Montana’s attempt to ban TikTok “is part of a long line of recent efforts by state governments to impose crippling restrictions on businesses that operate over the internet,” said NetChoice’s amicus brief Monday (docket 24-34) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the plaintiff-appellees -- five individual TikTok users challenging the ban, plus TikTok itself.

Online storage company Dropbox disregarded the rights of users by “intentionally” and “recklessly” failing to take adequate measures to protect their personally identifiable information (PII) and allowing it to be accessed in a data breach it purportedly discovered April 24, alleged a negligence class action Tuesday (docket 3:24-cv-02731) in U.S. District Court for Northern California.

Not-for-profit healthcare organization MedStar Health failed to encrypt or redact current and former patients’ protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) in a 2023 data breach that occurred between Jan. 25 and Oct. 13, alleged two Tuesday class actions (dockets 1:24-cv-01337 and 1:24-cv-01335) in U.S. District Court for Maryland. The virtually identical complaints were filed by Milberg Coleman attorney Thomas Pacheco.

Section 1201(a) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act “grants the power to a component of Congress,” the librarian of Congress, “to decide who may access works of authorship,” said Benjamin Margo of Wilson Sonsini in oral argument Monday (docket 23-5159) before the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit. He was arguing on behalf of the three plaintiff-appellants challenging Section 1201's constitutionality on First Amendment grounds (see 2311300055).

With the federal ban on TikTok, Congress has taken the "unprecedented" step of enacting a law that “bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide,” TikTok and ByteDance said Tuesday in their petition for review (docket 24-1113) in the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit to invalidate the ban.

Lowe’s embedded spy tracking pixels in marketing emails to Arizona residents to monitor the behavior of those who subscribed to its email list, alleged a privacy class action (docket 2:24-cv-01030) against the home improvement retailer and Salesforce Sunday in U.S. District Court for Arizona.

The Universal Service Administrative Co's. (USAC) role in administering the FCC's Universal Service Fund programs "is purely administrative," the FCC told the U.S. Supreme Court in response to Consumers' Research's challenge of how the commission determines quarterly contribution factors (see 2401100044). USAC "must comply with detailed regulations issued by the FCC" and "helps the FCC compute the amount of each quarterly payment" carriers must contribute, the agency said in an opposition brief filed in docket 23-456.

Amazon and Epson sued two dozen entities and 10 John Does for selling counterfeit Epson products on Amazon from January 2023-February 2024, said a trademark infringement lawsuit Monday (docket 2:24-cv-00616) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.

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.

Projector manufacturer AWOL Vision’s false advertising will continue to cause consumer confusion and deception “to the irreparable injury of Epson” without a court order enjoining its conduct, said a Lanham Act lawsuit (docket 9:24-cv-80583) Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in West Palm Beach.