Rebecca Day

Using a “fraudulent marketing scheme,” First American Home Warranty leads consumers to believe they have been overcharged on their utility bill and it will give them a rebate for the overcharges, alleges a Wednesday Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) lawsuit (docket 2:23-cv-11412) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan in Detroit.

Verizon Wireless sued Rankin County, Mississippi, to require the county to approve construction of a wireless telecommunications tower to “fill a significant gap in wireless coverage and capacity,” said a Wednesday complaint (docket 3:23-cv-00381) in U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi in Northern Jackson.

The FTC and Florida don’t adequately allege any required element of their claims but “merely recite elements and allege conclusory allegations,” said Chargebacks911 in a motion to dismiss (docket 8:23-cv-00796) with prejudice a fraud complaint in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa. Failure to plead any of the elements “is grounds for dismissal,” it said.

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel granted the parties’ joint motions to consolidate four privacy class actions against Carnival cruise lines, said a Monday order (3:23-cv-00404) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego (see 2306090065). The four lawsuits claim violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act. A review of the complaints shows all four cases are putative class actions brought by respective plaintiffs against the same defendant, “concerning the same alleged privacy rights violations” committed by Carnival in its use of computer code to record its visitors’ electronic communications, said the order. The related actions pending in Southern California district court are India Price v. Carnival (docket 3:23-cv-00236), Erica Mikulsky v. Carnival, (docket 3:23-cv-00404), Marilyn Hernandez v. Carnival (docket 3:23-cv-01034) and Ariel Oliver v. Carnival, (docket 3:23-cv-01036). A fifth case, brought by Daniel Rubridge in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, was stipulated for a transfer to the Southern California federal court, but the order hasn’t been entered.

Plaintiffs’ opposition to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s (D) motion to dismiss their freedom of speech lawsuit (see 2306060054) is “based entirely on their distorted reading” of California’s AB 587 and speculation that Bonta will use the statute to “punish social media companies” that don’t “aggressively moderate ‘hate speech,’ ‘misinformation’ and other disfavored content on their platforms,” the AG said Monday in a reply (docket 2:23-cv-02705) in support of his motion to dismiss an amended freedom of speech complaint in U.S. District Court for Western California in Los Angeles.

Microsoft’s past conduct “provides a preview” of a combined Microsoft/Activision if the tech giant consummates its acquisition of the video games company, said the FTC’s Monday complaint (docket 3:23-cv-02880) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco, seeking a temporary restraining order against the deal. "Microsoft and Activision have represented ... that they may consummate the Proposed Acquisition at any time without any further notice" to the commission, said the redacted complaint.

Though DOJ and its state co-plaintiffs welcome production of six of 21 documents challenged by Google in the antitrust suit over the company’s digital advertising business, its reversal of its prior privilege determinations “underscores the overbreadth of Google's claims of privilege in the first place.” So said DOJ’s reply Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-00108) in support of Google’s motion for in camera inspection and to compel production of documents wrongfully withheld as privileged in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria.

T-Mobile, whose network has experienced several data breaches over the past few years, “deliberately underplayed” the severity and “obfuscated the nature of” its most recent breach, Feb. 24-March 27, alleged a class action (docket 4:23-cv-00393) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Western Missouri in Kansas City. Though the breach began on Feb. 24, T-Mobile only became aware of “suspicious activity” on its network on March 27; it stopped the intrusion three days later, said the complaint. The carrier notified the public on April 28.

After Dish’s February data breach disclosure (see 2305080049), Laura Vest, of Elliston, Virginia, was notified by credit monitoring service Experian that her personally identifiable information had been found on the dark web, alleged Vest’s class action (docket 1:23-cv-01462) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver. Vest's class action was the ninth filed against Dish since the company disclosed the data breach.

Dish Network didn’t use reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the sensitive, unencrypted personally identifiable information (PII) it was maintaining for customers and employees, alleged Corpus Christi, Texas, plaintiff Elizabeth Garza, in a class action Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-01458) in U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver.