Plaintiff-appellant Planet Green Cartridges faces a Tuesday deadline for filing its mediation questionnaire in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court appeal that seeks to reverse the district court’s Oct. 5 dismissal of its false advertising claims against Amazon, according to a time schedule order Thursday (docket 23-4434). Planet Green’s opening brief is due Feb. 6, and Amazon’s answering brief is due March 6, said the order. Planet Green alleges Amazon failed to deactivate accounts of third-party sellers that falsely advertised multiple brands of cheap Chinese-made “clone” ink cartridges to consumers as legitimate recycled OEM cartridges, with none of the quality or green benefits of the authentic recycled product. Planet Green describes itself as one of the last U.S.-based recycled cartridge manufacturers. It says Amazon's permissiveness of the falsely advertised product is hurting its business. The district court’s dismissal in Amazon's favor found that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provided Amazon immunity for all of Planet Green’s claims. The court also held that Planet Green failed to identify any false statement of fact Amazon had made, and that the negligence claim failed to allege a legal duty that Amazon owed to Planet Green.
Two of three negligence class actions filed last week against Comcast over an October data breach also included software provider Citrix, which notified the internet service provider Oct. 10 of the vulnerability in one of its products Comcast uses. Comcast began notifying its customers of the breach Dec. 18 after conducting an investigation into the scope of the incident and determining there had been “unauthorized access” to some of its internal systems as a result of the breach, said the complaints.
Nexstar, Scripps, Tegna and four other media organizations still can’t demonstrate standing to challenge the constitutionality of Indiana’s “buffer law” because there’s “no credible threat” of the law's being enforced against them, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) said in a reply Friday (docket 1:23-cv-01805) in U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana in further support of his Dec. 1 motion to dismiss their complaint (see 2312040003). The buffer law, HB-1186, makes it a misdemeanor for journalists to come within 25 feet of police officers on active duty. In altering their factual assertions “in a seeming attempt to establish standing,” the media organizations reveal “a recognition of the frailty of purported standing” where the buffer law hasn't “chilled” them, said the AG’s reply. They now “do allege chill,” yet still fail to meaningfully explain how the buffer law affects that chill, it said. Though this “major change in factual assertions is improper” and shouldn’t be permitted, their standing arguments “possess myriad further flaws,” it said. The media organizations “undermine their standing claims through an inadequate attempt to pack loose facts into shifting theories,” it said.
ESO Solutions, a supplier of data management software to hospitals and first responders, waited three months to notify affected individuals about a data breach it learned of Sept. 28, alleged a class action Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-01557) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in Austin.
U.S. District Judge for Southern New York Nelson Stephen Roman granted plaintiffs’ motion for consolidation of class actions against IBM and Johnson & Johnson involving a data breach defendants were alerted to on Aug. 2 (see 2311060062), said his order Tuesday (docket 7:23-cv-09725) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in White Plains. Seven cases will be consolidated into Malinowski v. IBM Corp. (docket 7:23-CV-08421), filed Sept. 22. Plaintiff Elaine Malinowski asserts claims of negligence and negligence per se; unjust enrichment; and breach of confidence, implied contract, covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and fiduciary duty against the defendants for failing to protect her personally identifiable information in the data breach. The other six class actions were brought by Michelle Pettiford; Anthony Hanna; Vanessa Hays; Michael Wright; Joseph Haley, Rowdy Alldridge and Mary Lea Kirby; and Kristal Mize.
A second negligence complaint in as many days was filed against Comcast and its Xfinity brand in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia involving a data breach it became aware of Oct. 10. Plaintiff Steven Prescott filed an eight-count class action Tuesday alleging that Xfinity's claims of strong and robust security were “false and misleading” (see 2312200005).
Adams Bank & Trust maintained customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) in a “reckless manner” vulnerable to cyberattacks, alleged a class action Monday (docket 7:23-cv-05005) in U.S. District Court for Nebraska in North Platte.
The nearly three dozen plaintiffs in one of multiple lawsuits seeking to establish liability for causing the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire on Maui that killed more than 100 and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses (see 2311150004) voluntarily dismissed without prejudice all their claims against Hawaiian Telcom and Hawaiian Telecommunications, said their notice Friday (docket 1:23-cv-00459) in U.S. District Court for Hawaii. The notice will have no effect on the plaintiffs' currently pending claims against any of the other defendants, including Spectrum, it said. The alleged liability of Spectrum and the telecom companies came into play because they own and operate telecommunications equipment attached to the wooden power poles on Maui, under licenses from the local utilities, said the complaint. Despite their duty to properly design, construct, install, use, inspect, repair and maintain that equipment, Spectrum and the telecom companies “overloaded” at least some of the power poles, “destabilizing them” in the high winds that helped feed the wildfire, it said.
The seven plaintiffs seeking to challenge Indiana’s HB-1186 statute for unconstitutionally impeding the news media by making it a misdemeanor for journalists to come within 25 feet of police officers on official duty oppose Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) and his two co-defendants' Dec. 1 motion to dismiss their complaint (see 2312040003), according to their memorandum Friday (docket 1:23-cv-01805) in U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana in Indianapolis.
Defendants AT&T, Lumen and Verizon collectively removed to U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Lafayette what’s believed to be one of the first class actions brought by homeowners against the telecom industry for legacy lead-laden cables that reduced their property values.