Mealey's California Section 17200 : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's California Section 17200

September 06, 2023
Panel Reduces Punitives In $7.8M Embezzlement Verdict Against Apartment Managers

LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel on Sept. 5 deemed a roughly $5 million punitive damages award issued against the managers of seven Los Angeles apartment buildings for embezzlement in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) “excessive as a matter of law” and reduced it by more than $1.2 million, while affirming the court’s roughly $2.5 million compensatory damages award.
September 06, 2023
9th Circuit Nixes ‘Punchbowl’ Trademark Holding In Light Of Jack Daniel’s Ruling

PASADENA, Calif. — The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent trademark dilution decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products LLC led a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel to vacate its ruling in a dispute between two online-based companies over the “Punchbowl” trademark and designate the case for reargument.
September 05, 2023
Judge Remands Fired ByteDance Engineer’s Suit, Dismisses Partial Copyright Claim

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Sept. 1 remanded to state court claims brought by a former engineer that ByteDance Inc., the owner of the TikTok social media app, violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly scraping other social media apps’ content and creating fake users to boost its platform, but dismissed the engineer’s claims against ByteDance to the extent they are preempted by federal copyright law.
September 01, 2023
Judge Dismisses UCL Suit Accusing Supplement Maker Of Deceptive ‘5 Calories’ Claim

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A California federal judge on Aug. 31 dismissed with leave to amend a consumer’s putative class action lawsuit accusing a nutrition company of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by misrepresenting the caloric count of its products for failure to specifically allege if her testing of the products for caloric value was compliant with Food and Drug Administration regulations.
August 30, 2023
2nd Circuit: Access Codes Are Coupons; Incentive Payments Not Per Se Unlawful

NEW YORK — A trial court employed the wrong legal standard when it approved a settlement between The New York Times and subscribers in a case over auto renewals and erred in finding that the access codes provided as part of the settlement were not coupons under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled; however, the appellate panel reiterated its holding in Melito v. Experian Marketing Solutions, Inc. and ruled “that incentive awards are not per se unlawful.”
August 29, 2023
Judge: Borrower Can Amend Suit Against Bank For Notice Of Default During COVID

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 28 refused to dismiss a borrower’s claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) against her bank for causing a notice of default on her loan while her application for loan assistance filed during the coronavirus pandemic was pending, dismissed her claim for violation of Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) regulations and granted her leave to amend.
August 29, 2023
Judge Nixes Ana De Armas Fans’ Deceptive Trailer Suit Under Anti-SLAPP Law

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on Aug. 28 dismissed without leave to amend a putative class action brought by two fans of actress Ana De Armas who accused a Hollywood studio of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by deceiving them into paying to watch a film in which the actress does not appear by including her in the film’s trailer, finding that the plaintiffs’ claims fall under the state’s anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) law.
August 29, 2023
AI Companies Say ‘Fair Use’ Protects Chatbot From Copyright Holders’ Class Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. and affiliated companies that developed the ChatGPT AI program on Aug. 28 moved to dismiss the bulk of two putative class actions filed against them by writers and copyright holders including comedian Sarah Silverman, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to plead copyright infringement as OpenAI never distributed “derivative works” and was allowed under “fair use” to train its chatbot with large datasets of text.
August 25, 2023
9th Circuit Allows Appeal Of RICO TPP Class Certification For Actos Cancer Risk

LOS ANGELES — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a petition by two pharmaceutical companies for permission to appeal a decision by a district court to certify a national third-party payer (TPP) class of entities that paid for the diabetes drug Actos.
August 24, 2023
Judge Dismisses Class Suit Accusing Carmaker Of Inflating ‘Destination’ Fees

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed with leave to amend a putative class action lawsuit accusing a car manufacturer of artificially inflating “destination charges” that purchasers must pay in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after finding that the fees are disclosed to customers.
August 24, 2023
Negligence, UCL Claims Against Wells Fargo For $22,500 Account Hack Dismissed

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge mostly granted a motion by Wells Fargo Bank N.A. to dismiss an account holder’s claims related to a purported theft of funds from his bank account by hackers, finding that the plaintiff did not sufficiently plead most of his claims against the financial institution, including allegations of negligence and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
August 24, 2023
TikTok, Users Debate Whether Biometric MDL Settlement Bars New Privacy Suits

CHICAGO — In briefs filed at the behest of an Illinois federal judge, TikTok Inc. and the plaintiffs from a group of recently consolidated privacy suits against the social media operator argue over whether the year-old settlement of a multidistrict litigation over TikTok’s collection of users’ facial scans and other biometric data precludes the new lawsuits’ putative class claims of privacy violations via the company’s in-app browser (IAB).
August 23, 2023
San Diego Sues Retailers For Violating State Ban On Flavored Tobacco Sales

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Attorney’s Office on Aug. 22 filed a complaint accusing two businesses that collectively operate nine stores in San Diego of repeatedly violating California and San Diego’s bans of flavored tobacco sales and seeking civil penalties under California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
August 22, 2023
Judge Remands UCL Suit Accusing Telehealth Company Of Disclosing Private Data

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a plaintiffs’ motion to remand to state court their putative class action against a telehealth provider for allegedly sharing their data in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after finding the provider equitably estopped from contending that its place of business is in Massachusetts, not California.
August 22, 2023
Judge Compels Arbitration Of Family’s UCL Suit Against Bank For Missing Heirlooms

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted two bank companies’ motion to compel arbitration and dismissed a lawsuit brought by two brothers who accused the bank of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after their safe deposit box was drilled into and partly emptied of valuable family heirlooms.
August 22, 2023
Mothers Say Roblox Preyed On Sons With ‘Illegal Gambling’ In Putative Class Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two mothers filed a putative class action in California federal court on behalf of their minor sons accusing Roblox Corp., the operator of an online video game platform played by millions of children, and three companies that allegedly operate gambling games on Roblox, of racketeering and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly targeting children with gambling games.
August 21, 2023
Magistrate Stays MOVEit Data Breach Suits Pending JPMDL Consolidation Decision

MINNEAPOLIS — Two weeks after staying a putative class action over a hacking incident attributed to a file transfer app vulnerability, a Minnesota federal magistrate judge issued a revised ruling staying other cases over related data breaches in the same district pending a ruling by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) on a motion to consolidate all such cases.
August 21, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of UCL Suits For ‘Misleading’ Protein Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of putative class claims accusing two food companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly mislabeling the amount of protein content in certain food products after finding the claims federally preempted.
August 21, 2023
Federal Judge Denies Preliminary Approval Of Tesla Solar Roof Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — A proposed class settlement of $6.08 million in a case in which two homeowners accuse Tesla Inc. of increasing the cost for solar roofs after customers sign contracts was denied preliminary approval by a federal judge in California, who found that the motion failed to “adequately explain the relative strengths and weaknesses of the plaintiffs’ claims” or “how the parties calculated the amount of money to set aside for each category of nonautomatic settlement relief.”
August 18, 2023
AI Legal Application Founder Says Japanese Company Is Infringing Trademark

SAN FRANCISCO — A Japanese company and its United States-based entity are a single enterprise that sucked up all available venture capital funding in the artificial intelligence based legal applications by using an already trademarked name, a Arizona-based intellectual property law firm told a federal judge in California in opposing a motion to dismiss California unfair competition law and other claims.
August 16, 2023
Bankruptcy Dismissal Lifts Stay Of Asbestos-Talc Appeal, J&J Admits

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dismissal of the LTL Management LLC bankruptcy and its automatic stay provision means a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals case involving allegations that two talc companies violated the California unfair competition law (UCL) by advertising their products as pure despite knowing that they were contaminated with asbestos may proceed, LTL Management said in an Aug. 15 status update.
August 16, 2023
DMCA, UCL Row Dispute Over Digital Street Scenery Dismissed In California

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Allegations by a technical artist that his former employer, an autonomous vehicle company, falsely represented to a third party that his digital urban scenery was a work for hire under federal copyright law have been dismissed by a California federal judge.
August 16, 2023
Sweepstakes Participants Waive Response To Coinbase’s 2nd Certiorari Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of consumers who took part in a sweepstakes on the website of Coinbase Inc. filed a notice informing the U.S. Supreme Court that they waived their right to respond to a petition for certiorari that the cryptocurrency exchange filed the same day that the high court issued a ruling dismissing the company’s previous petition in a dispute over enforcing an arbitration clause.
August 16, 2023
Advertisers Say YouTube Played Ads To ‘The Void’ In Putative Class Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two marketers filed a putative class action in California federal court accusing Google LLC, which owns video platform YouTube, of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by taking their payments to run advertisements on videos that were never seen by real-life viewers.
August 15, 2023
Class Certified In Case Alleging Foreign Tea Mislabeled As U.S. Manufactured

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California certified a class of consumers who purchased various teas in California labeled as “Manufactured in the USA 100% Family Owned” that were processed overseas and denied motions by defendant R.C. Bigelow Inc. to strike reports by three of the plaintiffs’ experts.