Cynthia Redd wants U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo for Northern Illinois in Chicago to remand her Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act class action against Amazon Web Services to Cook County Circuit Court where it originated before AWS removed it Dec. 2 (see 2212050036), said her motion Friday (docket 1:22-cv-06779). Redd alleges Wonolo, an app-based job placement company, used AWS’ cloud-based software service, Rekognition, to verify the identities of Wonolo users who interacted with its app. “It is well established that where a plaintiff alleges only a statutory violation under Section 15(c), and no actual damages or particularized injury, she does not have Article III standing to pursue those claims in federal court,” said her motion. Redd alleges a procedural violation of Section 15(c), that AWS unlawfully profits from her and other Illinois Wonolo users’ biometric data, it said. Binding 7th Circuit precedent dictates that because Redd lacks Article III standing, the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over her Section 15(c) BIPA claims, “and they must be severed and remanded” to the Cook County court, it said.
Defendant Academy Medical’s “meandering” Jan. 12 counterclaim alleging T-Mobile and Crown Castle were guilty of cell tower deceit (see 2301130001) should be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, said the plaintiffs’ motion Friday (docket 1:22-cv-00910) in U.S. District Court for New Mexico. T-Mobile’s assignment of sublease rights to Crown Castle and in turn to Dish Network without notifying Academy prevented the defendant “from exercising its contractual right to object to the sublease,” alleged the property owner’s counterclaim. But the “plain language” of the amended cell tower lease “expressly permits subleasing and imposes no limitations on subleasing,” except a requirement that any sublessee agree to abide by the terms of the contract, countered the plaintiffs. The provision “does not in any way restrict or narrow a sublessee’s rights relative to those of the original lessee,” nor does the lease prohibit a further sublease by any sublessee, they said. The “net effect” is that a sublessee operating in accordance with the terms of the lease “may further sublease and need not provide any notice” to Academy, as the property owner contends was required, they said.
Khalil’s Pub & Grill, Shackleford, Arkansas, showed an Ultimate Fighting Championship telecast Feb. 8, 2020, in violation of the Communications Act, alleged Joe Hand Promotions, which had exclusive nationwide commercial distribution rights. In a Friday complaint (4:23-cv-00111) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Arkansas in Little Rock, the distributor alleged the bar pirated the fight, which originated via satellite uplink and was retransmitted to cable and satellite TV companies via satellite signal. The defendant could have bought rights to show the fight for a fee but chose not to, it said. Joe Hand seeks statutory damages up to $110,000 for unauthorized use of communications or up to $60,000 for unauthorized reception of cable service.
Plaintiffs Jonathan Kindler of Jackson County, Missouri, and Tamera Sweeton of Johnson County, Kansas, Wednesday filed a notice of dismissal of an invasion of privacy lawsuit (docket 4:23-cv-00086) originally filed in Jackson County, Missouri, Circuit Court Dec. 21 and removed to U.S. District Court for Western Missouri in Kansas City. The class action claimed NuFit Media, which operated the CareDash medical profile website, "misappropriated" information and profiles of two Kansas City-area counselors to drive traffic to its website, which ceased operation Feb. 1. CareDash used publicly available data associated with the national provider identifier registry to push traffic to sponsored featured listings on its website under a “pay-per-click” advertising model under which CareDash received a commission. The plaintiffs claimed invasion of privacy for CareDash’s “appropriation” of their names and likenesses and alleged right of publicity from the company’s “use of information in the public domain” to operate the site, which provided information and profiles of healthcare providers and allowed consumers to write reviews. The American Psychological Association hailed the shuttering of CareDash in a Feb. 3 blog post, calling it a “major victory in protecting psychologists’ reputations and livelihood.” An APA companion organization demanded in an Aug. 4 cease-and-desist letter that CareDash “immediately stop listing psychologists’ names on the CareDash platform without their permission,” it said. The APA said CareDash was encouraging prospective patients to obtain online scheduling through unauthorized profiles of practitioners and that patients were instead redirected to online therapy platforms or other networks of competing providers. APA’s advocacy arm is working with Sens. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; and Tina Smith, D-Minn., on medical “ghost networks” that “sow confusion and frustration among patients.”
CrowdStrike promotes Chief Technology Officer Michael Sentonas to president ... Identity Defined Security Alliance names Jeff Reich, ex-Cloud Security Alliance, executive director, and elects nine new members to its executive advisory board, including Atos’ Allen Moffett; BeyondTrust’s Morey Haber; CyberArk’s Joanne Wu; and VMware’s Rahul Parwani; newly added to IDSA’s expanded customer advisory board: Comcast’s Rajnish Bhatia, TikTok’s Douglas Rose and Target’s Tom Sheffield ... Marcus Theatres names former Regal Entertainment and Cinemark executive Steve Bunnell executive vice president-content strategy, effective March 6, succeeding Sonny Gourley, retiring ... Laika Studios taps Matt Levin, former Netflix director-original independent film, as president-live-action film and series, newly created role ... Taqtile, industrial augmented reality software platform, names Craig Olson, ex-SteelSeries, chief operating officer ... PointsKash, developer of a loyalty rewards points mobile app, adds Spencer Mandell, former Facebook and Instagram creative director, to its advisory board ... Trusted payments and identities platform Entrust names One Identity’s Bhagwat Swaroop president-digital security solutions ... Skybox Security taps Mordecai Rosen, ex-Digital Guardian, as CEO ... California Public Utilities Commission confirms John Reynolds, former managing counsel at Cruise self-driving car company, as commissioner.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff for Southern New York signed a memorandum order Monday (docket 1:22-cv-08703) dismissing debt collector CBE Customer Solutions’ first counterclaim that Verizon breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in their April 2014 master services agreement (MSA) (see 2211210034). He left intact CBE’s second counterclaim alleging Verizon was unjustly enriched when CBE assisted in Verizon’s defense of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action that Verizon asserts originated from the negligence of a CBE employee. The class action evolved into a settlement valued at nearly $4 million. CBE alleged Verizon breached the implied covenant by settling with a class that contained people who weren't injured by CBE’s actions. But Rakoff said Verizon’s lawsuit to enforce the MSA’s indemnity provisions didn't breach the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, as CBE alleged. CBE’s first counterclaim asserts Verizon undertook a litigation strategy that unnecessarily increased the likelihood of risk to CBE to the sole benefit of Verizon during the class action, said Rakoff: “But these allegations, even if taken as true, do not support a claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
The plaintiffs in the breach of contract complaint against American Tower International (ATI) want their lawsuit remanded to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County where it originated before ATI removed it Jan. 3 (see 2301030035), said their motion Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-20009) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami.
Plaintiff Christa Simmons filed her first amended complaint Sunday alleging Procter & Gamble violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act by inundating her with text messages promoting its Oral-B line. Her amended complaint (docket 0:22-cv-61956), in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Fort Lauderdale, deletes language in her Oct. 20 original that P&G “engages in telemarketing without the requisite policies and procedures and training required under the TCPA and its implementing regulations.” It adds language missing from the original establishing the Fort Lauderdale federal court as the proper venue. Jurisdiction is proper because Simmons “alleges a national and Florida class, which will result in at least one class member belonging to a different state” than that of P&G, said the amended complaint. P&G argued Jan. 17 that Simmons’ complaint “must be dismissed in its entirety” under the 11th Circuit’s “binding precedent” in Salcedo v. Hanna because she “did not suffer an injury in fact sufficient to confer Article III standing” (see 2301180001).
Central Telecom Long Distance engages in “slamming, cramming, and unclear and insufficiently specific billing practices,” in violation of the Communications Act, alleged a DOJ complaint Monday (docket 23-cv-259) against the interexchange carrier in U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver.
Gerber Life hired an entity identifying itself as Legacy Quote to market insurance services through unsolicited telemarketing calls to individuals whose numbers were listed on the Do Not Call registry, alleged a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Monday (docket 7:23-cv-00552) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York. Roanoke, Virginia, resident Thomas Matthews received such calls on his personal residential cellphone despite having listed his number on the registry in August 2021, said his complaint. Because the calls were transmitted “using technology capable of generating thousands of similar calls per day,” Matthews sued “on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of other persons,” it said. Gerber Life “has knowingly and actively accepted business that originated through the telemarketing calls to individuals whose telephone numbers are listed” on the registry “and who did not consent in writing or otherwise to receive such calls,” it said. Despite having been sued at least once previously for TCPA violations due to the telemarketing activities of third parties, “Gerber Life continued to do business with third party lead generation providers,” it said. Gerber Life didn’t comment.