TechFreedom urged the FCC not to use an “obscure provision” on digital discrimination, buried deep in the “enormous” Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to “smuggle onerous common-carrier regulations” onto the internet. TechFreedom’s position was detailed as part of an amicus brief Tuesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Plaintiff Barbara Silva began receiving phone calls in January from tax debt relief company Clear Start Tax soliciting its services, despite not having tax debts, Silva’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint alleged Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00142) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in El Paso. She estimates receiving at least 39 such solicitation calls from Clear Start between Jan. 18 and March 26, her complaint said, which also alleges violations of the Texas Business and Commerce Code. Silva listed her phone number on the national do not call registry in February 2022 "to gain seclusion from unwanted solicitation phone calls,” said her complaint. Clear Start has never had a valid “solicitation registration,” as required under the Texas statute, it said. The solicitation calls “irritated and confused” Silva and she "had to spend time and energy investigating the origin of the phone calls,” it said. Every call was placed without Clear Start’s maintenance of an internal DNC policy and without the proper training of agents and employees on the use of an internal DNC policy, the complaint said. It alleges that Clear Start’s CEO Vivian Yip “personally ordered the phone calls be placed and directed that the phone calls be delivered with prerecorded voice messages.”
Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.
Flores Property Holdings and owner Jaime Flores showed the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul boxing match on June 6, 2021, without authorization from Joe Hand Productions, which held the exclusive commercial license for exhibiting the closed-circuit broadcast, alleged a Communications Act complaint (docket 2:24-cv-00099) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Corpus Christi. The defendants illegally intercepted the broadcast to avoid paying the proper commercial sublicense fee to Joe Hand, the complaint said. The broadcast originated via satellite uplink and was retransmitted interstate to cable systems and satellite television companies via satellite signal, said the complaint. The establishment made sales during the broadcast, including an entry fee, table and drink set-up fees, drinks and food; public display of the match "was to entice patrons to” the venue to spend money while watching it, the complaint alleged. The plaintiff seeks statutory damages of up to the maximum of $100,000 for each willful violation, plus attorneys’ fees and costs.
MaxLinear’s “opportunistic” motion to dismiss Comcast’s third amended complaint should be denied, said Comcast’s memorandum of law Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-04436) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan in support of its opposition to the motion.
Apple and Roblox acted in concert to “distribute, market, supply,” and sell the Roblox online game platform via its App Store and via in-game downloadable content and in-game purchases to boost their revenues at the expense of consumers, alleged a video game addiction class action (docket 6:24-cv-00762) Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Orlando.
The hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of a class-action settlement in a privacy case vs. Google has been rescheduled for Aug. 7, said a signed joint stipulation and order (docket 4:20-cv-03664) by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for Northern California in Oakland. Google requested that the hearing take place a week later than the original July 30 date, and the plaintiffs didn't oppose, said the Tuesday order. Class-action plaintiffs Chasom Brown, William Byatt, Jeremy Davis, Christopher Castillo and Monique Trujillo alleged in their March 2 fourth amended complaint that Google engages in “surreptitious interception and collection” of personal and sensitive user data while users are in a private browsing mode, and does this without “disclosure or consent (see 2304140026).” The deadline for Google to file opposition to plaintiffs’ fee motion for an award of attorneys’ fees, costs and service awards is June 7, with plaintiffs’ reply in support of their fee motion slated for June 21, said the order.
A John Doe defendant living in Taiwan entered into a contract with fine art broker Sotheby’s and consigned three pieces of fine art nonfungible tokens (NFTs) created by the artist Beeple that were stolen from plaintiff Augusto Reyes, alleged Reyes' fraud complaint Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-03371) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles.
Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the parties’ request in MacClelland v. Cellco Partnership to continue to hold the case in abeyance for an additional 90 days, said its order Thursday (docket 22-16020). In November, Verizon and the plaintiffs asked that the case be removed from the argument calendar and held in abeyance pending consummation of a settlement in principle with 27 consumers (see 2311120007). The case originated from a November 2021 class action challenging Verizon’s alleged practice of padding consumers’ monthly wireless bills with a secretive “administrative charge” that kept climbing above the flat monthly rates it was advertising.