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.
Adobe and its senior executives, including CEO Shantanu Narayen, duped shareholders who owned Adobe stock between July 2021 and September 2022 by repeatedly downplaying “the competitive pressure Adobe was experiencing” from Figma, the supplier of “a simple web-based tool for designing user interfaces,” alleged a securities fraud class action Friday (docket 1:23-cv-09260) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.
A massive May 28 data breach and subsequent attacks on Progress Software Corp.’s (PSC) MOVEit file transfer software affected 2,546 organizations as of Oct. 11, alleges a negligence class action (docket 1:23-cv-12450) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston. The breach affected the records of about 64.5 million individuals, said the complaint, citing anti-malware company Emsisoft.
The Nov. 1 decision of the U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania in Harrisburg dismissing Smart Communications’ Sherman Act antitrust claims against Global TelLink (GTL) and York County Prison in Pennsylvania came about because the court “consistently misread” Smart’s complaint, said Smart’s attorney, Phillip Closius of Silverman Thompson, in oral argument Thursday before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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.
Discord cancels users’ subscriptions for its Nitro instant-messaging and VoIP social-media services “on its own volition,” and then continues to charge subscribers for months after the cancellation, alleged Zhea Zarecor’s class action Friday (docket 3:23-cv-05385) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco on behalf of herself and her 10-year-old son, plus all other consumers similarly situated.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in his Friday dissent (docket 23-411), scolded the SCOTUS majority for granting the government’s emergency application for a full stay in the injunction that would have barred dozens of Biden administration officials from coercing or significantly encouraging social media platforms to moderate their content (see 2310210001). SCOTUS granted the full stay Friday just as the administrative stay on the injunction was expiring at 5 p.m. EDT.
Though MGM Resorts International was “well aware” that the personally identifiable information (PII) it collects is “highly sensitive and of significant value” to bad actors, it informed its customers Oct. 5 of a “large scale cyberattack” across its properties, said a Friday class action (docket 2:23-cv-01719) in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas. During the data breach, which occurred Sept. 11, cybercriminals shut down MGM's ATMs and slot machines, its website and online booking systems, the complaint said.
Plaintiff Marcelo Muto “willingly and proactively” signed up for J.Crew’s email list when he enrolled in its Passport rewards program, said the apparel company’s memorandum Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-07429) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan in support of its motion to dismiss Muto’s Aug. 22 California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) class action (see 2308230005). Muto alleges J.Crew uses the services of Bluecore, its third-party email vendor, to enable wiretapping of the electronic communications of visitors to its website.
Educational services company Chegg tracked plaintiff Michael Foulkes’ video viewing history while he was on its website and then shared it with Facebook, said a Thursday class action (docket 1:23-cv-23993) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami.