We’ve discussed several times (see for instance here and here) an issue that’s been percolating in the courts of appeals the last few years and which has been taken up by the Supreme Court for the coming Term in the case of Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez: whether a defendant’s offer of judgment for complete relief under […]
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…pretty much sums it up. This policy, announced last week, will hopefully spur other employers toward better policies. Reuters has the story, which notes that the national norm for paid parental leave is only a month.
The Federal Communications Commission announced a $2.96 million fine against Travel Club Marketing, Inc., related companies, and the companies’ owner, for making at least 185 unsolicited robocalls. The calls were prerecorded advertising calls to consumers who had not consented to the robocalls; the majority of the consumers had listed their telephone number on the national […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced today: The Federal Trade Commission has charged a data broker operation with illegally selling payday loan applicants’ financial information to a scam operation that took millions of dollars from consumers by debiting their bank accounts and charging their credit cards without their consent. According to the FTC’s complaint, the data […]
Read this analysis by Gallup. Not surprisingly, the uninsured rates are dropping in states that opted for the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Perhaps more surprising is that states that have set up their own health-care exchanges (or have state-federal partnerships), as opposed to states that depend on the federal exchange, generally are the states […]
…is the title of this eye-opening piece in the Washington Post about what the FTC is seeking to learn from hackers about data privacy. As the Post reports, FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and the agency's chief technologist Ashkan Soltani are in Las Vegas this week to talk with hackers and security researchers attending the Black Hat […]
That's the title of this article in yesterday's NY Times by Anahad O'Connor. Coke is the world's largest marketer of sugary drinks. O'Connor explains that Coke gives "financial and logistical support" for "a new nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network." (The group's name — The Global Energy Balance Network — is more inscrutable […]
A few weeks back I blogged here about pharmaceutical manufacturer Amarin’s lawsuit aiming to allow it to market a fish-oil based drug for a use not approved by the FDA. The FDA denied approval because it concluded the drug had no demonstrated therapeutic benefits for that use, but Amarin claims a First Amendment right to […]
…is the subject of a pending cert. petition to the Supreme Court, reports Ars Technica (here). The issue is whether law enforcement's use of cell phone data to locate a person is subject to the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment (such as the warrant requirement). The en banc Eleventh Circuit answered no (here). The […]
A Pew report from earlier this summer investigates the use of prepaid cards — who uses them, and how, and what regulation might be needed. The report found a huge rise in use. More specifically: "The report finds that many 'unbanked' consumers, those without bank accounts, are using prepaid cards like checking accounts, underscoring the […]