Most people in the U.S. "would be surprised to find out" that there are "search engine options other than Google,” said Megan Gray, CEO, GrayMatters Law & Policy, on an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) webinar Wednesday discussing implications of the DOJ v. Google antitrust trial that concluded last month in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Closing argument for the 2020 case (docket 1:20-cv-03010) is scheduled for May 1 before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta.

Religious speech shouldn’t be “lumped together” with speech claims at issue in the NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association challenges to the Florida and Texas social media laws, said an amicus brief Tuesday (dockets 22-277 and 22-555) at the U.S. Supreme Court from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in support of no party.

Fidelity National Financial (FNF) disclosed Nov. 21 it was the victim of a preventable ransomware attack that “virtually froze” all the company’s activities, “leaving people buying and selling homes, or paying mortgages, confused and uncertain of what was going to happen to their properties and money,” alleged plaintiff Teneika Tillis’ class action Tuesday (docket 5:23-cv-02537) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Riverside.

The public interest organization, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), sued the National Park Service (NPS) under the Freedom of Information Act Tuesday to compel the agency to disclose records related to Wi-Fi or cellular proposals and installations across three parks that are “now between three months and three years overdue,” said the Tuesday complaint (docket 1:23-cv-03690) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In December 2020, when SolarWinds learned it was the victim of the Russian government’s “extraordinarily sophisticated” Sunburst attack, the company “promptly and transparently” informed investors, said SolarWinds’ portion of a joint case management letter that it and the SEC sent Monday (docket 1:23-cv-09518) to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer for Southern New York in Manhattan.

Google’s “anticompetitive scheme” is “starving the free press” and siphoning “billions of readers and billions of dollars” from publishers, while extracting and publishing their content on Google and diverting “readers and ad revenue,” alleged a class action (docket 1:23-cv-03677) Monday by Helena World Chronicle (HWC) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace, “but it has achieved that distinction, and maintains it, through anticompetitive conduct that destroys its competitors and raises prices for consumers everywhere,” alleged online retailer Zulily in an antitrust complaint Monday (docket 2:23-cv-01900) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.

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.

An Amazon employee sued the company and “John Does” 1-10 for engaging in a “systematic scheme” of failing to pay current and former employees who lived and worked from home in Seattle for a “reasonable portion” of their personal home internet or cell service bills for business-related purposes during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, said a Dec. 6 class action (docket 23-2-24124-0) in Washington Superior Court for King County in Seattle.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin for Northern Illinois in Chicago should certify for interlocutory appeal his Nov. 2 order denying T-Mobile’s motion to dismiss the complaint brought by seven AT&T and Verizon customers who seek to vacate T-Mobile’s 2020 Sprint buy on antitrust grounds (see 2311290042), CTIA said in an amicus brief Monday (docket 1:22-cv-03189) in support of T-Mobile’s motion to certify.