Nothing in California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, AB-2273, restricts the content that businesses can provide to minors, and “any incidental effect the Act may have on businesses’ speech is justified by the State’s compelling interest in children’s welfare,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), in a Friday opposition (docket 5:22-cv-08861) to NetChoice’s April motion for preliminary injunction (see 2304070041) in U.S.District Court for Northern California in San Jose.

The cellphone industry won more than a slim partial victory late Friday when U.S. District Judge James Cain for Western Louisiana in Lake Charles dismissed, on federal preemption grounds, all claims that the industry covered up information showing that many cellphones don’t comply with the FCC’s specific absorption rate (SAR) limitations for how much RF radiation is absorbed into the human body.

Plaintiff Trisha Teperson “is without sufficient knowledge” to form a belief for her allegations about Nogin’s pricing actions on its e-commerce platform, said the defendant’s Thursday answer (docket 8:23-cv-00281) to Teperson’s February false advertising class action in U.S. District Court for Central California in Santa Ana. Nogin “deceptively” advertised products from a “false reference price,” the San Diego resident alleged.

AT&T’s March motion to compel arbitration (see 2303220048) and stay a case in a SIM card swap lawsuit should be denied, said plaintiff Al Weiss in a Thursday opposition response (docket 6:23-cv-001200) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Orlando.

Amazon on Friday removed to U.S. District Court for Southern New York from New York County Supreme Court the petition of Amazon third-party seller Shenzhen Zongheng Domain Network to vacate a $507,619 arbitration award in Amazon’s favor. Amazon had declined to disburse the $507,619 in sales proceeds to the seller after “uncovering” that it was “manipulating customer product reviews to artificially and deceptively inflate the perceived value of the goods it was selling in the Amazon store,” said Amazon’s notice of removal (docket 1:23-cv-03334).

Emma Mendoza’s class action alleging Newsweek Digital violates the Video Privacy Protection Act should be dismissed, said the defendant’s motion Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-00643) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan. Mendoza’s Jan. 25 complaint alleges Newsweek Digital unlawfully tracks and discloses to Facebook its subscribers’ viewed video media and Facebook IDs without their consent (see 2301260043).

Kootenai County, Idaho, “affirmatively avers” that the Telecommunications Act doesn’t act “as a preemption of local governments’ ability to deny applications for installation of wireless communications facilities,” said the county’s answer Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-00124) in U.S. District Court for Idaho in Coeur d'Alene to AT&T’s March 29 complaint (see 2303300046). The county is countersuing for a declaration and judgment that its actions in denying AT&T’s application weren’t preempted by the TCA and "are therefore valid.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied the Standard/Tegna broadcasters’ petition for writ of mandamus, according to a brief, unpublished decision in docket 23-1084 Friday morning.

In an unusual twist for a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case, a TCPA class-action defendant sought Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia to hold its telemarketing vendor accountable for all damages and court costs should the plaintiff and his putative class members win the case.

Optimum and Altice failed to compensate cable layer employees completely for their labor and calculated earned wages based on feet of cable installed instead of the number of hours worked in a work week, in violation of labor laws, alleged Luka Kvinikadze of Vermont in a Wednesday class action (docket 1:23-cv-02922) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Brooklyn.