Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) announced Wednesday a task force formed to provide better coordination among law enforcement to identify, disrupt and prosecute organized criminal rings that steal goods from retailers and resell them through online marketplaces.

A busy communications litigation calendar is set for early 2023, highlighted by Jan. 12 oral argument in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is trying to reverse a preliminary injunction that bars her from enforcing the state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) over the objections of the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA and other trade groups (docket 21-1975).

Verizon denies “any express or implied allegation of violation of law or of any wrongdoing,” said the carrier in its answer Tuesday (docket 4:22-cv-00637) in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Missouri, to an Oct. 7 complaint that it and Experian breached the Fair Credit Reporting Act (see 2210070053).

Each side in Core Communications’ legal fight to recover $11.4 million in unpaid access services charges from AT&T (see 2211230053) pointed the finger at the other in arguing which bears the burden of proof in showing that the calls at issue were legitimate and not improper robocalls.

Meta’s Within Unlimited buy “is likely to result in anticompetitive harm by lessening competition” in the virtual reality dedicated fitness app market, “where Within’s Supernatural is the leading firm in a highly concentrated market,” said the FTC’s proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law Friday (docket 5:22-cv-04325) in its lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose for a preliminary injunction that would block the transaction.

Contrary to the assertions of defendants SellLocked, Guru Holdings and owner Jakob Zahara that Xfinity Mobile’s motion for expedited discovery should be denied in XM’s handset trafficking complaint (see 2212190054), expedited discovery to third parties “is necessary to preserve relevant evidence,” said the wireless provider in a Dec. 22 reply in support of its motion (docket 2:22-cv-01950) in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix.

The Corinth, New York, planning board's denial of AT&T’s site plan review application to build a 150-foot-tall monopole wireless telecommunications tower in the middle of a residential neighborhood “must not be disturbed,” said the town’s opposition Friday (docket 1:21-cv-00149) in U.S. District Court for Northern New York in Syracuse. AT&T had filed an Oct. 14 motion for summary judgment. Friday's filing also was in support of the town's own cross-motion for summary judgment.

The request of the village of Muttontown, New York, to file a motion to dismiss AT&T’s complaint over the municipality’s denial of the carrier’s efforts to build a cell tower should be rejected “because the application would be futile,” AT&T wrote U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert for Eastern New York in Central Islip in a letter Friday (docket 2:22-cv-05524). Muttontown and its four component governing boards signaled their intentions to seek dismissal of AT&T’s complaint in a Dec. 12 letter motion to the judge (see 2212140001).

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.

The village of Oyster Bay Cove, New York, and its planning and zoning appeals boards subjected AT&T to an “unreasonably protracted” application process to approve an 85-foot-tall cell tower, ultimately failing to act on the application before the last-extended expiration of the Telecommunication Act’s shot clock Nov. 23, alleged the carrier in a Dec. 22 complaint (docket 2:22-cv-07807) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip.