First, an Illinois sheriff convinced Visa and MasterCard to stop doing business with online classifieds site Backpage.com, claiming the site was a storefront for sex traffickers. Then Backpage sued the sheriff, alleging his actions were tantamount to government censorship. Now a judge in the case has told the sheriff to back off of Backpage. [More]
lawsuits
Court Says Sheriff Crossed Line By Convincing Visa, MasterCard To Sever Ties With Backpage.com
By 7.27.15
Appeals Court Revives Texas Bank’s Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality Of CFPB
By 7.24.15
This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau celebrates its fourth anniversary of protecting consumers from harmful practices and shady characters in the financial sector. But instead of buying the regulatory arm a big ol’ birthday cake, a federal appeals court is gifting the Bureau with a revived lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. [More]
Buyers Of Convicted Liar Kevin Trudeau’s Weight Loss Book May Finally Be Getting Refunds
By 7.22.15
Last year, author Kevin Trudeau was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for repeatedly violating pledges to stop lying about the content of his book The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. Yesterday, nearly a decade after Trudeau was first held in contempt over his misleading claims about this book, a federal judge gave the go-ahead for a plan to finally issue refunds to consumers who purchased the title. [More]
New York Sues Leukemia “Charity” For Allegedly Raising $10 Million Through Deception
By 7.21.15
Most of us understand that not every dollar given to a charity is going directly to the people or causes that the charitable organization supports, but when the charity tells lies about how your money will be spent and instead wastes nearly every penny on enriching a handful of employees, a line is crossed. [More]
Court Sides With JetBlue Employee Who Reported Passenger For Saying The Word “Bomb”
By 7.17.15
If you’re in a bad mood at the airport and feel tempted to haphazardly include the word “bomb” in any sentence, you probably want to refrain from doing so. A federal appeals court recently sided with JetBlue employees who reported a passenger for making an offhand gripe that was misinterpreted as a bomb threat, and which got her arrested by the FBI. [More]
Lawsuit Accuses Comcast Of Making 9 Months Of Robocalls To Collect On Paid Bill
By 7.17.15
A Philadelphia woman is suing Comcast, alleging that the hometown cable company not only spent nine months hassling her with debt collection calls but that the bill in question had already been paid. [More]
Bar Sues NFL & DirecTV, Alleging NFL Sunday Ticket Is Illegal Monopoly
By 7.16.15
NFL Sunday Ticket — a pricey add-on sports package that offers live access to every out-of-market Sunday afternoon NFL game — is exclusively available through DirecTV, and will remain that way for years to come. But some bar owners allege that the satellite company’s deal with the NFL creates an illegal monopoly. [More]
Uber Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit Involving Driver Who Hit, Killed 6-Year-Old In San Francisco
By 7.15.15
Uber has reached a settlement with the family of a six-year-old girl who was hit and killed by an Uber driver in San Francisco in 2013, after their attorney brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the company alleging multiple counts of negligence in January 2014. [More]
Marketer Of “As Seen On TV” Products To Pay $550K For Allegedly Forcing Customers To Pay For Stuff They Didn’t Order
By 7.14.15
In 2014, the state of New Jersey accused Telebrands, a company that markets “As Seen on TV” products like the Pocket Hose and Instabulbs, of forcing customers to pay for items they did not want or order. Yesterday, the company agreed to pay more than half a million dollars to settle the lawsuit. [More]
Oscar-Winning Director Of Snowden Documentary Trying To Find Out Why She’s Been Detained At Airports So Much
By 7.13.15
Laura Poitras recently won the Academy Award for CITIZENFOUR, her documentary on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, but the director claims that she’s long been hassled by U.S. federal authorities for years, resulting in multiple unmerited airport detentions. Now she’s suing the government to find out exactly why. [More]
Lawsuit Asks Major League Baseball To Put Up Safety Nets All The Way To Foul Poles
By 7.13.15
I’ve been going to baseball games since I was old enough to walk, and I’ve even had regular seats in prime foul ball territory. Yet I’ve never managed to snag an errant ball (and luckily, I’ve never had to duck out of the way from a flying bat). If a new lawsuit has its way, my dream of someday catching a foul ball will become even more of a fantasy. [More]
Lawsuit Claims $12,500 Pink Sapphire Bought In 1999 Turned Out To Be A Fake Worth Only $30
By 7.10.15
A Delaware woman says she was upset to find out she’d been showing off a fake on her finger for the last 16 years, after an expert deemed the pink sapphire in the ring her husband had bought for her birthday was worth only $30, instead of the $12,500 the couple thought. [More]
Uber Tells Court Its Drivers Are Happy Being Non-Employees
By 7.10.15
Are Uber drivers independent contractors or employees of the popular ride-hailing service? The company has long maintained that Uber is just a platform for drivers — using their own cars on their own time — to connect with passengers, while others have contended that Uber drivers are treated like employees and should therefore not be responsible for all the costs of operating their vehicles. Yesterday in federal court, the company presented statements from drivers claiming to be just fine with their status as non-employees. [More]
Chase Credit Card Settlement Halts Collections On 528,000 Accounts
By 7.8.15
Earlier today, we told you of reports that JPMorgan Chase had agreed to pay at least $125 million to close the books on state and federal investigations into its credit card collections practices. Now that the details of the deal have been made public, we know exactly how much the bank will pay and how many credit card accounts are affected. [More]
Federal Court Cancels Registration Of Redskins Trademarks
By 7.8.15
A year after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office deemed the term “Redskin” offensive, and therefore not eligible for a trademark, the Washington NFL team has been dealt another blow in its attempt to protect its brand. This morning, a federal court agreed with the USPTO and ordered the agency to cancel the team’s trademark. [More]
Delta, American, United & Southwest Face Passenger Lawsuits Over Alleged Collusion For Higher Airfares
By 7.7.15
Following news that the Department of Justice opened an investigation into alleged collusion between major airlines to keep ticket prices high, it was only a matter of time before consumers began filing lawsuit against the major U.S. carriers. [More]
Cox Customers Convince Court To Remove Them From Piracy Lawsuit
By 7.7.15
We recently told you about a number of Cox broadband subscribers who were caught up in a piracy lawsuit filed against the cable company by music publishing giant BMG Rights Management. These customers said their personal information should not be involved in this legal dispute because they had nothing to do with the alleged content theft. Last week, the judge in the case sided with some Cox subscribers while saying that others hadn’t done enough to separate themselves from the dispute. [More]
NYC Apartment Owner Suing Co-Op Board After 16 Years Of Waiting To Move In
By 7.7.15
Anticipation can be a heady thing, a mix of optimism and suspense, with the knowledge that eventually, you’ll get what you’re after. But one New York City co-op owner is likely past the stage of simple expectation, after waiting 16 years to move into an apartment that cost him millions. [More]
