The Supreme Court should hear a case against Texas’ social media law because circuit courts are split over First Amendment issues for laws in Texas and Florida, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice argued Tuesday in docket 22-555.

An AT&T handset upgrade exchange program was a “bait-and-switch scheme,” alleged a class action (docket 1:22-cv-5155) filed in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta Friday against the carrier and American Express.

Samsung’s claim that its Z Fold 3 smartphone can be folded and unfolded at least 200,000 times -- the number of such actions a user would perform in five years -- is based on “flawed” testing methodology and “not representative of real-world usage,” alleged a fraud class action filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Dec. 26 (docket 1:22-cv-10882).

Two former employees of Vox Network Solutions, a supplier of contact center and network support services, conspired with Gage Technologies to steal Vox’s trade secrets for the purpose of "poaching" Consumer Cellular as a client when they resigned to join Gage's leadership team, alleged a Dec. 28 complaint (docket 3:22-cv-09135) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Gage Technologies (formerly Gage Telecom) is Vox's direct competitor.

Google will pay $9.5 million to settle claims the company manipulated users to gain access to location data and made it “nearly impossible” for users to stop location tracking, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine (D) announced in a settlement Friday.

Dynasty Marketing Group, a defendant in a robocalling trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Marriott International (see 2210070013), was sued by an individual in a class action in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Gainesville Thursday for violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Georgia’s No-Call List statute.

With the first statewide digital right-to-repair bill (SB 4104-A) in the U.S. now bearing the signature of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), attention turns to whether tech groups like CTA and CTIA will litigate to block the statute from taking effect July 1. Neither group responded to our queries seeking comment about the bill’s signing or the prospects of taking the statute to the courts.

Inaccurate and misleading information provided by Verizon Wireless led to erroneous debt collection actions, alleged a complaint (docket 7:22-cv-10938) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in White Plains against Equifax, TransUnion and Verizon for violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Verizon denies “any express or implied allegation of violation of law or of any wrongdoing,” said the carrier in its answer Tuesday (docket 4:22-cv-00637) in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Missouri, to an Oct. 7 complaint that it and Experian breached the Fair Credit Reporting Act (see 2210070053).

A busy communications litigation calendar is set for early 2023, highlighted by Jan. 12 oral argument in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is trying to reverse a preliminary injunction that bars her from enforcing the state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) over the objections of the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA and other trade groups (docket 21-1975).