Travelers United Continues Lawsuits Against DC Restaurant Fees

An interview with Travelers United’s lawyer, explaining their legal theories and the kinds of fees they are challenging under DC consumer protection law, is available here.

Fourth Circuit Limits Scope of TCPA Fax Prohibitions and Suggests Class Actions to Enforce are Doomed

The TCPA prohibits “send[ing], to a telephone facsimile machine, an unsolicited advertisement.” 47 U.S.C. s. 227(b)(1)(c). After receiving such an unsolicited advertisement on its fax machine from AmeriFactors Financial Group, plaintiff  Career Counseling, Inc. brought a putative class action in South Carolina. While that litigation was pending, AmeriFactors obtained a declaratory ruling from the FCC, […]

Effective date of FTC auto rule delayed amid industry court challenge

The Federal Trade Commission issued an order delaying the effective date of the recently released rule that seeks to provide protections for car buyers against some of the more prevalent deceptive practices in car sales. The Combating Auto Retail Scams (CARS) rule, originally set to become final on July 30, is now pushed back pending […]

FDA’s Delayed Action Plan for Baby Foods Won’t Delay Consumer Lawsuit

In 2023, a New York district court dismissed three consolidated class actions against Beech-Nut, a baby food manufacturer, alleging that its baby food products contained elevated levels of certain toxic metals. The district court had agreed with Beech-Nut that it should abstain from addressing the plaintiffs’ claims, instead deferring to the FDA under the doctrine […]

“Verizon’s $100 million fee settlement is setback for mass arbitration critics”

At Reuters, reporter Alison Frankel has this story on a recent class-action settlement with Verizon. Verizon (as is typical of cellphone companies) requires customers to agree to arbitrate any disputes that may arise. The settlement avoids appellate review of Verizon’s effort to limit arbitrations to batches of 10 at a time, which, in situations where […]

NJ Consumer Frauds Act refund provision applies only to food fraud

In 1979, the New Jersey Legislature added Chapter 347 to the state’s Consumer Frauds Act. That  chapter contained a provision expanding what constitutes an “unlawful practice” to include misrepresentations of the identity of food, and also created a refund remedy–specifying that “[a]ny person violating the provisions of the within act shall be liable for a […]

New York courts reject challenges to nursing home patient protection laws

In the wake of studies showing that cost-cutting by nursing homes contributed to high COVID death rates at New York’s nursing homes, the state legislature enacted a law that set minimum staffing levels, required minimum spending levels on resident care, and capped profits. Though enacted in 2021, implementation was delayed for several years, and the […]

Ninth Circuit Certifies Questions Regarding Uber’s Duties to Customer Safety

The facts of this case are awful: In August 2018, Plaintiff Jane Doe requested that her boyfriend call her an Uber remotely because her phone had low battery. Plaintiff’s phone, however, lost its charge, and she did not receive from her boyfriend the information identifying the authorized vehicle. Plaintiff then entered a car displaying an […]

FTC reports on to Congress on the Do Not Call (DNC) Registry

The Federal Trade Commission today issued its biennial report to Congress on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry. According to the report, more than 249 million consumers have placed their telephone numbers on the Registry over the past two year. The report also notes that the FTC has received more than two million Do […]