Counsel for educational technology company Edmodo and DOJ agreed last week to have a magistrate judge conduct further proceedings in a privacy case brought by the DOJ. The parties filed a joint motion (docket 3:23-cv-02495) May 22, saying they resolved all issues in the matter by a proposed stipulated order for permanent injunction, civil penalty judgment and other relief in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco.

A federal judge should deny Google’s attempt to block an expert opinion that the loss of consumer “variety” is an antitrust harm, economists argued Friday in docket 3:21-md-02981 before the U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco (see 2305250052). Seventy plaintiffs, including three dozen states and D.C., allege Google monopolized the market for the distribution of Android mobile apps through the Google Play Store.

Cox, CBS and Fox agreed to a $48 million settlement with advertisers in a long-running antitrust lawsuit stemming from a 2018 DOJ investigation of ad price collusion that arose during inquiries into the failed Sinclair/Tribune deal, said a motion filed last week in U.S. District Court in Chicago (docket number 1:18-cv-06785). Under the settlement, Cox, CBS and Fox will provide information and testimony that could help the advertisers as the litigation continues against broadcasters that aren’t part of the settlement, such as Nexstar, Sinclair and Gray Television. The settling defendants will provide “meaningful cooperation, which will assist Plaintiffs in the prosecution of their claims against the Non-Settling Defendants,” said the motion.

The district court “erroneously concluded that Yout’s software platform was a circumvention tool under 17 U.S.C. §1201, a conclusion that it could not possibly have reached at this early stage of the litigation,” said the ripping software company’s Thursday reply brief (docket 22-2760) in a copyright infringement case in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dish Network failed to secure and safeguard customers’ personal health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) stored on its data network, said a privacy class action (1:23-cv-01319) Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver, following the company's February network outage and data breach.

U.S. District Judge Sarala Nagala for Connecticut in Hartford granted plaintiffs’ motion to remand a social media lawsuit to Connecticut Superior Court in Fairfield, in a Wednesday ruling and order on motion to remand (docket 3:23-cv-00284). The court had oral argument on the motion May 17.

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 362-page consolidated class action filed Monday in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Camden arising from last summer’s Samsung data breach (see 2305230049) includes previously undisclosed detail on its allegedly lax security procedures and the questionable manner in which it disclosed the hack to its customers. The consolidated complaint (docket 1:23-md-03055) asserts claims on behalf of a nationwide class of Samsung account holders, plus state subclasses in all 50 states.

T-Mobile’s correspondence to a SIM card breach victim was “so nonchalant” it didn’t offer him theft protection services, plaintiff Vahid Chitsazzadeh said in a privacy complaint (docket 23st-cv-11402) Sunday in Superior Court for California in Los Angeles.

Nexstar’s anticipated motion to dismiss DirecTV’s antitrust complaint (see 2305210001) is a “meritless delay tactic,” and the court should deny Nexstar leave to pursue it, DirecTV told U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty for Southern New York in a letter Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-02221). DirecTV alleges Nexstar and its broadcast sidecars Mission and White Knight are colluding to set retransmission consent fee prices. Nexstar told Crotty the complaint should be dismissed for multiple reasons, including lack of Article III standing.