Plaintiffs Sheila and Dennis Thompson “lack standing” to pursue Count II of their Dec. 4 class action alleging Vintage Stock violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2301120009), said the home entertainment retailer in a memorandum Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-00042) in support of its motion to dismiss Count II in U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri in St. Louis. The Thompsons lack Count II standing because they didn't allege any harm due to purported violations of the TCPA’s “technical requirements,” it said.

The major questions doctrine, as laid out in July’s Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA (see 2206300066), is likely to play an increasingly important role in future decisions on actions by federal agencies like the FCC, experts said Wednesday during an FCBA webinar. In a 6-3 decision, justices didn’t overrule the Chevron doctrine but appeared to further clamp down on agencies' ability to regulate without clear direction from Congress.

YouTube’s Partnership Program (YPP) “enabled, facilitated and profit-shared” in two adults’ predatory behaviors, enabling the identification and grooming of vulnerable children for illicit sexual purposes, alleged a Wednesday complaint (docket 5:23-cv-00091) against two YouTube channel users, the video platform and Google in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Ocala.

The Supreme Court should consider remanding a Communications Decency Act Section 230 case to the lower courts to determine if social media filtering is protected by the statute, petitioners argued Tuesday in Gonzalez v. Google (docket 21-1333) (see 2301200059).

Another plaintiff wants to join a privacy class action against LastPass and its parent company, Go To Technologies, for an August data breach that allegedly compromised consumers’ personal identifiable information (PII), said a motion Monday (docket 1:22-cv-12047) to consolidate cases under U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in District Court for Massachusetts in Boston.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit denied Nimitz Technologies’ motion to stay issuing the mandate in its denial of Nimitz's petition for a rehearing of its mandamus appeal, pending the filing of a mandamus or cert petition at the Supreme Court to have the case heard on attorny-client privilege grounds (see 2302030030), said a clerk’s order signed Tuesday (docket 23-103). Barring SCOTUS involvement, the denial would send the case back to Chief U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly in Delaware.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Marriott International is entitled to $500,000 in statutory damages against defendant Dynasty Marketing Group (DMG) for willfully infringing Marriott’s trademark by impersonating Marriott telemarketers in its robocalling phone solicitations (see 2212300004), said a report and recommendation signed Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Anderson for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria.

Contrary to how Amazon’s Dec. 6 demurrer “mischaraterizes” California attorney general’s antitrust complaint against the company (see 2212160020), the state has stated “viable claims for violation” of the Cartwright Act and the California Unfair Competition Law (UCL), said California’s opposition to the demurrer, dated Jan. 27 and accessed Tuesday (docket CGC-22-601826) in San Francisco County Superior Court.

Arlo Technologies' first "End-of-Life Policy,” disclosed Jan. 1 to existing customers who bought the company’s security cameras, was a breach of contract and violation of consumer protection laws, alleged a Monday class action (docket 5:23-cv-00534) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.