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.
Aaron Bolton seeks injunctive relief to halt the illegal Telephone Consumer Protection Act conduct of Unlimited Ammo, “which has resulted in the invasion of privacy, harassment, aggravation, and disruption of the daily life of thousands of individuals,” said Bolton’s class action Wednesday (docket 8:24-cv-00226) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa. The Manatee County, Florida, resident also seeks statutory damages “on behalf of himself and members of the class, and any other available legal or equitable remedies,” it said. Beginning in November, the Arizona firearms company “sent or caused to be sent multiple telemarketing text messages” to Bolton’s cellphone number, though that number has been listed on the national do not call registry since July 2013, said the complaint. At no point in time did Bolton provide the defendant with his express written consent to be contacted, it said.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals released from its mediation program Ford’s appeal of the district court’s Nov. 7 denial of its motion to compel the 3G telematics claims of four class-action plaintiffs to arbitration (see 2312230002), said a text-only docket entry Wednesday (docket 23-3966). Ford’s appellant opening brief in the appeal is now due March 18, and the plaintiffs’ appellee brief is due April 17, said the notice. The plaintiffs allege the 3G modems on Ford vehicles they bought or leased were rendered inoperable, as were the roadside assistance features that depended on those modems, after AT&T’s 3G phaseout in 2022. Ford moved to compel their claims to arbitration based on the sales contracts or lease agreements the four plaintiffs had signed, plus the “connected services” agreements three of the plaintiffs signed to operate their FordPass and Lincoln Way apps. But the U.S. District Court for Southern California sided with the plaintiffs, who argued that Ford can’t enforce those agreements, or that they don’t provide for mandatory arbitration.
Two privacy class actions filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles allege dating platforms eHarmony and Grindr collected and retained biometric information from Illinois users in violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The Beligan Law Group filed both actions.
Eric Moorman has until Feb. 5 to show cause in a written response why his Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint against Apollo Interactive shouldn’t be dismissed under Local Rule 3.10 for lack of prosecution due to his failure to file a case management report within the time prescribed by that local rule. Failure to respond to the show cause order will result in Moorman’s action being dismissed without further notice, said an order signed Monday (docket 8:23-cv-01533) by U.S. District Judge Charlene Honeywell for Middle Florida in Tampa. Americans “receive billions of spam text messages every year,” and Apollo Interactive, a performance marketing and lead generation agency in Los Angeles, “is responsible for a significant portion of this spam,” alleged Moorman’s July 10 class action (see 2307110063).
Defendant Apptness Media Group seeks to compel plaintiff Cindy Luchinske’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims to arbitration, said its motion Monday (docket 2:23-cv-00267) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington in Spokane. Americans receive billions of spam text messages every year, and Luchinske’s Sept. 13 class action alleges that Apptness, a compendium of digital marketers, “is a major participant in this spam” (see 2309140004). But Luchinske’s claims “are subject to arbitration based on agreements with Apptness and its vendor that actually sent the text messages,” said the motion. On at least nine occasions between June 2022 and July 2023, Apptness received web submissions from Luchinske “that included both her personal information and agreement to arbitrate,” it said. Luchinske also submitted 19 requests between 2020 and 2023 to websites owned and operated by Apptness’ vendor, What If, inquiring about employment, said the motion. Each time she provided her personal information and affirmatively clicked a button indicating her consent to receive texts from What If, plus her agreement with What If’s terms and conditions, including its arbitration provision, it said.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Jan. 15, placed prerecorded calls to consumers’ cellphones to promote his telephonic town hall events without first obtaining their prior express consent, alleged plaintiff Thomas Grant’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-00281) in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio in Columbus. The TCPA “specifically prohibits” political campaign-related autodialed or prerecorded voice calls, including autodialed live calls, autodialed texts and prerecorded voice messages, without the recipients' prior express consent, said Grant’s complaint. Ramaswamy “either expressly authorized" the making of these prerecorded calls or knew that they were going to be made for his personal benefit, to promote his presidential candidacy, “and did nothing to stop them,” it said. Ramaswamy “controlled the timing” of the calls, right before his telephonic town hall events, it said. He also controlled the recipients of the calls, “by dictating that the messages be sent to voters registered as independents,” like Grant, who had no prior relationship with him, it said. Ramaswamy also controlled or had the right to control “the content of the messages,” said the complaint. He personally recorded many of the messages transmitted to consumers, it said. Many consumers “have voiced their complaints online about receiving these unsolicited prerecorded messages from Ramaswamy,” it said. Grant of Hudson, New Hampshire, seeks injunctive relief and statutory damages for the TCPA violations, it said. A separate TCPA class action in Phoenix alleges that Ramaswamy's presidential campaign committee, Vivek 2024, “embarked on an unsolicited campaign of harassment by text call" (see 2309190003), but Grant's complaint in Columbus is the first to name the candidate as the actual TCPA defendant.
Plaintiffs Justin Davis and Gary Davis again failed to adequately plead their claims in a fraud class action over allegedly defective laptop trackpads, said HP’s reply brief (docket 4:23-cv-02114) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland in support of its motion to dismiss the Davis’ first amended complaint (see 2307030008). The plaintiffs allege that defective trackpads in their HP Omen laptops rendered their computers completely unusable without an external mouse. Plaintiffs again didn’t allege specific facts that would “plausibly support” Article III or statutory standing “or rectify the other myriad shortcomings of their original Complaint,” the reply said. The plaintiffs added only “a handful of new allegations, none of which cure the standing, Rule 9(b), or other deficiencies of their original pleading,” said the brief. Plaintiffs only “pay lip service” to the court’s direction that their amended complaint must identify the “who, what, when, where and how of the misconduct charged,” said the brief. “Instead, they argue that Rule 9(b) effectively requires notice pleading, such that HP need only be provided the barest information necessary to 'defend against the charge that they [sic] induced consumers to believe the Products were functional laptop computers,'” it said.
The transfer of plaintiff Jamie Garcia's negligence class action against Maximus Health Services involving the May Progress Software Corp. (PSC) data breach is warranted because it shares common questions of fact with cases in In Re: MOVEit Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, said PSC Friday. PSC filed its response (docket 3083) to plaintiff Jamie Garcia’s motion to vacate conditional transfer order 22 (CTO-22) before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Garcia filed her class action against Maximus, a PSC file transfer software customer, but not against PSC or any other party, said the response. The JPML “has made clear that such a circumstance does not defeat centralization,” said PSC's response, noting the panel has ruled that the MOVEit vulnerability “is at the core of all cases” and it would be “impossible” to “disentangle the allegations” against PSC from those against other defendants. Centralizing the Garcia action with other cases in the MDL “achieves the same efficiencies” that the JPML identified when it created it, the filing said. Garcia doesn’t dispute the findings and doesn’t argue that she will not seek discovery from PSC in the Garcia action, it said. The plaintiff's reason justifying exclusion from the MDL a motion is pending to remand her action before the Southern District of Indiana, but exclusion from the MDL “is not the proper procedural mechanism here,” said PSC’s response, saying her situation “is not unique.” In her Jan. 2 filing in support of her motion to vacate CTO-22, Garcia said she “deliberately chose to file” in Indiana state court “for convenience purposes,” and because Maximus was the sole party she dealt with involving PSC’s data breach. Maximus “failed to adequately secure and upgrade its data systems,” and although the health services company detected the attack on May 30, it didn’t properly notify Garcia and waited over two months before informing the public Aug. 11, the brief said.
The Oct. 26 privacy class action alleging that software development kits in NBCUniversal apps allow app and website developers to “surreptitiously collect” and transmit data to third parties (see 2310270060) is “replete with technical jargon” and full of allegations about apps that the plaintiffs don’t allege “they ever used,” said NBCU and Peacock TV in their motion to dismiss Friday (docket 1:23-cv-09433) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.