Companies that assist taxpayers in preparing and submitting their taxes through online platforms and software programs are “inherently familiar” with the risk and safeguards required by law to prevent the interception, collection, recordation and/or exploitation of tax return information. Yet defendants Google, H&R Block and Meta entered into an agreement “to explicitly and intentionally violate” the privacy rights, protections, and expectations of taxpayers by illegally collecting, intercepting and transmitting private tax return information (TRI), alleged plaintiff Justin Hunt’s class action Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-04953) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. They did so “to further the end goal of maximizing profits through direct-to-consumer advertising,” it said.

To state a claim that financial research firm InvestorPlace violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending telemarketing text messages to recipients without their consent, plaintiff Courtney Hill must “plausibly” allege she received those text telemarketing messages, but she “fails to do so,” said InvestorPlace’s brief Wednesday (docket 5:23-cv-00111) in U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina in Statesville in support of its motion to dismiss Hill’s first amended complaint (see 2307130001).

The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ Sept. 8 ruling “properly held” that the plaintiff attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri weren’t likely to succeed on their claims against the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and State Department defendants, and “properly vacated the injunction against them” (see 2309090001), said DOJ’s response Thursday (docket 23-30445) to the AGs’ petition for rehearing. Their petition “provides no basis for disturbing those holdings,” and reinstating officials from those agencies, and should be denied, it said.

News satire site the Babylon Bee is a frequent target of online censorship and attacks by “humorless scolds, Big Tech, and prestigious media outlets,” and New York’s hateful conduct law (Section 394-ccc) increases that censorship, said its 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief Tuesday (docket 23-356) in support of the district court’s order blocking the state from enforcing the law (see 2309270005). “As lovers of free speech and humor,” the Bee “has a substantial interest in the outcome here,” said the brief, submitted with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

The “intended effect” is “unclear” of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ surprise order Tuesday rescinding its previous day’s grant of panel rehearing to the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri for widening the social-media injunction’s scope against federal officials (see 2309260056), said DOJ. It filed a supplemental memorandum Tuesday (docket 23A243) in support of its emergency application at the U.S. Supreme Court for a full stay of the injunction, pending resolution of SCOTUS review.

The July 26 class action alleging spyware from software monitoring company Dynatrace “wiretaps” electronic communications of thousands of website visitors (see 2307270025) “is one of a recent wave of lawsuits flooding courts across the country,” said Dynatrace’s memorandum of law Tuesday (docket 3:23-cv-11673) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Springfield in support of its motion to dismiss.

New York, in enacting its hateful conduct law in the aftermath of the May 2022 mass shooting of Black shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket (see 2309260001), “joins a growing number of states trying to evade the First Amendment’s constraints to influence what lawful speech appears online,” said NetChoice and the Chamber of Progress in a amicus brief (docket 23-356) Monday. The brief filed at the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is in support of affirming the district court’s injunction blocking New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) from enforcing the measure (Section 394-ccc).

Appellant-objector Cassie Hampe, a class member in the action brought by T-Mobile customers “victimized by one of the largest data breaches” in U.S. history, objected that the $78.75 million in attorneys’ fees awarded in the $350 million settlement fund was a “windfall,” said her 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opening brief Tuesday (docket 23-2744). Hampe sought an adjustment of fee methodology “to account for the economies of scale evident in settlements over $100 million,” it said.

Charter Communications renewed its request for a temporary restraining order to enjoin Bridger Mahlum, its former director-state government affairs, from continuing his employment with BroadbandMT, a direct competitor, and keeping him from spilling Charter’s trade secrets, in its emergency motion Monday (docket 3:23-cv-01106) in U.S. District Court for Connecticut in New Haven.

Romwe.com owner Shein Distribution removed to U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles Monday a class action (docket 2:23-cv-08025) alleging the e-commerce apparel store for two years covered up the fallout from a July 2018 data breach that exposed the login credentials of as many as 7.3 million U.S. consumers.