A federal court again rejected a class-action suit claiming insider trading of Intelsat stock before the public found out the FCC wouldn't allow a private auction of the satellite company's C-band spectrum. In an order Wednesday granting the defendants' motions to dismiss (docket 4:20-cv-02341), U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White for the Northern District of California said the amended complaint surmises that Intelsat management must have updated then-Chairman David McGlade, one of the defendants, but doesn't include any information about specific communications around the time he made his stock sales. White said the amended complaint had no new allegations about defendant Silver Lake Group, and expanded allegations about defendant BC Partners still aren't sufficient to state a claim. He said with the latest amended complaint being the third iteration, "any further amendments would be futile," and ordered it dismissed with prejudice. The suit alleged McGlade and major Intelsat shareholders sold big blocks of their holdings after learning about the C-band auction decision.

A Louisiana consumer sued Amazon and Shenzhen Dayantian Technology Wednesday for negligence and breach of warranty over defective Bluetooth earbuds, said a complaint (docket 3:23-cv-00317) in U.S. District Court for Middle Louisiana in Baton Rouge. In November, plaintiff Edna Bowles of Livingston Parish was using Hinycom earbuds manufactured by Shenzhen Dayantian when the buds’ case, which were in her pocket, “exploded in flames,” resulting in third-degree burns to her left hip, thigh and hand, said the complaint. Bowles bought the earbuds from Amazon in May. She alleges the earbud assembly and case were defective as defined by the Louisiana Product Liability Act. The danger or risk of “spontaneous combustion” of the earbuds under any circumstances, including carrying the case in a pocket, was not conveyed to her, said the complaint. The product failed to adequately warn her of the risk, which wasn't readily apparent to a reasonable consumer, she said. In addition to mental and physical pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the burns, Bowles endured “permanent scars and disfigurement and functional impairment of her left hand,” said the complaint. She seeks compensatory damages, redhibition, judicial interest and legal costs.

LinkedIn wants the U.S. District Court for Northern California to enter default against the website TopSocial24 and its owner Golam Mostafa for failing to appear or otherwise defend against allegations they sell “inauthentic engagement,” including fake followers, fake comments, fake likes and fake connections, said its filing Tuesday (docket 5:23-cv-00110). After the clerk enters the defendants’ default, LinkedIn will move the court for a default judgment under Rule 55(b), it said.

Plaintiff Omnireps amended its fraud complaint against computer reseller CDW by adding four defendants accused of engaging with CDW in civil conspiracy, tortious interference, corporate espionage, misappropriation of trade secrets and trademark, trade libel and racketeering, said its filing Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-00868) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. The newly named defendants are Halo Technology, Amphenol, Inflexion Private Equity Partners and Add-On Computer Peripherals. Omnireps is seeking compensatory damages of $250 million for each count, plus statutory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs (see 2302140039). It also seeks an injunction restraining CDW and its affiliates from the use of the trademarked term Mindshare and from disparaging Omnireps and its owner, Todd Ferguson.

Defendant Bank of America agrees with class-action plaintiff Kylie Meyer’s April 13 motion that the court should consolidate Meyer’s data breach complaint with six others, and should set a deadline for filing a single consolidated complaint, said BofA’s response Monday (docket 2:23-cv-01340) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. BofA is alleged to have sold delinquent credit card accounts to NCB Management Solutions for collection, and NCB is alleged to have enabled hackers to access the personally identifiable information of nearly 500,000 account holders in early February. BofA doesn’t oppose the plaintiffs’ request for appointment of interim co-lead class counsel, liaison counsel and a steering committee, but “the particular structure and division of responsibilities” that the plaintiffs propose “risk undermining the interests of the putative class” and burdening the court, it said. BofA thinks the court should grant the plaintiffs’ motion “to the extent that it seeks to consolidate” the related actions and to set a schedule for the filing of a consolidated complaint, it said. BofA “otherwise takes no position” on the plaintiffs’ motion.

DirecTV moved for a clerk’s entry of default against defendant Motasim Billah for failure to answer its fraud complaint, said its request Friday (docket 6:22-cv-00423) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Tyler. Billah was served with the complaint March 6 through his Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, but “has failed to file any pleadings or otherwise defend the case, nor have any appearance been entered by him or by anyone on his behalf,” it said. A magistrate judge in February authorized DirecTV to effect service of process of its complaint on Billah via his social media accounts because he's believed to be living in Lahore, Pakistan, with an exact address unknown (see 2302160055). DirecTV alleged in a Nov. 1 complaint that Billah was a key player with nine co-defendants in an ongoing fraud scheme in which DirecTV telemarketing impersonators stole money from existing DirecTV account holders through manipulation of gift cards (see 2211010049).

The American Bar Association’s failure to secure and safeguard its networks enabled a hacker to gain access to the personally identifiable information of up to 1.4 million members in a March 17 data breach, alleged registered ABA member Tiffany Troy in a class action Friday (docket 1:23-cv-03053) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Brooklyn. The ABA’s security failures enabled the hackers to steal the class members’ “personal and financial data,” putting that data “at serious and ongoing risk,” it said. The hackers continue to use the information they obtained as a result of the ABA’s inadequate security “to exploit and injure class members” across the U.S., it said. The breach was “caused and enabled” by the ABA’s “knowing violation of its obligations to abide by best practices and industry standards in protecting customers’ personal information,” it said. The ABA “grossly failed to comply with security standards and allowed its customers’ financial information to be compromised, all in an effort to save money by cutting corners on security measures that could have prevented or mitigated” the breach, it said.

Defendants in a trade secrets lawsuit are “searching for an escape route” instead of litigating the case on the merits, said plaintiff Vox Network Solutions in a Friday opposition (docket 3:22-cv-09135) to Gage Technologies’ February motion to dismiss (see 2303020019) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. By denying Vox the chance to develop the complaint’s allegations through discovery, Gage hopes to “disable” Vox’ discovery tools that are crucial to clarify Gage's “clandestine, surreptitious, and conspiratorial acts.” Vox alleges Gage conspired with two former employees to steal trade secrets. In its motion to dismiss, Gage said Vox failed to adequately plead trade secret misappropriation or to identify trade secrets with “sufficient particularity.” Vox alleges Kristopher McGreevey, its then regional sales director, and Kevin Frazier, then senior account executive, conspired with Gage to “raid and exploit” confidential Vox information and resources in order to “poach” Vox clients and employees. Vox learned of the conduct “after the damage had been done,” and it lost a key client, Consumer Cellular, to its competitor, Gage, Vox alleged. To state a claim for trade secret misappropriation under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the complaint must show that (1) the plaintiff owned a trade secret; (2) the defendant misappropriated the trade secret; and (3) the defendant's actions damaged the plaintiff; its complaint satisfies all three elements, Vox said. On the issue of sufficient particularity regarding alleged trade secrets, Vox said courts are in “general agreement that trade secrets need not be disclosed in detail” because that would result in “public disclosure of the purported trade secrets.” On the harm and unjust enrichment claims, Vox said it lost well over $1 million as a result of Gage’s conduct.

Hyperlync Technologies doesn’t “come close” to meeting its burden to establish personal jurisdiction in California, and so its breach of contract complaint against T-Mobile should be dismissed, said the carrier’s reply Friday (docket 2:23-cv-00734) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles. Hyperlync alleged in a Jan. 31 class action that T-Mobile walked away from agreements it struck with Sprint to develop a cloud storage product called “Unlimited Cloud” when T-Mobile completed the Sprint buy in April 2020 (see 2302020061). Hyperlync seeks the recovery of $6.2 million in Unlimited Cloud development costs, but hasn’t and can’t “allege or provide facts sufficient” for the court “to exercise jurisdiction over T-Mobile in this case,” said T-Mobile’s March 31 motion to dismiss (see 2304030001). Hyperlync’s opposition argues only that T-Mobile’s retail business in California subjects it to general jurisdiction, and that the court has specific jurisdiction over T-Mobile because a former Hyperlync employee lived in California “during the operative time period,” said T-Mobile’s reply. “Neither argument establishes personal jurisdiction over T-Mobile.”

The opening brief is due May 23 at the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court from defendant-appellants Burton Katz and Brent Levison in their appeal of a March 14 lower-court order imposing a $19.6 million judgment against them in compensatory monetary relief for civil contempt, said a memorandum Thursday (docket 23-11197). The answering brief from plaintiff-appellee FTC is due 30 days later, said the memorandum. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida found Katz and Levison, co-owners of the venture On Point Global, to have bilked consumers out of millions of dollars through a series of deceptive trade practices. Katz and Levison were found to have operated a network of websites that took money from consumers by promising to perform government transactions for them, such as renewing a driver’s license, but failing to deliver on those services. A September 2021 contempt order found they violated a 2014 injunction barring them from deceptive trade activity.