The FTC claims that CompuCredit didn’t properly disclose that it monitored spending and cut credit lines if consumers used their cards at certain places. Among them: tire and retreading shops, massage parlors, bars, billiard halls, and marriage counseling offices. “What they didn’t say was that you could be punished for specific kinds of purchases.”
lawsuits
Use Your Credit Card At A Marriage Counselor, See Your Limit Get Reduced
By 6.19.08
The Methods That Target DMCA Violators Are Flawed
By 6.17.08
When we read stories like Tanya Andersen’s and consider the countless others who have been wrongfully targeted by trade groups like the RIAA, it becomes evident that the system by which DMCA takedown notices are issued is very far from perfect. For the uninitiated, DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices are official statements which assert that an artist’s or company’s intellectual rights have been violated (i.e. copyright infringement) and often threaten legal action against an individual. In a study conducted by the University of Washington, researchers proved that this system is seriously flawed, according to the New York Times. In one experiment, the team received takedown notices from the MPAA which accused 3 laserjet printers of downloading the latest Indiana Jones movie and Iron Man. More, inside…
RIAA Pulls Case Before It Can Be Dismissed, Then Refiles Days Later To Get Different Judge
By 6.15.08
If you were still somehow unconvinced that the RIAA’s legal strategy is “be sleazy, intimidate, then profit,” their latest legal maneuvering might finally convince you. Next week, a judge was to decide whether their case against a New York family should be thrown out—the family’s lawyer, RIAA critic Ray Beckerman, argued “that if the RIAA can’t prove anybody downloaded the music from an open share folder, then the case would have to be dismissed.”
Despite Class Action Lawsuit, U-Haul's $50 Reservation Guarantee Is Still Completely Meaningless
By 6.11.08
Reader Greg wants to warn all of you not to expect too much from U-Haul and their so-called $50 guarantee. When he showed up to collect his reserved truck, he found himself waiting in line with another customer who’d reserved the same type of truck. When he overheard the employee telling her they were out of trucks, he knew that his day was going to go rapidly downhill.
By 6.9.08
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T-Mobile is suing Starbucks for allowing AT&T to supply in-store customers with free wireless Internet access using T-Mobile’s lines and equipment. [NYT via Racked]
By 6.9.08
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Costa Mesa may follow L.A.’s lead and sue Time Warner Cable for shoddy service, too. [Broadcast Newsroom]
Third-Party Debt Collectors Misusing Courts To Increase Profits
By 6.9.08
The Chicago Tribune writes that “More than 119,000 civil lawsuits against alleged debtors are clogging [Chicago] courtrooms,” but since collection agencies make money off of volume business, the suits filed are based on too little information. The result: cases based on mistaken identities, or for debts already settled, or against debtors who have made good-faith efforts to work out repayment plans. “The system is out of control,” one attorney tells the paper.
Lawsuit: Comcast Leaked Customer's Banking Info After She Sent Check For "My Right Arm"
By 6.6.08
A woman who sent a sarcastic payment to the “Comcast Vampires” for “My Right Arm” is suing because she says Comcast employees posted a copy of her unredacted check on the internet. She says she was alerted to the security breach by a stranger from Colorado who received the check in an email that said: “This is too funny not to pass on. This is an actual payment we received via yesterdays mail.”
Class Action Certified In Suit Against Citibank Over IPod Mini Promotion
By 6.5.08
When Citibank offered free 4 GB iPod Minis to new customers in 2004 and 2005, the product was retailing for $249, and Citibank indirectly acknowledged the value of the product by saying they’d substitute an mp3 player of “equal or greater value” if there were fulfillment problems. There weren’t, but by the time Citibank got around to passing out the iPod Mini, it had dropped in price and a new 6 GB version was now on the market for $249. Citibank chose to take the savings and distribute the now cheaper 4-gig versions. Now there’s a class action lawsuit against Citibank in California, where it seems all class actions are born. You can read the ruling for the certification here (PDF).
Los Angeles To Sue Time Warner Cable For Sucking
By 6.5.08
Today, the city of Los Angeles plans to give a little gift to Time Warner Cable—a lawsuit! From the LA Times:
Possible Class Action Against HP Over Cruddy Pavilion Notebooks
By 6.4.08
If you own an HP Pavilion Notebook and you’ve had problems with it—specifically overheating, problems with the power supply, and an inability to update the BIOS—then you might want to contact this law firm and tell them your story. We know class actions rarely help the individual consumer, but they do succeed in punishing the offending company occasionally, and we can’t think of a computer company more in need of a good class action smackdown than HP.
ATT Settles Class Action Over Fraudulent Ringtone Charges
By 6.4.08
Thanks to AT&T settling a recent class-action, the era of third-party scammers cramming consumers with fraudulent subscriptions to ringtone, hookup text and other stupid content services may soon be over. AT&T Customers can claim refunds for wrongful charges from up to 3 of their bills between 1/1/04 and 5/30/08. The lawyers will get $4.3 million. AT&T will now require subscriptions to 3rd party-services with recurring fees to be confirmed by responding to a text message. 3rd party services will also have to send a monthly reminder with unsubscribe info. The firm has filed similar suits against Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Claim forms and more info at thirdpartycontentrefund.com.
AT&T Agrees To Refund Unauthorized Third-Party Charges On Cellphone Bills
By 6.3.08
AT&T Mobility has agreed to offer refunds to customers who were charged for third-party services like ringtones, although if you were frequently a victim of this you’ll quickly exhaust your refund quota: “Customers will able to claim refunds for spurious charges that appeared on up to three of their monthly bills between Jan. 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008.” AT&T should be sending out a notification to its customers “soon,” but you can already download a refund request.
Hotwire Facing Possible Class Action Lawsuit For Selling 2-Star Rooms As 3-Star
By 5.30.08
A reader forwarded us an email that indicates a class action motion is being prepared against Hotwire, the discount travel company, for promoting hotel rooms at artifically high ratings. On Hotwire, you can’t preview the hotel before booking, so the star rating is really all you have to go on—and there’s at least anecdotal evidence online that Hotwire has been known to be more lenient in its rating system. Though Ryan says he’s gotten some good deals through Hotwire, he adds, “I do recall booking a room around Christmas in the 2.5 to 3 star range and getting La Quinta (which as we all know is spanish for ‘near a Denny’s’), which is listed as a two star hotel.”
Woman Sues Playtex Over Bisphenol-A
By 5.29.08
A woman in Arkansas has filed a federal lawsuit against Playtex Products over their use of BPA in plastic baby bottles, claiming that the company “failed to adequately disclose that its plastic bottle products are formulated using BPA,” according to MSNBC. The suit is seeking class action status, which would make it the second BPA-related class action lawsuit after the one in California against Nalge Nunc International (the makers of Nalgene bottles)—although the chemical is still not classified as toxic in the U.S.
By 5.28.08
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The Supreme Court rejected T-Mobile’s appeal in 3 cases yesterday, which means an earlier federal ruling that says states “can refuse to enforce arbitration clauses if they include bans on class actions” will stand. Now T-Mobile has to go back to state courts to deal with the class action lawsuits against it. [Associated Press]
Lawsuits: Man Takes Delta To Court For $1 Million After The Airline Ruined His Mother's 80th Birthday
By 5.28.08
Manhattan lawyer Richard Roth says he tried not to sue Delta Airlines after the airline’s “absolute incompetence” caused he and his family to rack up $21,000 in rental cars, clothes, hotels and airline tickets trying to get to Argentina for his mother’s 80th birthday party, but the airline wouldn’t answer his requests for reimbursement.
Judge: "Dell Has Engaged In Repeated Misleading, Deceptive And Unlawful Business Conduct"
By 5.28.08
A state judge in Albany, NY has found that Dell “has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct,including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates.”
