The FCC Enforcement Bureau should change tactics to avoid the risk of targets making an end run around its processes by taking advantage of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions to drag the agency into litigation, said former FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson in a white paper sponsored by CTIA and published Monday by Wiley, where he's a partner.

InMarket Media tracks consumers’ precise geolocation data through its InMarket SDK “spyware” and profits from it by selling the data to third parties, alleged a privacy complaint Friday (docket 4:24-cv-00511) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland.

Defendant Hytera Communications is asking the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago to do what “no court has ever done,” and overrule a grand jury’s “probable cause finding” and dismiss its indictment for the government’s failure to present evidence of trade secrets, said the government’s opposition Friday (docket 1:20-cr-00688) to Hytera’s Jan. 11 motion (see 2401220002).

Comcast would oppose centralization with claims against unrelated companies “who simply happened to use the same Citrix software,” said its filing Friday. It was in response to plaintiff Kenneth Hasson's motion to transfer a dozen negligence class actions over Citrix's October data breach now pending before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (docket 3099).

Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit pressed Consumers' Research Friday on its challenge of the FCC's Q2 2023 USF contribution factor (case 23-1091). During oral argument, judges also questioned the group and the FCC about Universal Service Administrative Co. calculations to determine quarterly factors and definition of universal service (see 2401100044).

The Center for Renewing America views HB-20, the Texas social media law, “as an important step in preserving free speech in America,” aid the group's U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief Thursday (docket 22-555) in support of the statute and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). The center’s founder, Russ Vought, was OMB director under President Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig for Eastern Wisconsin granted the motion of Milwaukee’s Deer District to intervene to prevent Verizon's installation of small cells and mounting poles for July’s Republican National Convention in the public pedestrian plaza the district controls outside the Fiserv Forum (see 2401230017), said his signed order Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-01581).

Apple’s agreements with browser developers, including Google, are preventing new mobile platforms from entering the smartphone market in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, alleged a class action Thursday (docket 5:24-cv-00476) against Apple in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.

Instacart’s document offerings for its initial public offering in September were “negligently prepared” and contained “untrue” or “omitted” statements, plaintiff Andy Stephens claimed in a class action (docket 5:24-cv-00465) against Instacart and 11 executives and directors Thursday in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.