In a 94-page opinion issued after a lengthy bench trial, a Massachusetts District Judge has found the “Northeast Alliance” between American Airlines and JetBlue, by which the two airlines coordinated their flights out of New York and Boston, to violate the Sherman Act. An appeal is sure to follow. But the main takeaway from the […]
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The Department of Transportation today announced it will be issuing an NPRM to require airlines provide compensation and reimbursement of expenses when passengers are affected by “controllable” cancellation or significant delays of their flights. DOT notes that practices among carriers currently varies, and airlines use different definitions of what constitutes “controllable” flight disruptions. DOT also […]
In 2020, Minnesota adopted the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act which, among other things, requires drug manufacturers to provide insulin for free to Minnesota residents who meet certain criteria. PhRMA sued in federal court, alleging the law constituted a Takings Clause violation, and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The district court dismissed the suit on […]
It was almost twenty years ago that Barbra Streisand filed a lawsuit that attempted to block access to a photograph of her oceanfront estate, bringing unwanted attention to the photo and leading to her being enshrined by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick in tech/legal terminology as the progenitor of “the Streisand Effect.” Now we have Cooley v. […]
On Friday, a unanimous panel of the Fifth Circuit rejected a challenge brought by the anti-regulation advocacy organization Consumers’ Research to Congress’s creation of the Universal Service Fund. The Fund imposes charges on telecom providers and then uses the money to fund access to telecommunications services for low-income consumers, schools, libraries, and rural health-care providers, […]
Here. Excerpt: [A doctor’s] claim was just one of roughly 60,000 that [medical director Dr.] Dopke denied in a single month last year, according to internal Cigna records reviewed by ProPublica and The Capitol Forum. The rejection of van Terheyden’s claim was typical for Cigna, one of the country’s largest insurers. The company has built […]
Public health campaigns over the past decades have been successful in reducing the prevalence of cigarette smoking in the U.S., particularly among adolescents. The tobacco industry has thus pivoted to e-cigarettes and vaping. Studies show young people, in particular, mistakenly believe such products are not unhealthy, and have been flocking to such products in droves. […]
The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to require providers that receive and deliver phone traffic to implement call authentication standards mandated under its STIR/SHAKEN robocall regime and to implement basic protections from problematic robotexts. Under the previous rules, only voice service providers that originate and terminate calls were required to implement analytical tools that […]
The New Republic, asked conservative Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, who often espouses the positions asserted by the banking industry during hearings of the House Financial Services Committee, if he reads the fine print on his contracts. The answer: ““I don’t read the fine print on any of that stuff,” he said. “I’m a busy guy.” Among […]
The Department of Energy has proposed new energy efficiency standards for washing machines and refrigerators. Slated to go into effect in 2027, the standards would reduce carbon emissions and save consumers money. DOE’s press release is here. The proposals are here and here.