Oral argument Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Oregon in Eugene on the cross-motions for summary judgment over Lane County’s denial of AT&T’s application to build a 150-foot-tall cell tower (see 2210260009) focused prominently on the county’s assertion the federal court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case because AT&T failed to appeal the denial to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) as Oregon law requires.

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.

Georgia courts have general jurisdiction over OpenAI, which “mistakenly argues” in its motion to dismiss plaintiff Mark Walters’ amended defamation complaint (see 2310160005) “that general jurisdiction only exists in the place of incorporation and the principal place of business,” said Walters’ opposition Monday (docket 1:23-cv-03122) in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta. Walters, a nationally syndicated talk show host, alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT service defamed him to a journalist.

AT&T, Equifax and the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) were “plainly deficient” in their investigations of plaintiff Linda Surrency’s credit reporting dispute over identity theft, alleged Surrency’s Fair Credit Reporting Act complaint Thursday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa (docket 8:23-cv-02323).

The FCC’s Oct. 5 motion to dismiss Indian Peak Properties’ petition for review on grounds that the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit has jurisdiction to review only final orders of the commission (see 2310060029) “overstates the case law” by attempting to limit the D.C. Circuit’s jurisdiction “to only a review of a formal FCC adjudication” of an application for review, said Indian Peak’s counsel, Julian Gehman of Gehman Law, in his opposition Monday to the motion to dismiss (docket 23-1223).

The FTC has an “uphill battle,” said Herb Hovenkamp, University of Pennsylvania law professor, Tuesday on an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar on the commission’s September antitrust complaint against Amazon (docket 2:23-cv-01495) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.

T-Mobile faced tough questions Tuesday from a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on the carrier’s argument that states must align with the FCC’s revenue-based USF contribution mechanism. The court heard T-Mobile and subsidiaries’ challenge to a U.S. District Court for Northern California March 31 decision not to block the California Public Utilities Commission’s April 1 change to a connections-based method.

Defendant TelevisaUnivision Interactive Media “knowingly” violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by embedding the Meta Pixel tool on its website to track users’ video viewing history and reporting that history to Facebook along with their unique Facebook identification (FID) numbers, alleged plaintiff Indira Falcon’s class action Monday (docket 8:23-cv-02340) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa.

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.

OpenAI seeks the dismissal in its entirety with prejudice of plaintiff Mark Walters’ amended defamation complaint for failure to state a claim, said its motion Friday (docket 1:23-cv-03122) in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta. Walters, a nationally syndicated talk show host, alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT service defamed him to a journalist (see 2309060026).