In a move that may greatly impact litigation under the Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA) and potentially other acts that provide statutory damages for violations, the high court will hear arguments in a case questioning...more
Today, the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau released a Public Notice seeking to refresh the record on a Petition for Reconsideration filed by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), COMPTEL, and tw telecom...more
In essence, the question presented in Spokeo is whether a statutory violation, without more, satisfies the injury requirements for Article III standing purposes. Should the Court rule in Spokeo, Inc.’s favor when it hears the...more
5/4/2015
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Imminent Harm ,
Popular ,
Private Right of Action ,
SCOTUS ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
Statutory Damages ,
Young Lawyers
On April 27 the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, setting the stage for the high court to resolve a critical standing question that is an issue in almost all online privacy cases:...more
The FCC’s Open Internet Order (the “Order”) was published in the Federal Register today, Monday, April 13, and, unless the Order is stayed, will become effective after sixty days, on June 12, 2015. Publication in the Federal...more
CRTC imposes over US$900,000 in fines against two companies, reminding U.S.- and foreign-based businesses about possible liability under Canada’s Anti-Spam Law - This month marks the issuance of the first two enforcement...more
Commission makes good on Chairman Wheeler’s promise following adoption of new Net Neutrality rules The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that will hold a public workshop on April 28, exploring the FCC’s...more
The Order does not forbear from applying Section 222 of the Act to broadband Internet access service (BIAS) providers. It did, however, forbear from applying its existing rules implementing Section 222, in recognition that...more
The Order recognizes that the deployment of communications networks and broadband infrastructure depends heavily on access to utility poles on reasonable rates, terms and conditions. Accordingly, the Order declined to...more
Last week the Third and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals assigned case numbers to the appeals of In re Nickelodeon Privacy Litigation and Locklear v. Dow Jones & Co., Inc., two recently dismissed class actions in which...more
Plaintiffs in two recently dismissed class actions alleging violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”) filed notices of appeal this week, asking the Third and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals to hit the rewind...more
Earlier this week the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau dismissed without prejudice a pole attachment complaint filed by Verizon Florida LLC (“Verizon”) against Florida Power and Light (“FPL”). It was the FCC’s first substantive...more
A Growing Chorus of Federal Courts Finds User IDs, by themselves, Do Not Count as Personally Identifiable Information under the VPPA Recently, a federal district judge joined a number of his colleagues around the country who...more
1/30/2015
/ Advertising ,
Class Action ,
Cookies ,
Dismissals ,
Dow Jones ,
Facebook ,
Hulu ,
Online Advertisements ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Social Media ,
VPPA
On Tuesday, Jan.20, New Jersey Federal District Judge Stanley R. Chesler dismissed with prejudice the last remaining allegations in a multidistrict class action against Viacom and Google, formally ending plaintiffs’ suit...more
On January 12 President Obama visited the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) where he unveiled several new data security and privacy initiatives, including proposed legislation to create a national data breach notification law...more
On October 8, Georgia Federal District Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr., dismissed a putative class action against The Cartoon Network, Inc., where the plaintiff alleged that the animation company violated the Video Privacy...more
In early September, Home Depot announced that it had suffered a severe security incident, which resulted in a massive data breach that exposed the payment card information of Home Depot customers across the United States and...more
Back in April, Google filed a Petition for Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in the Street View case, seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision holding that unencrypted Wi-Fi signals are protected from interception...more
Google held true to its promise to seek SCOTUS review of the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the term “radio communications” in the Wiretap Act when it filed its Petition for Certiorari last week. Google had argued in the...more
In the latest development in the Google Street View case, the Ninth Circuit once again upheld the lower court’s decision that Google’s collection of unencrypted Wi-Fi does not fit within an exception to the Wiretap Act that...more
Canada’s Department of Industry has published long-awaited Governor in Council regulations and announced key compliance dates necessary to implement Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL), which was enacted almost exactly three years...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a case challenging the fairness of a cy pres settlement of a class action against Facebook related to Facebook’s “Beacon” program that was launched in late 2007. Although the...more
Google is seeking further review in two cases we wrote about last week on alleged Wiretap Act violations. In the Gmail case, where Google was charged with improperly reviewing subscribers’ emails, Google asked Judge Koh to...more
Google is facing increased scrutiny of its data collection and use practices, which may be a warning to all Internet and online service providers. Last week, Judge Koh in San Jose held Google accountable for an alleged...more
Last week, the Ninth Circuit held that the Wiretap Act prohibits the kind of “interception” and collection of transmissions from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks that Google reportedly followed in compiling Street View data....more