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.
The Supreme Court requested DOJ’s input in three cases on social media laws in Texas and Florida, setting up potential high court review this fall (see 2301030062).
Attorneys worked the weekend racing to file the first two known class actions to hold T-Mobile accountable for the data breach that enabled bad actors to access the accounts of, by T-Mobile's own estimation, 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customer accounts. The first filings came with remarkable speed -- within days after T-Mobile disclosed the breach in a 8-K report Thursday at the SEC.
Chive Media Group knowingly disclosed to a third party, Meta Platforms, data containing its digital subscribers’ personally identifiable information and tracking history without their consent, in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, alleged a Friday class action (docket 1:23-cv-00337) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago.
SmartBiz Telecom “vehemently disputes” all factual robocalling allegations in a December complaint brought by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) over alleged violations of several statutes (see Ref:2212060034), said the defendant's motion to dismiss Friday (1:22-cv-23945) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami. AG Moody “is trying to water seeds that haven’t been planted yet,” said defendant SmartBiz.
The Supreme Court can’t rule that Internet platforms are liable for their recommendations without also applying that requirement to search engines, wrecking the architecture of the internet and damaging the economy, said a host of amicus briefs last week supporting Google in content moderation case Gonzalez v. Google (docket 21-1333).
Defendant Altice seeks to have allegations it ignored copyright infringement committed by thousands of its high-speed internet subscribers (see 2212150019) moved to the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), said its motion to transfer venue Friday (docket 2:22-cv-00471) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Marshall. Plaintiffs BMG and its affiliates oppose the motion, said Altice.
Bright Data seeks a declaratory judgment to prohibit Meta from blocking Bright Data’s access to “purely public information" on Meta websites that Meta "expressly says it does not own,” said the redacted public version of its complaint Wednesday (docket N23C-01-065) in Delaware Superior Court in New Castle County. The court granted Bright Data’s motion for leave to file the complaint under seal to protect confidential and sensitive information, but Bright Data didn’t previously disclose what the lawsuit was about (see 2301180044).
Globalgurutech “does not fraud anyone or commit any crimes,” said the phone reseller in a Wednesday reply (docket 1:23-cv-337) in support of its motion to dismiss an Xfinity Mobile complaint alleging the company and its owner, Jakob Zahara, traffic in stolen phones (see 2211170061). There's nothing “civilly or criminally improper about GGT’s business practices,” said the reply filed in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix.
The 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a junk fax class-action lawsuit, seeking damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. A concurring option examines the FCC's pretext language from 2003.