Sapulpa, Oklahoma, unlawfully denied Verizon’s application for two permits to build and operate a 175-foot cell tower, alleged the carrier's Telecommunications Act complaint Monday (docket 4:24-cv-00192) in U.S. District Court for Northern Oklahoma in Tulsa.

The Republican National Committee relies on its “tortured reading” of the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s 2023 opinion in Trim v. Reward Zone to “rewrite” the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and “overturn” 15 years of 9th Circuit precedent, said plaintiff-appellant Jacob Howard’s reply brief Friday (docket 23-3826) in support of his appeal to reverse the dismissal of his TCPA case (see 2402080021).

Three illustrators and a photographer sued Google Friday, alleging its Imagen AI text-to-image diffusion model used a dataset for training that contains their copyrighted works, said the Friday class action (docket 3:24-cv-02531) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco.

IT and cybersecurity firm ReachOut is suing former RedGear principals Luciano Aguayo and Armando Gonzalez over “misconduct” following its October purchase of the IT services company, said a fraud complaint (docket 1:24-cv-03408) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Illinois in Chicago. The plaintiff seeks compensation for past frauds and to stop Aguayo’s “ongoing misappropriation” of ReachOut funds, it said.

Four complaints filed Friday allege plaintiffs’ car insurance rates increased as a result of General Motor’s OnStar connected car technology sharing information with LexisNexis, which sold GM customers’ driving behavior data to car insurance companies without their knowledge or consent. Two also named Verisk Analytics as a defendant that buys GM’s data.

The League of Women Voters seeks a preliminary injunction barring defendants Steve Kramer, broadband provider Lingo Telecom and robocall broadcaster Life Corp. from producing, generating or distributing AI-generated robocalls impersonating any person, without that person’s express, prior written consent, said its motion Friday (docket 1:24-cv-00073) in U.S. District Court for New Hampshire in Concord.

Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.

MaxLinear’s “opportunistic” motion to dismiss Comcast’s third amended complaint should be denied, said Comcast’s memorandum of law Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-04436) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan in support of its opposition to the motion.

Federal law doesn't preempt New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA), the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Friday. In a 2-1 opinion, the court reversed the U.S. District Court for Eastern New York, which had barred the state from enforcing the 2021 Affordable Broadband Act (ABA). The ABA required $15 monthly plans providing 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households.

The U.S. Supreme Court “has long recognized the key role private litigants play in enforcing federal antitrust laws,” said the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws in an amicus brief Thursday (docket 24-8013) in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.