An AT&T petition Monday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa seeks to compel the production of documents from Voxon under a Sept. 19 subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in a case (docket 2:21-cv-02771) in which AT&T is a defendant. Core Communications sued AT&T there in June 2021, seeking the recovery of $11.4 million in unpaid access services charges, and AT&T said in the petition (docket 8:22-mc-00043) that the Voxon documents are “directly relevant” to its defense in the case.
The FCC's method of funding the Universal Service Fund "violates the original understanding of the nondelegation doctrine," Consumers' Research told the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a brief posted Tuesday in case 22-13315. The group challenged the commission's USF 2022 Q4 contribution factor in October (see 2210070072). "From start to finish, every aspect of the Universal Service Fund is designed to be as obscure, unresponsive, and opaque as possible," the group said, adding the FCC's delegation of administering USF to the Universal Service Administrative Co. "severely damages separation of power." Consumers' Research argued USF programs should be funded through Congressional appropriations. "Deciding how much money to raise is quintessentially a legislative policy choice," it said, and the FCC "unconstitutionally re-delegated its authority over the Universal Service Fund to USAC."
Nexstar must turn over documents related to its local marketing agreement with Mission Broadcasting to operate WPIX New York, said an order Saturday in the broadcaster’s breach of contract case against Comcast in docket 1:21-cv-06860 in the U.S. District Court for Eastern New York. Nexstar had disputed Magistrate Judge Stewart Aaron’s order that its relationship to Mission and WPIX was relevant to the case (see 2211010063). “Given Magistrate Judges’ broad discretion” in handling discovery disputes “plainly there was no abuse of discretion,” wrote District Judge John Koeltl.
The defendants in a cellphone RF radiation lawsuit seek a deadline extension to Jan. 13 on the plaintiffs’ request for leave to conduct discovery as they prepare to defend against the defendants’ motion to dismiss on grounds that the case is preempted by federal law (see 2211040044), said an unopposed motion Friday (docket 2:21-cv-00923) in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Lake Charles. The briefs were originally due Dec. 5. The April 2021 complaint argues the cellphone industry worked to suppress information showing many cellphones don’t comply with the FCC’s specific absorption rate limitations for how much RF radiation is absorbed by phone users, and says this led to Frank Walker’s death from brain cancer. Walker’s surviving wife and two sons are the plaintiffs in the case.
The Video Privacy Protection Act is rapidly emerging as a preferred new litigation “weapon” for consumers, said a Foley Hoag analysis Friday. There has been an “uptick" in claims against companies for their use of Meta’s tracking tool under the VPPA, it said. “This trend suggests plaintiffs’ lawyers may be trying to stretch the VPPA more broadly than perhaps Congress intended.” Congress originally passed the VPPA in 1988, after a news organization obtained a list of films that Robert Bork’s family had rented at a local video rental store, without Bork’s consent, during the period surrounding his nomination to the Supreme Court, said the law firm. “Plaintiffs’ lawyers are now seeking to use the VPPA to prevent companies from disclosing information relating to their viewing habits online (and punish those that do),” it said. “The stakes are high.” The VPPA provides consumers with a private right of action, “and the potential damages can be steep,” it said. 18 U.S.C. § 2710(c)(1). Awards can include actual damages, punitive damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs, it said. “Considering that a plaintiff class could consist of hundreds of thousands of consumers, companies that access consumer data have reason to watch these VPPA claims closely.”
T-Mobile removed to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York on Monday a petition (docket 1:22-cv-09710) from a group calling itself 100 Consumers to compel T-Mobile to submit to binding arbitration before the American Arbitration Association over the August 2021 data breach that affected 83 million T-Mobile customers. The petition was filed originally Oct. 7 in New York Supreme Court in Brooklyn. The petitioners “are all T-Mobile customers whose data was breached and stolen due to T-Mobile’s negligence,” said the petition. The petitioners are all consumers who agreed to T-Mobile’s terms and conditions, including the mandate that all disputes be resolved through arbitration, it said. The consumers filed the petition “due to T-Mobile’s refusal to move forward with arbitration and pay the arbitration fees despite their contractual requirement to do so” under the company’s own terms and conditions, it said. T-Mobile didn’t comment Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health worked with Google to covertly install a COVID-19 tracing app that tracks and records movement and personal contacts of Android users without consent, the New Civil Liberties Alliance alleged in a class-action lawsuit filed Monday. The department “secretly” installed the app on more than a million Android devices because “few” state residents were downloading the original app, which “required voluntary adoption,” NCLA said: “When smartphone owners delete the app, DPH simply re-installs it.” The tracing app doesn’t appear on the home screen with other apps and can be found only when users open settings and use the “view all apps” feature, the lawsuit said. NCLA asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to grant injunctive relief and nominal damages to the class, represented by plaintiffs Robert Wright, who lives a portion of the year in Great Barrington, and Johnny Kula, who doesn't live in the state but works there. “Persuading the public to voluntarily adopt such apps may be difficult, but it is also necessary in a free society,” said NCLA attorney Sheng Li. “The government may not secretly install surveillance devices on your personal property without a warrant -- even for a laudable purpose.” DPH hasn't received documentation about the lawsuit and doesn't comment on pending litigation, a staffer said Tuesday. The office for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) didn’t comment. Google didn’t comment.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation closed briefing Thursday on the Oct. 7 motion to transfer to the Northern District of California the dozen or more fraud class actions seeking relief from Samsung’s summertime data breach and consolidating them under U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco, said the clerk’s minute order (case 3055). Attorneys must notify the clerk promptly of potential “tag-along actions,” plus any development “that moots the motion or fully disposes of any action on the motion,” said the order. Lawyers in any potential tag-along action may file an “interested party” response but must do so promptly and no later than the Thursday before any hearing on the motion for transfer, it said. No hearing has been scheduled on the original Oct. 7 motion and the many filings since that support or oppose it. Plaintiffs in the multiple Samsung class actions filed in six jurisdictions are evenly split into camps that want the cases moved to the Northern California district in San Francisco or the New Jersey district in Newark. Samsung said its preference is for the cases to be consolidated and tried in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas (see 2211030006).
Dueling intervenor briefs from SoundExchange, Google and broadcast trade groups filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenged arguments in the combined appeals of the Copyright Royalty Board’s Web V ruling on royalty rates for webcast music.
Time names Forbes Chief Operating Officer Jessica Sibley its next CEO, effective Nov. 21, succeeding Edward Felsenthal, becoming executive chairman and remaining editor-in-chief ... Threat detection marketplace SOC Prime hires Tetrate’s Jeff Moon, also former Citrix, as chief financial officer ... Finite State, connected devices security platform, names Larry Pesce, ex-InGuardian, director-product security research and analysis ... ASM Global names Zippin’s Gary Jacobus president-business development ... SES Government Solutions recruits former Xtar CEO Jay Icard as senior vice president-strategic development ... ScanSource announces retirement of Mike Grainger from its board, effective when his term expires at Jan. 26 annual meeting ... NCR names Patricia Watson, ex-Bank of America, chief information officer and adds her to its executive leadership team ... Wi-Fi sensing platform Origin promotes Chief Commercial Officer Spencer Maid to president-CEO, effective Jan. 1, succeeding CEO Ray Liu, who will remain chairman and chief technology officer ... Blockchain platform Decentralized Social names former Meta and Pinterest executive Salil Shah COO ... Margaret Harding McGill announces she left Axios to become NTIA’s senior adviser-public affairs … Vittorio Colao, ex-Vodafone, rejoins Verizon board after being Italian minister for innovation, digital transition and space.