Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • August 15, 2022

    Magistrate Recommends Transfer Of Infringing Domains To Debevoise

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia federal magistrate judge on Aug. 10 found that law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP had sufficiently established that the registrants of two internet domains incorporating its trademark had violated the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) by registering them in bad faith, recommending permanent transfer of the domains to the plaintiff.

  • August 12, 2022

    Vimeo’s ‘Curation’ Of Infringing Videos Precludes Safe Harbor, Labels Argue

    NEW YORK — Past intentional actions by Vimeo Inc. in which it actively selected videos for its online platform’s library that infringed their copyrights prevent the company from claiming safe harbor under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a group of record labels argue in their Aug. 2 reply brief, asking the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to vacate a lower court judgment in Vimeo’s favor and remand for a jury trial.

  • August 12, 2022

    Lyrics Website Seeks Certiorari On Copyright Act Statutory Preemption

    WASHINGTON, D.C.  — The operator of the Genius song lyrics website filed a petition for certiorari Aug. 5, asking the U.S. Supreme Court “to restore clarity . . . on the scope of statutory preemption under the Copyright Act,” asserting that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that its state law contract-related claims over Google LLC’s purported copying of lyrics from its site are preempted by federal law.

  • August 11, 2022

    High Court Won’t Stay Suits Against Crypto Firm Pending Arbitration Cert Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of orders issued Aug. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stay lower court proceedings in two lawsuits against the operator of a cryptocurrency trading website, thus permitting claims for violations of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA), among others, to proceed while Coinbase Global Inc. pursues its petition for certiorari over a question about appeals of rulings about arbitration provisions.

  • August 11, 2022

    Judge Dismisses UCL Claim Against Mobile Game Developers For Rigged ‘Loot Boxes’

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 9 dismissed with leave to amend a group of mobile gamers’ claims that two developers violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by deceiving the gamers into spending thousands of dollars purchasing in-game “gems” to play rigged “loot box” games, finding no evidence of affirmative misrepresentation by the developers.

  • August 10, 2022

    Crypto Theft Victim Opposes Stay Of Suit Pending Arbitration Cert Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The respondent in one of two suits combined in a joint petition for certiorari voiced his opposition on Aug. 8 to the petitioner cryptocurrency trading site’s motion to stay lower court proceedings pending resolution of its request for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide a question about appeals of rulings about arbitration provisions.

  • August 09, 2022

    8th Circuit: Single Online T-Shirt Sale Does Not Confer Jurisdiction

    ST. LOUIS — Upholding a trial court’s dismissal of a trademark infringement lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 2 ruled that a California T-Shirt company’s sale of one shirt via its website to a Missouri customer was not sufficient to constitute purposeful availment that would establish specific jurisdiction over the out-of-state defendant.

  • August 02, 2022

    Visa Can’t Get UCL Claim Tossed In Sex-Trafficking Suit Against Pornhub Operator

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on July 29 denied Visa Inc.’s motion to dismiss claims that it violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) in a sex-trafficking lawsuit brought by a woman suing MindGeek S.a.r.l., the company that owns and operates pornography website Pornhub, and several of its affiliates, for monetizing a sexual video made of her when she was a minor, finding that she adequately alleges that Visa influenced MindGeek’s business.

  • August 02, 2022

    California Federal Judge Won’t Dismiss Copyright Claims Against YouTube

    LOS ANGELES — A dispute over YouTube’s copyright management policies, including allegations that the video-sharing platform doesn’t go far enough to protect “ordinary” owners from infringement, will proceed, a federal judge in California ruled Aug. 1.

  • August 01, 2022

    Intervention Granted, Approval Of Settlement Denied In Restaurants’ Grubhub Suit

    DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado on July 28 granted a motion to intervene filed by two restaurants in a putative class complaint accusing Grubhub Inc. of deceiving consumers by offering faulty information regarding restaurants that did not partner with it, but denied a more than year old motion by the lead plaintiff in the case for preliminary approval of a class settlement, opining that the intervenors sufficiently raised questions concerning the fairness and adequacy of the agreement that provided only injunctive relief.

  • July 28, 2022

    11th Circuit Vacates Settlement In TCPA Suit Finding Issues With Class’s Standing

    ATLANTA — The lead plaintiffs who brought a class complaint against GoDaddy.com LLC for unwanted calls and text messages in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and reached a settlement providing cash or vouchers to class members failed to sufficiently argue the Article III of the U.S. Constitution standing of the class, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled July 27, vacating the class settlement approval and remanding for the parties to redefine the class.

  • July 28, 2022

    Hearing Scheduled For Stay Motion In Cryptocurrency Data Phishing Attack Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge on July 25 set a hearing date for an e-commerce solutions firm’s motion to stay a negligence lawsuit against it over the theft of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) from a cryptocurrency ledger website.

  • July 26, 2022

    Domino’s, Blind Patron Settle ADA Inaccessibility Suit Over Website, App

    LOS ANGELES — Following a second notice of settlement filed by Domino’s Pizza LLC and a blind customer that sued for violation of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), a California federal judge on June 21 granted the parties’ motion to dismiss with prejudice the long-running suit over website accessibility.

  • July 26, 2022

    Dismissal Of Racial Bias Suit Against YouTube Cited In Parallel LGBTQ Case

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — While its motion to dismiss putative class discrimination claims against it by a group of LGBTQ video content creators is awaiting a ruling, YouTube LLC on July 19 filed a statement of recent decision in a parallel suit in which a California federal court granted dismissal of a similar lawsuit in which the video-sharing platform operator was accused of racial bias with some of its practices.

  • July 26, 2022

    Teenager, Mom Say Meta Violated UCL By Causing Anorexia, Depression

    SAN FRANCISCO — A teen girl and her mother on July 25 filed a lawsuit in California federal court against Meta Platforms Inc. alleging that it violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using “addictive” algorithms on its Instagram social media app that led the teenager to develop anorexia and other chronic health issues.

  • July 25, 2022

    Vimeo To 2nd Circuit: Lack Of Substantial Influence Permits DMCA Safe Harbor

    NEW YORK — Maintaining that it had no substantial influence over users that uploaded infringing videos to its video-sharing platform, Vimeo Inc. in a July 12 appellee brief asks the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm its entitlement to safe harbor from a group of record labels’ copyright infringement claims against it under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA.)

  • July 21, 2022

    Victim’s Family Urges High Court To Weigh CDA Immunity For Recommended Content

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Contending that Google LLC mischaracterized the focus of their petition for certiorari, the family of a terror victim ask the U.S. Supreme Court in a July 19 reply brief to consider the issue of whether the immunity provision of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) extends to recommended content that is targeted to online platform users.

  • July 20, 2022

    Defendants In Cryptocurrency Data Breach Suit Urge Dismissal, Arbitration

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of reply briefs filed July 15 in California federal court, a cryptocurrency exchange and a retirement solutions firm offer further arguments supporting their respective motions to compel arbitration and to dismiss negligence and contractual putative class claims brought against them by a client whose bitcoin assets and personally identifiable information (PII) and were stolen in a cyberattack.

  • July 19, 2022

    Apple Tells 9th Circuit Epic Did Not Prove Harm To Support UCL Claim

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a July 15 across-appellant brief, Apple Inc. tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that Epic Games Inc. did not establish any harm from its purportedly anticompetitive behavior related to the distribution and sale of apps and related products for the Apple operating system (iOS), asking the appeals court to reverse a trial court’s “unprecedented” finding that Apple acted anti-competitively under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) despite finding no such violations of the Sherman Act.

  • July 18, 2022

    9th Circuit Affirms Google Did Not Breach Purported Offer For Data Storage

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Washington man did not establish that Google LLC offered users of its “Local Guides” feature one terabyte in storage in exchange for a certain level of participation, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found July 14, affirming a trial court’s judgment disposing of breach of contract and conversion class claims.