Earlier this month, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Inspector General issued a report on refund advance and refund transfer products sold to taxpayers, finding that nearly 16% of taxpayers used such products for the 2023 tax year– with nearly 80% of those taxpayers having worked with just 7 tax return preparation companies. The report […]
Author Archives: Adam Pulver
In September, I blogged about a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision to review an intermediate appellate court decision holding that Uber’s “clickwrap” arbitration agreement was not enforceable under Pennsylvania law, as mutual assent was lacking based on the way it was presented to a user. Today, the New York Court of Appeals issued its own decision […]
The Sixth Circuit today vacated a district court’s certification of 10 classes relating to claims about Nissan’s automatic electronic braking systems. The court first held that the district court had inadequately considered commonality and predominance. It then went onto address a question that has divided the circuits over the past decade- whether expert testimony considered […]
Courts often grapple with the question of when an agency’s action is final for various purposes. And the answer can be different for different purposes–particularly since various statutory provisions related to judicial review use different words or phrases. For example, 47 U.S.C. s. 402 allows parties to seek review of certain FCC actions within “thirty […]
After Meta, parent company of Facebook, acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, the FTC brought Sherman Act antitrust claims against the company in 2020. The district court had previously denied a motion to dismiss, and, yesterday, denied both parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment–finding the case must go to trial. In so doing, though, the court commented that […]
The FTC brought administrative proceedings against tax preparation company H&R Block, arguing that the company had made deceptive statements about its “free filing” products. H&R Block brought an action in federal district court seeking to enjoin the administrative proceedings, challenging the FTC’s structure. Yesterday, the FTC announced the parties had reached a settlement of the […]
On her last day as Secretary of Transportation during the last Trump Administration, Elaine Chao signed off on a joint venture between American Airlines and JetBlue, which allowed extensive cooperation and coordination between the two airlines, effectively allowing the two to operate as a single airline with respect to most routes out of Boston and […]
After Bayer voluntarily recalled certain anti-fungal consumer products that contained benzene due to a production error , consumers who had purchased the affected products filed a class action. They alleged three forms of harm: (1) that they were deprived of the benefit of their bargain because they contracted for safe products that did not contain […]
California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act provides significant protections to consumers in that case–particularly for those who purchase automobiles. One provision gives certain car buyers a “refund-or-replace remedy,” requiring the manufacture to replace a defective car, or provide restitution, after a “reasonable number of attempts” for repair. Today, the California Supreme Court issued a decision as […]
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in Heckman v. Live Nation Entertainment, where it affirmed a district order denying a motion to compel mass arbitration of a consumer antitrust class action about online ticket sales practices by Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Finding the arbitration agreement “borderline unintelligible,” the panel majority held that both the […]