Credit information company One Technologies removed to U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Tacoma a complaint filed Oct. 17 in Clark County Superior Court in which Nathan Brinton alleges the firm sent him at least 175 spam emails since August, in violation of Washington consumer protection laws.

Plaintiff Philip Woods moved U.S. District Judge Steven Logan for Arizona in Phoenix to stay his Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) case against Vivek 2024, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's presidential campaign committee, pending resolution of the forthcoming 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals case in the “substantially similar” Howard v. Republican National Committee (docket 2:23-cv-00993), according to his unopposed motion Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-01958).

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon for Southern New York in Manhattan granted Samsung’s May 1 motion to compel plaintiff Antonio Lewis’ fraud claims to arbitration (see 2305020029), according to her signed opinion and order Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-10882). The judge also denied Samsung’s request for dismissal. Instead, the case is stayed pending the conclusion of proceedings before the arbitrator. Rochon held that dismissal would have opened an avenue for Lewis to appeal, and that would have delayed the arbitration, with the associated costs and uncertainties.

Spectrum removed to U.S. District Court for Hawaii Tuesday a second amended negligence class action filed Oct. 13 in Hawaii’s 1st Circuit Court in which 38 plaintiffs seek to hold Spectrum and Hawaiian Telcom, among dozens of named landowner, municipality and utility defendants, at least partially liable for causing the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire that killed more than 100 and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.

Cognizant Technology’s human content moderation system, designed to remove offensive social media content, causes or contributes to numerous mental and physical illnesses, injuries and conditions, for individuals subjected to “long-term unmitigated exposure to such content,” alleged a fraud complaint Tuesday (docket 8:23-cv-02607) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Defendants defrauded Google and others by creating over 60 fake accounts so they could submit thousands of fraudulent copyright infringement notices against their competitors, alleged a complaint Monday (docket 4:23-cv-05824) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.

There’s “no merit” to plaintiff Greg Bostard’s allegations that he spent decades as a Comcast utility pole worker and was regularly in close proximity to Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables, said Verizon’s memorandum of law Monday (docket 1:23-cv-08564) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Camden in support of its motion to dismiss Bostard’s Aug. 23 complaint (see 2308240005).

Though the AirTag’s intended purpose is to find lost items like keys or luggage, “its popularity has soared as the preeminent tool for stalking and abuse due to its efficacy, low price point, and ease of use,” said the opposition Monday (docket 3:22-cv-07668) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco of 38 AirTag user plaintiffs to Apple’s Oct. 27 motion to dismiss their Oct. 6 first amended complaint (see 2310300030).

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 opinion in Facebook v. Duguid, a “plethora” of courts have attempted to interpret the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the “context” of Facebook’s holding, said appellant Lucine Trim’s cert petition. The petition, filed Nov. 6 and docketed Nov. 9 as case number 23-495, according to a clerk’s notice posted Monday, seeks to set aside the 9th Circuit’s affirmation of the district court’s dismissal of her TCPA complaint against Reward Zone (see 2308090027).