It’s been a long time coming, but Samsung and Apple’s ongoing patent battle has finally come to an end: a little under five years since the two technology giants first clashed in court over patents, Samsung has agreed to pay $548 million to settle the long-running dispute with Apple. [More]
lawsuits
Judge Says Cox Refused To Pull Plug On Known Copyright Pirates
By 12.3.15
Earlier this year we told you how apparently innocent Cox cable/Internet customers had gotten caught up in a piracy lawsuit filed against the company by a music publisher. While some of those customers were able to remove themselves from the dispute, a judge has ruled that Cox knowingly allowed pirates to continue using their broadband accounts in violation of the law. [More]
California Car Donation Charities Misrepresented Charitable Programs, Misdirected Donations
By 12.1.15
From time to time you may hear of a charity that accepts the donation of older, used vehicles that owners simply no longer have use for, promising to donate the profit of the future sale to a charitable program. While it might seem like a fairly straightforward operation, the state of California claims two such groups weren’t keeping their promises, instead using the funds to pay for their own expenses. [More]
Wells Fargo’s High-Pressure Sales Strategy Probed By Federal Regulators
By 11.30.15 — Updated: 9.30.16
Six months after the Los Angeles City Attorney filed a lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo of a slew of unfair practices — like encouraging employees to open unauthorized consumer accounts and then charging those accounts phony fees to meet sales expectations — two other regulatory agencies have opened investigations into the bank’s behavior. [More]
DraftKings Tries To Make Its Case That Daily Fantasy Sports Are Not Gambling
By 11.24.15
A week after New York state sued DraftKings, alleging that the daily fantasy sports (DFS) site is an illegal gambling operation, DraftKings has filed a brief with the court to make its argument that DFS isn’t gambling at all. [More]
Big Corn & Big Sugar Confidentially Settle 4-Year-Old False Advertising Lawsuit
By 11.20.15
A long-delayed four-year legal battle between Big Corn and Big Sugar has finally come to an end — not with a jury verdict, or with a judge throwing the case out, but with a confidential settlement that leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. [More]
McDonald’s Will Pay $355K To Settle Claims That It Discriminated Against Immigrant Workers
By 11.20.15
McDonald’s has agreed to pay $355,000 in civil penalties as part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, to resolve claims that the company discriminated against legal immigrants in the workplace. [More]
San Francisco Sues American Express, Alleging Illegal Restraints On Merchants
By 11.19.15
Earlier this year, a federal court ruled that American Express violated antitrust laws — resulting in higher costs for consumers — by forbidding retailers that accept AmEx from encouraging customers to use competing cards like those from Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. Now, the city of San Francisco is suing the credit card company to get back billions of dollars for merchants in California. [More]
Don’t Forget: Starkist Tuna Lawsuit Deadline Is Friday, November 20
By 11.18.15 — Updated: 2.7.17
While there’s a new tuna class action on the dock filed against the grocery chain Safeway, don’t forget that the class action against tuna giant Starkist was also settled earlier this year, with millions of dollars and millions of vouchers for free tuna set aside as a settlement. [More]
New York State Adds Yahoo To Inquiry Into Daily Fantasy Sports Sites
By 11.18.15
Four months after Yahoo announced it would offer sports fans the opportunity to make money by betting on professional athletes’ performances, the company became the latest target in a New York state investigation into the business practices of the currently unregulated multi-million dollar online daily fantasy sports industry. [More]
Feds File Criminal, Civil Cases Against More Than 100 Supplement Companies
By 11.17.15
A sweeping multi-agency federal investigation has resulted in a slew of criminal and civil charges being brought against more than 100 companies that either make or market supposed dietary supplements for selling products that allegedly contain ingredients other than those listed on the label, or products that make unsubstantiated health or disease-treatment claims. [More]
New York State Sues DraftKings & FanDuel Over Alleged Gambling, False Advertising
By 11.17.15
One week after concluding that, according to New York state law, daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel are unlicensed gambling operations, the state has filed lawsuits against both companies, seeking to stop them from offering their service to New Yorkers. [More]
DraftKings, FanDuel Ask Court To Overturn New York State Ban
By 11.13.15
As expected, fantasy sports businesses are fighting back against the New York state attorney general’s determination that DraftKings and FanDuel are actually illegal gambling sites and should not be allowed to operate in the state. This morning, both DraftKings and FanDuel asked the court to overturn that decision. [More]
Pilot Says He Was Fired For Evacuating Smoky Plane
By 11.12.15
Allegiant Air — already in the spotlight over repair issues, onboard fires, and safety concerns from those who fly the airline’s planes — now stands accused of firing a pilot because he evacuated his aircraft after crew and passengers detected smoke in the cabin. [More]
Jury Awards $21.5M To Cruise Passenger Struck In The Head By Ship’s Sliding-Glass Doors
By 11.11.15
While automatic doors can be very useful — especially on a cruise ship where maybe you don’t want to go around touching too many door handles — they’re not only useless when they don’t work right, but they can hurt: a federal jury has ordered cruise line Holland America to fork over $21.5 million in damages to an Illinois man who suffered a minor brain injury when he was struck in the head by a ship’s sliding-glass door. [More]
JCPenney To Refund Customers $50M In False Advertising Settlement
By 11.11.15
JCPenney is putting a class-action lawsuit accusing the retailer of violating consumer protection laws by using deceptive discount practices behind it. [More]
California Accused Of Allowing Nursing Homes To Permanently “Dump” Elderly Patients On Hospitals
By 11.9.15
A new lawsuit accuses the California Department of Health and Human Services of deliberately turning a blind eye to the illegal practice of taking nursing home residents who receive state aid and “dumping” them into the hospital system by refusing to let them return, even under binding orders to readmit them. [More]
Court Throws Out StubHub’s Lawsuit Against Ticketmaster, Golden State Warriors
By 11.9.15
Last spring, StubHub sued both Ticketmaster and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, alleging that the team had threatened to cancel the subscriptions of season ticket holders if they tried to resell any of their tickets via StubHub instead of Ticketmaster’s secondary ticket exchange service. But last week, a federal judge dismissed StubHub’s case. [More]
