The FCC misrepresented the Standard/Tegna deal as complex and refused to engage with the broadcasters, and Friday’s Supreme Court opinion on agency adjudications underscores that the hearing process is unconstitutional, said Standard General, Cox Media Group and Tegna in their final response filing supporting their petition for mandamus at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2304110072).

Google’s March 21 motion for summary judgment ignores the “damning evidence” from its own employees that the company’s explanations of its practices for collecting data from users who were in private browsing mode border on the untruthful, said the plaintiffs’ heavily redacted opposition to the motion Wednesday (docket 4:20-cv-03664) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland.

Voyager Labs seeks an order dismissing Meta’s data-scraping complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted, said its motion Thursday (docket 4:23-cv-00154) in U.S. District Court for Northern California. It asked for a June 1 in-person motion hearing before U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland.

Petitioner Cowin Technology filed a notice of removal (1:23-cv-03054) from New York State Supreme Court to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan that seeks to overturn a December arbitration ruling over a seller dispute with Amazon. Howard Reiss, an arbitrator at the American Arbitration Association (AAA), on Dec. 15 denied the Hong Kong-based company’s claims for over $1 million it alleges it’s owed by Amazon, the Wednesday petition said. Amazon withheld payment for violations of its product reviews policy, and Reiss denied all of Cowin’s claims.

The March 27 order from U.S. District Judge Manish Shah for Northern Illinois in Chicago denying in part Walmart’s motion to dismiss an FTC enforcement action (see 2304040010) “raises fundamental questions about the FTC’s legal authority and the proper interpretation of key provisions of the FTC Act,” said Walmart. Walmart filed its memorandum of law Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-03372) in support of its motion to certify the order for interlocutory appeal.

Pro se plaintiff James Linlor filed two motions Wednesday (docket 5:23-cv-00385) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose to add cybersecurity company Musarubra as a second defendant in his cybersquatting complaint against McAfee and to transfer the case to the District of Delaware to “accommodate” the addition because Musarubra is incorporated there. Linlor seeks a May 9 hearing on the motions.

Chargebacks911 unfairly thwarted consumers trying to dispute credit card charges, violating the FTC Act and the Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, alleges a lawsuit (docket 8:23-cv-00796) filed by the FTC and Florida Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa.

Sixteen U.S. school districts joined the mounting wave of lawsuits against social media platforms Wednesday, as budget-strapped schools seek to hold tech companies responsible for rising costs associated with surging student mental health issues. San Diego-based Frantz Law filed 15 cases for school districts in California, Idaho, Oklahoma, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah, charging Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, Google, Snapchat and TikTok with violations of public nuisance laws, negligence and racketeering. A similar complaint was filed in Kentucky.

Disney, Hulu and Netflix provide video service and therefore owe franchise fees, said Dallas and 28 other Texas cities Monday in their memorandum in opposition to defendants’ motions to dismiss (docket DC-22-09128) the case in the 14th District Court of Dallas County.

Two school districts in Kentucky filed public nuisance lawsuits against the top social media platforms Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Kentucky, and two Florida school districts filed a combined public nuisance and negligence suit in Superior Court of California in Los Angeles Tuesday.