LLC, despite finding that the judge erroneously narrowed the meaning of a claim phrase, because Hulu’s accused systems did not perform the relevant processes in the order required by the patent.

  • January 30, 2026

    Injunction Denied In Tipping Law Dispute Between DoorDash, Uber And New York City

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge denied a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the enforcement of New York City’s tipping law in a suit filed by DoorDash Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. against the city of New York, alleging violations of the U.S. and New York constitutions related to the city’s tipping law requiring them and other companies’ third-party food and grocery delivery platforms to provide a tipping option of 10% or more for delivery workers before delivery is complete.

  • January 29, 2026

    Hacked Facebook Account Plaintiffs Don’t Plead Meta Broke A Promise, Judge Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part Meta Platforms Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action brought against it by users of its social media platforms who claim that it failed to prevent hacking of user accounts or help users regain access to their accounts in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that injury can be inferred but that the plaintiffs did not directly plead that Meta breached a contract or injured them based on loss of access to personal data.

  • January 28, 2026

    Federal Circuit Rejects Google’s Challenge To PTO’s ‘Settled Expectations’ Rule

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 27 denied a petition for a writ of mandamus, declining to reconsider the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) reliance on “‘settled expectations’” in denying Google’s petition for inter partes review (IPR) challenging a software patent.

  • January 28, 2026

    Data-Sharing Class Claims Against Shopify Partly Dismissed By Federal Judge

    OAKLAND, Calif. — After a previous dismissal ruling was reversed and remanded by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Shopify Inc. partly succeeded in its second motion to dismiss privacy claims against it, with a California federal judge finding that some of a plaintiff’s putative class claims over the online retailer’s purported collection and sharing of customer data for the creation of individualized profiles failed for not adequately alleging an injury.

  • January 27, 2026

    6th Circuit Vacates Injunction In Social Media Sex Offender Disclosure Dispute

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 26 vacated a preliminary injunction and remanded a putative class action filed against a county attorney by a Kentucky registered sex offender seeking to prevent enforcement of a Kentucky law requiring certain registered sex offenders to display their full legal name on their social media accounts, finding in part that the law at issue may cover conduct to which the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not apply.

  • January 27, 2026

    Apple And Its CEO Waive Response To High Court Ad Market Antitrust Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C.  — Apple Inc. and its CEO waived their right to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a professional certification school seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a lower court’s ruling compelling arbitration and dismissing a class action antitrust suit alleging that Google and Apple violated state and federal antitrust laws by unlawfully agreeing to divide online search and search advertising markets.

  • January 26, 2026

    Iowa High Court Affirms Denial Of TikTok Dismissal Bid In Iowa Consumer Fraud Suit

    DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court on Jan. 23 affirmed a lower court order denying a motion by TikTok to dismiss for lack of specific personal jurisdiction a consumer fraud suit against it by Iowa for purported deceptive age rating on the TikTok platform, finding in part that TikTok “purposely availed” itself of doing business in Iowa.

  • January 26, 2026

    Judge Approves Interlocutory Appeal Of Arbitrability Of Sweepstakes Website Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge certified an interlocutory appeal as to the arbitrability of a consumer’s putative class suit for fraud against the Canadian operators of a “sweepstakes casino” website that she alleges is in fact an illegal gambling website, after the judge ruled the claims must be arbitrated pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention).

  • January 23, 2026

    Federal Circuit: Judge Rightly Tossed Infringement Suit Asserting Abstract Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Washington federal judge’s dismissal of a patent owner’s infringement complaint against Google LLC, determining in the Jan. 22 opinion that the asserted claims of the patent are directed at an unpatentable abstract idea without a necessary inventive concept.

  • January 23, 2026

    Federal Circuit: Issue Preclusion Required PTAB Find Claim Invalid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that issue preclusion barred the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) from adjudicating the validity of a patent claim in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by Apple Inc.; the panel reversed the PTAB’s finding that Apple failed to show that the patent claim was invalid as obvious.

  • January 22, 2026

    Mother Claims ChatGPT Twisted Son’s Favorite Book, Design Complicit In Suicide

    LOS ANGELES — A man turned to OpenAI entities’ ChatGPT for consolation after a difficult breakup, but it quickly turned his favorite book into a story about letting go and romanticized suicide despite his insistence that he was happy to be alive, his mother alleges in a Los Angeles County Superior Court lawsuit.

  • January 22, 2026

    Judge Won’t Reconsider Sanctions For Pro Se Plaintiffs’ Misuse Of AI

    FLINT, Mich. — Limited economic resources do not warrant reconsidering $600 in sanctions imposed for misuse of artificial intelligence after a pro se mother and son were previously warned about the behavior, a federal judge in Michigan said.

  • January 22, 2026

    Pa. Supreme Court: Order To Compel Arbitration Not Appealable In Uber Injury Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Jan. 21 vacated an appellate court judgment finding that a trial court order granting a petition to compel arbitration is an appealable collateral order in a negligence suit against Uber Technologies Inc. and related parties, finding that the appellate court lacked jurisdiction over the issue of whether there was a valid arbitration agreement.

  • January 22, 2026

    Job Seekers Accuse AI Application Screener Of Unfair Evaluations

    MARTINEZ, Calif. — Two unsuccessful job applicants filed a putative class action in California state court accusing an AI employee-screening company of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by evaluating the plaintiffs’ applications to companies that use the AI software at issue to score their applications based on “sensitive and often inaccurate information.”

  • January 22, 2026

    Federal Circuit Affirms Denial Of Patent Owner’s JMOL Of Infringement Motion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 21 affirmed a Minnesota federal judge’s refusal to grant a patent owner’s posttrial request for judgment as a matter of law of infringement and patent validity, but the panel vacated portions of the judge’s final order that improperly applied to unasserted patent claims.

  • January 21, 2026

    D.C. Circuit Panel Denies Airport Board Challenge To Cybersecurity Amendment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 20 denied a petition filed by the Spokane Airport Board seeking review of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) emergency amendment requiring certain airport security programs to include specified cybersecurity measures, finding in part that TSA’s regulatory authority includes the addition of cybersecurity plans to airport security programs.

  • January 20, 2026

    Federal Circuit Affirms: No Infringement By Nintendo Of Handheld Gaming Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A video game console made by Nintendo Co. Ltd. does not infringe another gaming company’s patent for a type of handheld gaming device because Nintendo’s accused device did not meet certain claim requirements, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed Jan. 16.

  • January 20, 2026

    Panel Rejects RNC Claims Against Google For Filtering Fundraising Emails As Spam

    HONOLULU — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 16 affirmed the dismissal of the Republican National Committee (RNC) lawsuit against Google LLC for violating the state’s common-carrier statute and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by diverting its fundraising emails to users’ spam folders.