It’s been about nine months since a federal jury found Bank of America liable for the “Hustle,” a pre-bubble Countrywide Financial program that removed safeguards to the mortgage underwriting process, resulting in a mountain of toxic, worthless loans. Yesterday, the judge in the case finally decided how much BofA — and the former Countrywide exec in charge of the program — should pay. [More]
lawsuits
Recording Industry Sues Ford, GM Over “CD-Ripping” Vehicles
By 7.29.14
While it’s usually perfectly legal for you to put the music you buy on a hard drive for your own use, the makers of the technology that rip your CDs into MP3s (or other formats) may be breaking the law if they don’t pay the recording industry piper. That’s why two of the country’s largest automakers are currently being sued by a music business royalties group. [More]
FTC Gives Wireless Industry Suggestions On How To Not Be Bill-Cramming Jerks
By 7.29.14
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission sued T-Mobile, accusing the wireless company of making hundred of millions of dollars off of so-called “premium” text-messaging subscriptions that were often never requested by subscribers. To preempt others from getting involved in illegal “bill cramming,” the FTC is asking carriers to implement policy changes now instead of waiting until it’s too late. [More]
USPS Sued By Feds For Labeling Whistle-Blower A Drug-Using “Terrorist”
By 7.28.14
If you think an employee of yours might be too quick to gripe or prone to exaggerated complaints, there are proper ways to handle that situation. Among those accepted methods is not falsely telling others that he’s a terrorist and that he’d threatened to blow up your building. [More]
Bose Sues Beats Alleging Infringement Of Noise-Canceling Headphones
By 7.25.14
The last thing you want when flying early in the morning is to have what little sleep you can get on the plane interrupted by your fellow fliers’ noise. That experience is exactly what makes noise-canceling headphones so popular, and what’s subsequently prompting a bit of a war between Bose and Beats. [More]
PA Court Says I Don’t Need To Tell Buyers That My House Was A Satanic Murder Pit
By 7.25.14
Should a home seller be obliged to reveal that the lovely 4-bedroom with a 2-car garage on half acre just also happened to be the place where previous tenants were brutally murdered? Not if that house is here in Pennsylvania. [More]
Chubby Checker, HP Reach Settlement Over Penis-Measuring App
By 7.25.14
It’s been more than a year since a dispute between singer Chubby Checker and Hewlitt-Packard over a penis-measuring app plunged this country into darkness, dividing households, pitting brother against brother, leaving deep scars from which we may never heal — but which will always stand as a reminder of an era we’d all like to forget. Finally, the two parties have put aside their differences for the sake of generations to come, and reached a settlement. [More]
NJ Turnpike Authority Sues Florida Pizza Chain Over Lookalike Logo
By 7.24.14
We don’t know why any restaurant owners would want to associate their food with a stretch of ugly highway that cuts a massive concrete and asphalt path from one end of New Jersey to the other, but that’s what the operators of a small pizza chain in Florida did when crafting a logo that looks a lot like the one for the Garden State Parkway. Fearing that people might somehow think it’s gotten into the pizza business, the NJ Turnpike Authority has sued the pizza chain in federal court. [More]
Despite Policy Changes, Google Must Face Class Action Suit Regarding In-App Purchases
By 7.22.14
Google may have made changes to prevent inadvertent in-app purchases within the Google Play store, but the company still has to answer for their previously lax controls that allowed children to run up huge bills on their parents’ accounts. [More]
Jury Smacks Tobacco Company R.J. Reynolds With $23 Billion Verdict
By 7.21.14
The bill has arrived for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company in a lawsuit brought by a Florida woman whose husband smoked cigarettes and later died from lung cancer, and the company is not pleased: The jury returned one of the largest verdicts ever against a tobacco company, smacking Reynolds with $23.6 billion in damages. [More]
Apple May Refund $400 Million To E-Book Customers (Or Maybe Nothing At All)
By 7.16.14
A year after a federal court ruled against Apple in the e-book price-fixing lawsuit brought by the Justice Dept., court documents reveal the terms of a second settlement that would close the books on state and civil claims tied to the price-fixing issue. But since the deal is contingent on Apple’s pending appeal of the DOJ case, the company could pay out as much as $400 million in refunds or as little as zilch. [More]
Appeals Court Disregards Aereo Ruling, Won’t Shut Down Dish’s Streaming Service
By 7.15.14
Last week, we told you about an attempt by broadcasters — still bloody from their Supreme Court gutting of Aereo — to use the ruling in that case to shut down Dish’s Dish Anywhere streaming service. But yesterday, a federal appeals court said Dish Anywhere could continue pending the outcome of a trial. [More]
Court Allows Company To Ask Amazon To Identify Negative Reviewers
By 7.14.14
While courts have held that companies have to prove an online review is libelous before it can be forcibly deleted, there is still a question about whether anonymous review-writers have a right to remain unnamed. A federal judge in Washington state recently decided that one company can request that Amazon provide information about users who left questionable reviews about the plaintiff’s products. [More]
Amazon Sued By Feds Over In-App Purchases
By 7.10.14
Last week, Amazon made it clear to the Federal Trade Commission that it wasn’t going to fork over a ton of cash to close an investigation into the e-tailer’s in-app purchase policy. And today the FTC made it clear that it intends to pursue its complaint against Amazon, suing the company in federal court. [More]
Citi Reportedly Ready To Pay $7 Billion For Selling Shoddy Mortgages
By 7.9.14
A half-decade on from the collapse of the housing bubble, it looks like the Justice Dept. and Citigroup may have finally reached a deal that will have the bank forking over several billion dollars to close the book on allegations that it sold off a large number of worthless mortgages in the lead-up to the 2008 crash. [More]
Porn Copyright Trolls Use Other Companies’ Porn To Shame Alleged Pirates
By 7.8.14
Here’s how the basic porn copyright troll threat works: “We believe you downloaded ‘Backdoor Loving 23’ illegally and shared the file with others. Pay up or we’ll sue and everyone will know that you enjoy movies with titles like ‘Backdoor Loving 23.'” But just in case the porn named in the allegation doesn’t have a sufficiently lascivious title, the nation’s biggest porn troll also wants defendants to name every single porn they have watched and every single porn site they have visited. [More]
Legal Battle Between American Express & DOJ Could Change Credit Card Purchases As We Know Them
By 7.7.14
A four-year battle between American Express and the Justice Department comes to a head today in court, and the outcome could bring significant changes to the credit card industry. [More]
T-Mobile: We Shouldn’t Be Sued Over Bill-Cramming Because We’re Not Doing It Anymore & We’re Super-Sorry
By 7.1.14
Earlier this afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against T-Mobile, alleging the wireless carrier made hundreds of millions of dollars off of bogus premium text-messaging charges “crammed” onto customers’ bills. The response from T-Mobile CEO John Legere isn’t exactly what you would describe as contrite. [More]
