Florida plans to “immediately appeal” to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday's decision by the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee to freeze Florida’s law regulating social media, said a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Thursday. Hours before the law was to take effect, Judge Robert Hinkle granted NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association’s motion for preliminary injunction (see our bulletin). Plaintiffs and supporting amici told us they’re confident the 11th Circuit won’t overturn the lower court.

Higher priced panels, shortages and price hikes in components forced TV brands to cut shipments of mid- and small-sized TVs to focus on more profitable large-screen mid- to high-end models, said TrendForce on Wednesday. QLED TVs, as a result, will have a 22.4% bump in shipments this year to 7.1 million; OLED TV shipments are forecast to jump 80% year on year, with both segments expected to set shipment records.

Industry groups and consumer advocates will watch closely Thursday when the FTC expects to vote on streamlining internal Magnuson-Moss rulemaking procedures. An affirmative vote could set the stage for an agency rulemaking on privacy, a proposal in which Democrat and Republican commissioners have shown interest (see 2102120046).

Consumer intentions on buying new TV sets held steady in June, compared with April and May, but were down noticeably from June 2020, the third full month of COVID-19 lockdowns, reported the Conference Board Tuesday. The economic think tank's monthly consumer confidence index in June surged to its highest level “since the onset of the pandemic’s first surge in March 2020,” it said.

The Vtex software-as-a-service digital commerce platform processed orders worth $7.5 billion in “gross merchandise value” (GMV) for its online customers in 2020, nearly double its 2019 volume, said the company in an F-1 registration filing Friday at the SEC for an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The platform enables customers to deploy their e-commerce strategies, “including building online stores, integrating and managing orders across channels, and creating marketplaces to sell products from third-party vendors,” it said, claiming 2,000 customers in 32 countries, mostly “enterprise brands and retailers.”

Qualcomm launched a successor to the flagship Snapdragon 888 mobile platform at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday, and bolstered support for 5G millimeter-wave networks with a contingent of ecosystem supporters. Qualcomm’s next-generation 5G mobile platform for Android devices delivers the entertainment “users expect from flagship devices,” said Lekha Motiwala, director-product management, on an embargoed call Thursday announcing the launch of the Snapdragon 888 Plus.

A federal judge chided a Florida counsel at virtual oral argument Monday on the state’s law regulating social media regulation, asking “if you've ever dealt with a statute that was more poorly drafted.” U.S. District Court in Tallahassee Judge Robert Hinkle had a laundry list of questions for the state counsel. He plans to rule Wednesday on a preliminary injunction against the law that would otherwise take effect Thursday (see 2106250028).

Without COVID-19 front and center, it will be important for brands to reengage with customers this holiday season, Robin Wilson, SAP industry executive adviser, told the National Retail Federation’s virtual Retail Converge conference last week. Retailers and brands should tell stories and send email triggers to customers, she said, citing industry figures saying 45% of customers who respond to win-back campaigns will open future emails. A blend of digital and physical shopping will be important in Q4, Wilson said, referencing campaigns to get shoppers into stores early in the season for important gifts and to schedule events around gift shopping to get consumers engaged.

FedEx expects the U.S. domestic parcel market to surpass 107 million packages a day in calendar 2022, with e-commerce “contributing 88% of total U.S. market growth,” said Chief Marketing and Communication Officer Brie Carere on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q4 and 2021 ended May 31. Excluding Amazon volume, the U.S. domestic parcel market is expected to be 72 million packages a day in calendar 2022, she said. “We forecast that the U.S. domestic parcel market will reach 172 million packages a day in calendar year 2026.”

Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is “actively working” to introduce at least one, possibly more, of the six antitrust bills the House Judiciary Committee passed last week (see 2106240071). Klobuchar’s Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act (S-228) passed Wednesday with the House package of antitrust legislation (see 2106240071). “It just shows the momentum” for updating U.S. antitrust law, she told us Thursday. Klobuchar wouldn’t specify which House bill she plans to introduce. “I think there will be others as well,” she said.