A New Jersey woman is suing Match Group after she found her photo associated with another woman’s name on the company's online Tinder dating site, said a fraud class action (docket 2:23-cv-23115), removed Thursday to U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark from New Jersey Superior Court in Bergen County.

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.

Defendants AT&T, Lumen and Verizon collectively removed to U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Lafayette what’s believed to be one of the first class actions brought by homeowners against the telecom industry for legacy lead-laden cables that reduced their property values.

The seven plaintiffs seeking to vacate T-Mobile’s 2020 Sprint buy on antitrust grounds oppose T-Mobile’s motion to certify for 7th Circuit interlocutory appeal the court’s Nov. 2 order denying its motion to dismiss the case (see 2311290042), said their opposition Thursday (docket 1:22-cv-03189) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. T-Mobile hasn’t established the “required elements” for certification under Section 1292(b), it said.

Apple had the leverage to “disrupt” Visa's and Mastercard's dominant position in the U.S. market for point-of-sale payment card network services when it was preparing to introduce its iPhone Apple Pay feature in 2014, but instead it colluded with them to maintain their market domination, alleged Mirage Wine & Spirits, a liquor store in O’Fallon, Illinois, in an antitrust class action Thursday (docket 3:23-cv-03942) in U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois in East St. Louis.

A new shareholder derivative action seeks to hold Verizon, CEO Hans Vestberg, former Chief Financial Officer Matthew Ellis and 14 current and former board members accountable for Verizon’s “long-standing decision to bury and leave toxic telephone cables around the country indefinitely to contaminate ground water and pose other potential health risks to the public from exposure to these wires.” The complaint was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Trenton.

The FTC has pursued administrative and judicial remedies against Meta to protect consumers’ privacy, consistent with its “statutory mandate” under the FTC Act, said the commission’s motion Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-03562) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Online platforms “facilitate important speech and commerce,” but they also “enable exploitation,” said the opening brief Wednesday (docket 23-2969) of the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its appeal of the preliminary injunction that blocks it from enforcing AB-2273, the state’s Age Appropriate Design Code (see 2310240017).

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seemed skeptical of oral arguments Thursday that Congress didn’t intend for video surveillance gear from Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua to be placed on the FCC’s “covered list” and barred from the agency’s equipment authorization program (see 2309210032) when lawmakers added those companies to a list of security threats and separately ordered the FCC not to authorize gear from companies on the list. “We can’t write an opinion that says we think Congress was just kidding,” said Judge Florence Pan.

The FCC didn't violate the nondelegation doctrine when it used the Universal Service Administrative Co. to calculate quarterly USF contribution factors and administer USF programs, a federal court ruled Thursday. In denying Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC contribution factor (see 2306220062), the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals noted "all USAC action is subordinate to the FCC, and the FCC retains ultimate decision-making power."