Last fall, both United Airlines and Orbitz sued travel-booking startup Skiplagged.com, which helped travelers find so-called “hidden city” tickets where you book a multi-stop itinerary with the intention of not flying all the way to the end. Orbitz settled its part of the case in February, but the United suit continued — until yesterday, when a federal judge dismissed the airline’s complaint, but not because the airline didn’t have a case. [More]
lawsuits
MillerCoors Sued For Selling Blue Moon As A Craft Beer
By 5.1.15
To some people, the term “craft beer” implies that the brew is made in limited quantities and implies some level of independence from industry giants like MillerCoors and AB InBev. To others, it may mean just any brand that runs fewer than 10 commercials during your average Sunday NFL game. A recently filed lawsuit raises the question of whether anything made by these giant beer behemoths can justifiably be labeled a craft beer. [More]
Internet Money Guys Start Asking The FCC Not To Implement Net Neutrality
By 4.30.15
Net neutrality has already made a lot of enemies, and the new rule hasn’t even been implemented yet. Along with big ISP lawsuits and hostility in the House, the FCC’s Open Internet Rule is now facing pushback from some of the big money entrepreneurs who make the internet their business. [More]
New Law Would Ban Companies From Penalizing Customers Who Write Negative Reviews
By 4.29.15
For the last couple of years, we’ve been telling you about ridiculous, so-called “non-disparagement” clauses that threaten customers with financial penalties for writing (or threatening to write, or even encouraging someone else to write) something negative online about a company. California has already outlawed these clauses, which tend to fail when challenged in court, but an attempt to enact legislation at the federal level has so far fallen short. But that’s not stopping some members of Congress from trying to ban this form of consumer bullying. [More]
HBO & Showtime File Lawsuit To Block Live Streams Of Pacquiao Vs. Mayweather Fight
By 4.29.15
In case you hadn’t fallen victim to the pummeling from ads, news stories, and seemingly countless documentaries that have aired in recent weeks, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are set to square off in a Las Vegas boxing ring this weekend in a bout co-produced by Showtime and HBO. The fight won’t actually be airing live on either network; you’ll have to pony up $100 to watch it on pay-per-view. That’s why the two premium networks, along with the fight’s promoters, have filed suit to preemptively block websites from live-streaming the event. [More]
Supreme Court To Decide If You Can Sue When Data Aggregators Are Wrong
By 4.27.15
There’s a true 21st-century case a-brewing at the Supreme Court, one of those unsexy legal questions with enormous potential repercussions. At heart of the matter is personal data. There’s an insane amount of it out there, on each and every one of us, and it’s all for trade, barter, and sale. But that doesn’t mean it’s all correct or true. So if some website or service goes around saying you’re someone you’re not, do you have the right to sue?
[More]
Verizon FiOS Sued Over No-ESPN-Included “Custom TV” Cable Packages
By 4.27.15
Just about every basic cable package in the U.S. includes ESPN whether you want it or not. This is because the popular sports network’s contract generally forbids pay-TV providers from putting ESPN on a separate sports tier. But Verizon FiOS recently introduced “Custom TV,” a programming package that doesn’t necessarily include ESPN, and now the telecom giant is being sued by the sports network for breach of contract. [More]
Court Dismisses Yelp Shareholder Lawsuit Over Bogus Reviews, Inflated Stock Prices
By 4.24.15
Last summer, some Yelp shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against the online review site, alleging that Yelp misled them about the quality of user-generated reviews and the process Yelp uses to screen for bogus write-ups. This week, a federal court judge sided with Yelp and dismissed the complaint, saying that a reasonable investor would not believe that every review posted to an open and free online community would be genuine. [More]
DOJ Sues Quicken Loans Over Improperly Underwritten Mortgages
By 4.23.15
If you thought that we were done with lawsuits related to the mortgage meltdown, think again. The U.S. Dept. of Justice is suing Quicken Loans, alleging that the lender improperly underwrote hundreds of FHA-insured home loans before and during the housing market crash, resulting in substantial losses for the federal government. [More]
Southwest Airlines Sued Over Death Of Passenger
By 4.21.15
The widow of a California man who died hours after experiencing a medical emergency onboard a Southwest Airlines flight last year filed a lawsuit against the airline claiming the crew members failed to provide adequate medical attention after the man collapsed in the plane’s lavatory. [More]
Judge: Uber Must Face Lawsuit Claiming Discrimination Against Blind Passengers With Service Dogs
By 4.21.15
Months after the National Federation of the Blind claimed in a federal civil rights lawsuit that some of Uber’s drivers have discriminated against blind passengers by refusing to pick them up when they had guide dogs — and in one case, allegedly putting a service dog in a car’s trunk — a judge has ruled that the ride-hailing company must defend itself against the suit. [More]
Virginia’s Highest Court Says Yelp Doesn’t Have To ID Anonymous Reviewers
By 4.16.15
For nearly two years, we’ve been telling you about the Virginia carpet cleaner trying to compel Yelp to identify seven of anonymous users so that the business could name them in a defamation lawsuit. After Yelp lost legal battles in both the trial and appeals courts, the state’s highest court today ruled in favor of the review site, but only because the subpoena was served in the wrong state. [More]
GM Won’t Face Ignition Defect Lawsuits, Thanks To 2009 Bankruptcy
By 4.15.15
The same process that allowed a bankrupt General Motors to work its way back (with the help of several billion dollars from taxpayers) to being a viable business is, six years later, helping to shield the company from potentially billions of dollars in damages from class action fraud lawsuits involving the long-ignored ignition defect that claimed the lives of at least 84 people. [More]
Tobacco Companies Sue FDA Over Cigarette Packaging Guidelines
By 4.14.15
For more than 5 years, the FDA has had authority to regulate tobacco products, and last month, the agency issued guidance to the tobacco industry about when cigarette makers must seek FDA approval on changes to packaging. The country’s largest tobacco businesses now believe the FDA is overstepping its authority and violates their rights to free expression. [More]
The Long-Awaited Net Neutrality Lawsuits Are Finally Here
By 4.14.15
As it was foretold, so it has come to pass: with the Open Internet Rule finally entering the Federal Register yesterday, lawsuit season is now officially open. And as promised, threatened, and endlessly discussed, the trade groups representing all of the big broadband providers have vaulted into action right on cue, asking the courts to stop this piece of consumer protection before it can happen. [More]
Judge Says An IP Address Is Not Enough To Identify A Movie Pirate
By 4.10.15
Since the dawn of online piracy, media companies have been serving subpoenas on Internet service providers to try to compel them to match up IP addresses of alleged pirates with the names on the accounts tied to those IP addresses. Unless the ISPs put up a fight, courts frequently grant these subpoenas, but one federal judge in Florida has said that a mere IP address is not sufficient to identify someone as a pirate. [More]
Countdown Clock For Real Net Neutrality Lawsuits Starts Monday
By 4.10.15
The Net Neutrality rules narrowly approved by the FCC in February and made public in March will finally become part of the Federal Register on Monday, kicking off a 60-day countdown clock for everyone and their Aunt Peg to file a lawsuit to try to block, neuter, or gut the new regulations. [More]
Amazon Files First Lawsuit To Block Companies From Selling Fraudulent Positive Reviews
By 4.9.15
For the first time in the 20 years that Amazon has allowed users to review products, the company is taking legal action against businesses it claims sells fake reviews to third-party sellers. [More]
