Infomercial king avoids jail, for now, because of contempt hearing delay caused by shutdown

TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau, accused of misleading viewers with claims about his weight loss book, may be grateful for the government shutdown. Trudeau faced a contempt hearing today for failing to pay a $37 million judgment in a deceptive marketing case brought by the Federal Trade Commission. But FTC lawyers…

Oct 4, 2013 11:54 AM CDT

Merchants say loss of credit card ‘swipe fees’ violates their 1st Amendment rights

Oct 1, 2013 8:30 AM CDT

Federal district court cautions lawyers to be careful about repeating judges’ compliments

Oct 1, 2013 8:20 AM CDT

HOA ban on sex offenders leads to lawsuit

A Texas homeowners association is facing a lawsuit that claims it improperly tried to oust a registered sex offender living there. Theodore Whipple and his wife say in their lawsuit that he is a low-risk sex offender, convicted more than 20 years ago, KVUE reports. They claim a violation of…

Sep 27, 2013 11:55 AM CDT

Debt collector accused of posing as law firm will pay $1M in first FTC case over texts

A California-based debt collector has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission case. The collection company allegedly falsely portrayed itself as a law firm and sent text messages to debtors which didn’t include a validation notice with information required by law to be provided in an…

Sep 26, 2013 5:55 PM CDT

Lawyers among those who paid for fake online reviews; probe leads to settlements with 19 companies

Investigators for the New York Attorney General’s office scoured Craigslist and posed as the owner of a yogurt shop to uncover companies that sought fake online reviews or offered to write them for clients. As a result of the findings, 19 companies have agreed to stop writing fake reviews—a process…

Sep 23, 2013 3:15 PM CDT

Should Mississippi AG’s suit against LCD makers be heard in state court? SCOTUS to decide

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Nov. 6 in a case filed by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood against the makers of LCD screens. Hood claims the companies engaged in price fixing, resulting in higher prices that are illegal under Mississippi consumer protection law. The issue is whether the…

Sep 18, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

FTC examines Facebook’s facial-recognition feature as a privacy violation

Facebook’s “Tag Suggest,” which uses facial-recognition technology to match faces in photos with users’ names, is being examined by the Federal Trade Commission to determine whether it violates the site’s privacy policy. Tag Suggest drew criticism from privacy advocates, Reuters reports. In 2011, Facebook entered into an agreement with the…

Sep 12, 2013 5:01 PM CDT

Lance Armstrong is protected by First Amendment in fraud suit by readers of his books, judge rules

A federal judge in California has ruled for Lance Armstrong and his publishers in a suit that claims readers were duped into buying the cyclist’s books because of false claims that he never took performance-enhancing drugs. U.S. District Judge Morrison England of Sacramento ruled (PDF) that the content of the…

Sep 11, 2013 4:31 PM CDT

Which companies are best at keeping your personal info private?

What are the United States’ most privacy friendly businesses, Forbes asks? That’s difficult to define, according to the piece, but Twitter, Salesforce and AmEx get high marks. Criteria considered included whether the companies are transparent about how they use personal data they’ve collected; if they’ve suffered data breaches; and whether…

Sep 11, 2013 4:30 PM CDT

Hungry lawyers, health-conscious clients make Bay Area ground zero in Big Food fight

The same lawyers who once took on the tobacco industry are now waging legal war against so-called Big Food makers in half a dozen states. But the San Francisco Bay Area, known for its health-conscious foodie residents, is ground zero for such litigation, which hungry lawyers have pursued in dozens…

Sep 10, 2013 10:24 AM CDT

T-shirts with drug names are ‘cynical effort,’ say three state attorneys general

Attorneys general from Florida, Maine and Kentucky are asking a clothing company to stop selling T-shirts emblazoned with the names of often-abused prescription drugs. The T-shirts made by Kitson Inc. display the words Xanax, Vicodin and Adderall, report the Orlando Sentinel and the Associated Press. The company says its T-shirts…

Sep 6, 2013 3:55 PM CDT

No end to food fight in California federal courts over alleged mislabeling

The food industry is fighting dozens of mislabeling suits filed in federal courts in California’s Northern District, but so far it has not been able to win dismissal of any of the complaints at an early stage. The Bay area is “now home to the nation’s Food Court,” the San…

Sep 4, 2013 10:55 AM CDT

Skyscraper developers assume liability for Jaguar melted by reflected sunlight

There was good news and bad news for a British businessman last week. The bad news, as Martin Lindsay discovered when he returned to his Jaguar, legally parked on a London street: It had melted, apparently because of sunlight reflected and focused by a curved skyscraper under construction, the BBC…

Sep 3, 2013 7:15 PM CDT

A tooth whitening company sues the Alabama dental board

Sep 1, 2013 9:10 AM CDT