U.S. District Judge William Orrick for Northern California in San Francisco signed an order Wednesday appointing interim lead counsel for the body of consolidated class actions (docket 22-cv-03580) brought against Meta for alleged privacy abuses via the Pixel tracking tool involving millions of Facebook users’ protected health information.

Defendant Amazon removed to U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles a class-action fraud complaint filed Dec. 14 in California Superior Court alleging violations of the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act (MMWA) for failure to provide consumers access to written product warranties prior to sale.

Defendants SellLocked, Guru Holdings and owner Jakob Zahara on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss (docket 2:22-cv-1950) the 12 causes of action in Xfinity Mobile’s handset trafficking complaint against them for damages and injunctive relief in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Phoenix.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Love for Eastern Texas in Tyler signed a memorandum opinion and order Tuesday (docket 6:22-CV-00423) denying DirecTV’s Nov. 1 motion for expedited discovery in its complaint to thwart what it alleges is a global imposter fraud scheme (see 2211020017). Love also denied as moot DirecTV’s request to serve subpoenas on foreign entities via courier instead of through diplomatic channels.

Downrite Engineering employees damaged Crown Castle underground cable on three occasions while excavating on land in and around Miami, without Crown Castle’s knowledge or consent, alleged Crown Castle in a complaint Monday (docket 163330712) in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Crown Castle seeks damages nearing $63,000, plus pre- and post-judgment interest and further relief.

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.

Verizon's debt collector, CBE Customer Solutions, failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and its counterclaims should be dismissed, said Verizon Wireless Friday in a memorandum supporting its motion for summary judgment in a breach of contract lawsuit (docket: (1:22-cv-08703) stemming from a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action.

The U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois in East St. Louis should reject AT&T’s Nov. 18 second motion for summary judgment to vacate the Monroe County, Illinois, denial of AT&T’s application to build a 155-foot-tall cell tower because AT&T’s timeliness arguments aren't valid, said the municipality’s opposition Monday (docket 3:20-cv-01327).

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika for Delaware signed a scheduling order Monday (docket 1:22-cv-01146) directing plaintiff Arm and defendant Qualcomm to submit by Jan. 13 their initial disclosures to begin fact discovery in Arm’s Aug. 31 breach of contract and trademark infringement complaint against Qualcomm and Qualcomm's Oct. 26 countersuit against Arm. The schedule sets fact discovery to be completed by October 2023, but a five-day jury trial is not to begin until Sept. 23, 2024.

LoanDepot became the latest defendant facing alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to challenge the statute’s constitutionality, when it filed an answer Monday (docket 3:22-cv-00374) to an Oct. 21 complaint in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in El Paso, denying it inundated consumer Mabel Arredondo with at least 18 unauthorized automated text messages to a personal cellphone between July 26 and Oct. 21 (see 2210250045).