Another company is taking the coward’s way out of resolving legal disputes with its customers by tweaking its Terms of Service to take away users’ rights to take the company to court and to prevent multiple users from having their complaints heard as a group. This time, it’s online storage service Dropbox, which is currently notifying users of the bad news. [More]
lawsuits
Customer Lawsuit Blames Dunkin’ Donuts For Burns From Hot Apple Cider Spill
By 2.21.14
In the kind of story about fast food liquids we have never, ever heard before, a Dunkin’ Donuts customer is suing a franchisee and the company claiming she was badly burned after hot apple cider from the chain spilled on her. [More]
Federal Lawsuit Claims For-Profit College Group Misled Students, Falsified Documents
By 2.20.14
We’ve heard horror stories about some for-profit colleges from students: the false promise of gainful employment after completing a short program at the cost of thousands of dollars. Now come claims from former employees about alleged fraud carried out by officials at a for-profit college group thanks to a federal lawsuit. [More]
Utah Court Issues Injunction To Stop Aereo Service
By 2.19.14
After a string of minor victories, Streaming video service Aereo, which is being sued by network broadcasters in numerous courts around the country, was dealt its first legal loss today with a federal court in Utah siding with broadcasters and issuing an injunction against Aereo from operating in the region. [More]
Court Throws Out Online Price-Fixing Lawsuit Against Major Hotel Chains, Booking Sites
By 2.19.14
For years, some have accused America’s largest hotel chains of colluding with travel booking sites like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, and Priceline to make sure that the room rates offered to consumers on these sites are the same. This practice, claimed plaintiffs in various lawsuits, effectively allowed the hotel chains to determine their own prices and kept the booking sites from competing against each other; meaning consumers could be paying more than they should. But a U.S. District Court judge feels differently. [More]
NSA, Homeland Security Admit They Shouldn’t Have Blocked Sale Of Parody Merchandise
By 2.18.14
No one likes being made fun of or humiliated (okay, some people do, but that’s part of a much larger discussion), but you can’t throw your authority as a big, scary federal agency around to stop people from mocking you, even if they’re making some money doing so. [More]
Kroger Sued Over Labeling Of “Simple Truth” Chicken
By 2.13.14
As we’ve discussed before, many commonly used food labels like “organic” and “natural” can mean very little and are often just marketing lingo. Now the folks at Kroger are facing a potential class-action lawsuit that could determine whether its Simple Truth products lives up to the promises on the label. [More]
Appeals Court Ruling Means Tax-Preparers Will Continue To Go Largely Unregulated
By 2.11.14
The federal government’s attempt to rein in the virtually unregulated tax-preparation industry was dealt a serious blow this morning after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that the IRS overstepped its authority by trying to require registration and testing for all tax preparers. [More]
Man Sues Wells Fargo Over Robocalls Intended For Other Person
By 2.11.14
It’s bad enough to get endless collections call from your mortgage servicer over missed loan payments, but it’s next-level annoying when you’re not even a customer of the bank that won’t stop calling your phone day and night. [More]
Justice Dept. Sued Over Validity Of $13 Billion Chase Mortgage Settlement
By 2.10.14
Remember back in November when JPMorgan reached the massive $13 billion settlement with the Justice Dept. over allegations tied to toxic mortgage-backed securities sold to investors before the housing market went kerflumpp? A non-profit group filed suit today against the DOJ, challenging the validity of the deal and asking for a court to review it. [More]
T-Mobile Wins Legal Battle Against AT&T Subsidiary Over The Color Magenta
By 2.10.14
Last summer, T-Mobile sued Aio Wireless, a prepaid service subsidiary of AT&T for trademark infringement for daring to use a color that is somewhat similar to T-Mobile’s well-known pink logos. An actual judge who gets paid to rule on such things has decided that Aio would have to stop using the similar color. [More]
Merck Agrees To Pay $100 Million To Settle NuvaRing Lawsuits
By 2.7.14
There are thousands of pending lawsuits against big pharma biggie Merck involving its NuvaRing birth control product and whether its marketing downplayed the risk of blood clots to women who use it. Today, Merck announced that it’s agreed to pay out $100 million to settle these claims, but that will require almost all of the eligible plaintiffs to sign off on the deal. [More]
EPA Sued In Effort To Remove Potentially Toxic Chemicals From Fido’s Flea Collar
By 2.7.14
It is the worst when our furry friends pick up fleas and then bring them into our homes. Except, it’s really not quite the worst. What’s worse? When the flea collar you buy for Fido damages your child’s brain with neurotoxins. [More]
Judge Stops Town From Punishing Drivers Who Use Headlights To Warn Others Of Speed Traps
By 2.5.14
Flashing your headlights is a well-established means of communicating any number of things to other drivers on the road. It could be a reminder for the other driver to turn on their lights (or turn off their brights). Maybe it’s a call to your traveling partners in another car to pull off at the next exit. It’s also a way for some people to alert other drivers about a police speed trap up ahead. Some towns have outlawed that practice, but a federal judge says that’s going too far. [More]
Credit Union Sues Target Over Credit Card Hack
By 2.3.14
A credit union in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit, one that could potentially include 100 other credit unions as plaintiffs, against Target in an attempt to recoup is losses in the wake of the retailer’s recent massive data breach. [More]
Passengers’ Antitrust Suit Against Gogo In-Flight Internet Allowed To Move Forward
By 2.3.14
A class-action antitrust suit filed by airline travelers against the operators of Gogo in-flight Internet has cleared a huge legal hurdle. A federal court has given the green light for the suit to move forward. [More]
More Than 2 Years Later, Court Finally Signs Off On $8.5 Billion Settlement… Sort Of
By 1.31.14
In June 2011, Bank of America reached an $8.5 billion settlement deal with 22 groups of investors who had been misled into sinking their money into securities that they didn’t know were backed by worthless home mortgages. Today, more than two-and-a-half years later, it appears that this matter may be nearing an end, but maybe not. [More]
U.S. Wants To Add $1.23 Billion To Bank Of America’s Tab For Countrywide Scam
By 1.30.14
Back in October, a federal jury found Bank of America liable for a Countrywide Financial program that deliberately sold piles of worthless loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing bubble went kaflooey. At the time, prosecutors had only sought $864 million in penalties, but now the Justice Dept. claims that number should be $2.1 billion. [More]
