The U.S. Chamber of Commerce appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its challenge of Maryland’s digital ad tax, as expected (see 2212050048). The Chamber is appealing the U.S. District Court of Maryland’s March decision dismissing businesses’ challenge of the tax and the district court’s Dec. 2 dismissal of their challenge to the tax’s pass-through ban, said a notice of appeal at the lower court Tuesday.

Defendant Mercantile Adjustment Bureau, a debt collection agency, removed to U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in Dallas (docket 3:22-cv-2737) Wednesday a Sage Telecom complaint filed Nov. 7 in a Dallas County court alleging Mercantile engaged in “continuous and repetitive” telephone solicitations to low-income households that subscribe to Sage’s wireless and broadband services. The complaint alleges Mercantile violated the Texas Business and Commercial Code when it made the solicitations without procuring a certificate of registration from the Texas secretary of state. To get the certificate, telemarketers must submit a registration application, pay a filing fee and post a $10,000 security bond, it said. Mercantile sent telephone solicitations at least 187 times in the past two years to customer phones that Sage “managed and provided,” it said. Sage is entitled to $5,000 for each “knowing violation” of the Texas Business and Commercial Code, it said. Mercantile didn’t comment. Its notice of removal said it “reserves the right to raise all defenses or objections.”

Indiana filed two lawsuits against TikTok Wednesday seeking injunctive relief and civil penalties. The first complaint at the Indiana Superior Court of Allen County claims the Chinese-owned social media network lured children with misleading representations it had appropriate content, the attorney general's office said. The second lawsuit at the same court claims TikTok keeps highly sensitive and personal information about Indiana consumers and says the company deceived consumers to believe it's protected from the Chinese government. “At the very least, the company owes consumers the truth about the age-appropriateness of its content and the insecurity of the data it collects on users,” said AG Todd Rokita (R). “We hope these lawsuits force TikTok to come clean and change its ways.” Other Republican governors recently banned TikTok usage by state agencies (see 2212070033). Though TikTok doesn't comment on pending litigation, "the safety, privacy and security of our community is our top priority," emailed a TikTok spokesperson. "We build youth well-being into our policies, limit features by age, empower parents with tools and resources, and continue to invest in new ways to enjoy content based on age-appropriateness or family comfort. We are also confident that we're on a path in our negotiations with the U.S. Government to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns, and we have already made significant strides toward implementing those solutions."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked U.S. District Court of Maryland to quickly enter final judgment in a digital ad tax case “so as to permit the filing of a notice of appeal.” The Chamber filed a motion Wednesday in case 1:21-cv-00410-LKG. The Chamber said Monday it plans to appeal the court’s dismissal of businesses’ challenge to the Maryland tax’s pass-through ban (see 2212050048).

Texas may have until Jan. 20 to file a brief in a case at the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals on recent state laws preempting local governments in the right of way, the court said Tuesday (case 03-22-00524-CV). The court granted the state’s unopposed motion earlier that day to extend the deadline 30 days from Dec. 7. Cities challenging the Texas laws and the state each appealed aspects of a lower court’s decision (see 2211230015).

The California Public Utilities Commission got a favorable jury verdict on a lawsuit against the agency by former Executive Director Alice Stebbins, the CPUC said Friday. Stebbins claimed in a December 2020 lawsuit at the California Superior Court for San Francisco County that she was fired in August 2020 for whistleblowing (case CGC-20-588148). Stebbins claimed she had found $200 million in uncollected revenue from companies regulated by the CPUC, but when she reported it, she lost her job. Stebbins is “very disappointed” and “evaluating next steps,” her attorney, Therese Cannata, emailed us Friday.

An answer is due by Jan. 3 from five telemarketing entities accused in a Nov. 2 complaint by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) of generating hundreds of thousands of unwanted robocalls to Pennsylvania consumers (see 2211030056), said an electronic-only entry Wednesday (docket 2:22-cv-1551) in U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The complaint alleges violations of the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, plus state and federal unfair competition laws, but not the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, because the five entities aren't alleged to have placed the calls themselves. Shapiro was elected Pennsylvania governor Nov. 8.

Netflix and Hulu don't qualify as video service providers under Ohio's Fair Competition in Cable Operations Act and the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights can't sue the streaming services under the law's video service provider provisions, the Ohio Supreme Court said in an opinion Wednesday penned by Justice Michael Donnelly. Before the court were two questions submitted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, where Maple Heights' lawsuit against the streamers for unpaid video service provider franchise fees is pending (see 2204130044). Oral argument was in April (case 2021-0864). The court said the state law is unambiguous that only the state commerce director can determine if an entity is a video service provider, and the law doesn't authorize local governments to challenge that determination. "Maple Heights simply does not have express statutory authority to bring the underlying action," it said. "The legislature knows how to grant local governments such authority and chose not to do so here." Maple Heights outside counsel didn't comment.

Discovery will be stayed in a data scraping case at the U.S. District Court of South Carolina until the court rules on defendant South Carolina State Court Administration’s motion to dismiss, the district court decided Wednesday (case 3:2022-cv-01007). In a text order, Judge Mary Geiger Lewis granted the administration’s motion to stay discovery except for a document request by defendant NAACP that's subject to a possible motion to compel. If the court decides not to dismiss the case, parties should file a fresh proposed schedule one week after the court’s order, the judge said. NAACP opposed the stay (see 2211160074).

Hulu and Netflix are right that they aren't video service providers under Tennessee's Competitive Cable and Video Act (CCVA) since they don't build, own or operate the wireline facilities that third-party ISPs use to deliver the streaming services' content to end-users, the Supreme Court of Tennessee in Nashville ruled Tuesday. The panel of state judges was ruling on a question referred by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, where Knoxville is suing the streaming services for video service provider franchise fees (docket 3:20-cv-00544) (see 2112230003). The CCVA revolves around giving video service providers permission to physically occupy the public rights-of-way and ensuring that those providers adequately compensate localities for that privilege, so "it would make little sense" to read it as applying to streaming services that don't have their own wireline facilities, the state judges' panel said. Deciding were Judges Roger Page, Sharon Lee, Jeffrey Bivins, Holly Kirby and Sarah Campbell, with Campbell writing the decision. Outside counsel for Knoxville didn't comment Wednesday.