Most of the country doesn’t have much competition for broadband services. But in some of New York City’s boroughs, particularly Brooklyn and the Bronx, Cablevision and Verizon FiOS fight head to head for residential customers. The battle between the two is often ugly, and with a new lawsuit filed yesterday, it just got uglier. [More]
lawsuits
Cablevision Sues Verizon Over FiOS Ads, Claims Verizon’s Touted All-Fiber Network Actually Isn’t
By 5.20.15
Lawsuit Over JCPenney’s Alleged Imaginary Discounts Receives Class Action Status
By 5.19.15
A class-action lawsuit that accuses JCPenney’s of violating consumer protection laws by using deceptive discount practices received the go-ahead from a federal judge on Tuesday. [More]
AT&T CEO: We Can Invest In Our Company Despite Net Neutrality Because It’ll Lose In Court Anyway
By 5.19.15
All of the big ISPs hate the FCCs new net neutrality rule. They’ve been protesting the agency’s decision since before it was even made. And yet the top executives at the cable ISPs have all by now explained why net neutrality is not actually a threat to their businesses, and this week was AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s turn. [More]
Jury Hits Debt Collector With $83 Million Verdict Over Bogus $1,130 Debt
By 5.19.15
A jury in Missouri recently awarded $251,000 in damages to a local woman who was wrongfully sued by a debt collector — more than 222 times the amount she’d been sued over — but that’s nothing compared to the additional $82.99 million in punitive damages assessed against the collection company. [More]
Lawsuit: “Defective” Chicken McNugget Contained Bone Shards That Caused “Severe Injury” When Swallowed
By 5.19.15
A Chicago man says he had to take a trip to the emergency room after eating what he calls a “defective” Chicken McNugget caused him “severe injury” when he swallowed it. He’s filed a lawsuit claiming the food in question contained one or more sharp bone shards that didn’t feel so great going down. [More]
Lawmakers Propose Bill To Prevent Businesses From Suing You For Complaining About Them
By 5.18.15
Most of the time, consumer interactions with businesses go just fine. We give a company our money, they provide us with goods or services, and everyone is happy. But sometimes, things go awry. The customer isn’t happy, the business doesn’t make it right, and we complain: not just to the business, but to Facebook, Twitter, or Yelp. And that, too often, is when the story starts to get even uglier. [More]
Supreme Court Says Convicted Felons Have A Right To Sell Their Guns
By 5.18.15
Plenty of Americans legally own firearms. If any of them are later convicted of a felony (that isn’t related to the weapons) and can no longer own a gun, should they have the right to have some input on where their former firearms go? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, yes. [More]
North Carolina Sues FCC To Keep Limits On Municipal Broadband
By 5.18.15
It’s been a big year for North Carolina in terms of improving the Internet connections for many of its residents. Google Fiber will bring new options to multiple markets in the state, and the FCC acted against a state law that limits municipal broadband providers from expanding their services. But rather than acknowledge that maybe it shouldn’t let Time Warner Cable dictate state laws, North Carolina has sued the FCC. [More]
Appeals Court Blocks Utah Law That Would Have Banned Price-Fixing On Contact Lenses
By 5.14.15
In recent years, many of the country’s biggest contact lens manufacturers moved to set minimum sale prices for their products, meaning any retailer wishing to discount these lenses couldn’t go below that price floor. The practice — which would have been illegal until a 2007 Supreme Court ruling — has come under scrutiny from federal lawmakers, and Utah state legislators passed a bill earlier this year that would outlaw this form of price-fixing in the state. However, a federal appeals court has temporarily sided with the lens makers and blocked that law from being enforced. [More]
Class Action Suit Filed In California Over Wells Fargo’s Alleged Customer Account Abuses
By 5.14.15
A lawsuit filed earlier this month by the city of Los Angeles accuses Wells Fargo of pushing employees to engage in fraudulent conduct with regard to consumer accounts in order to meet the bank’s sales quotas. Now, one of those customers has filed his own lawsuit against the San Francisco-based bank alleging the same misconduct deceived and defrauded consumers across the country. [More]
Worker’s Lawsuit Claims Company Fired Her After She Removed App That Tracked Her Location 24/7
By 5.13.15
It’s perfectly acceptable for a company to want to know what its workers are up to on the job, but one woman in California says her employers took it too far when they allegedly required her and others to not only keep their phones on around the clock, but submit to GPS monitoring via an app she says had to install as a condition of her employment. [More]
Customer Suing Over Cat Bite Claims Denver Cat Cafe Knew Animal Was Dangerous
By 5.13.15
Cat cafes are all the rage these days, filled as they are with cats. But although the owner of a Denver cat cafe says customers should reasonably expect that a cat may bite or scratch, the daughter of a woman who was bitten during a visit has filed a lawsuit on her mother’s behalf, saying the owner knew the animal was known to be dangerous, and shouldn’t have let it come into contact with people. [More]
SeaWorld Lawsuit: “Shamu Show” Was A Sham That Masked “Ugly Truth” About Lives Of Whales At The Park
By 5.12.15
Despite attempting to reassure the public that all is well under its artificial seas, SeaWorld continues to face criticism from the general public: A new class-action lawsuit against SeaWorld claims that the park made hundreds of millions of dollars from its “Shamu Show,” all while hiding the truth of how its killer whales were treated. [More]
JPMorgan Chase, Bank Of America Agree To Wipe Debt Cleared By Bankruptcy From Credit Reports
By 5.8.15
Two of the country’s largest banks are finally getting around to removing the debt consumers eliminated during bankruptcy proceedings from their credit reports, a move that puts Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase in line with federal law. [More]
Court: NSA Bulk Phone Data Collection Program Is Illegal
By 5.7.15
A federal appeals court has ruled this morning that the NSA’s controversial bulk phone data collection program is in violation of federal law. [More]
Uber Halts Operations In Kansas After Legislature Votes To Mandate Background Checks, Insurance Coverage
By 5.6.15
It seems like every few months a new city or state announces it will no longer allow Uber to operate in its jurisdiction. But in a slight change of pace, the ride-sharing company is actually taking itself out of the equation in Kansas. [More]
Super Bowl Ticket Broker Files For Bankruptcy After Not Being Able To Provide Paid-For Tickets
By 5.5.15
A lot of people who purchased legitimate Super Bowl tickets months in advance through ticket brokers later found themselves watching the game on TV after those brokers claimed they were unable to get the tickets that were promised. One New York-based broker who is being sued by the state of Washington recently filed for bankruptcy protection as dozens of customers look to get refunds on their tickets and other related travel expenses. [More]
Los Angeles Sues Wells Fargo Over Unfair Customer Account Conduct
By 5.5.15 — Updated: 9.30.16
The City of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against the largest bank based in the state, accusing Wells Fargo of a plethora of unfair practices including encouraging employees to open unauthorized consumer accounts and then charging those accounts phony fees. [More]
