In a ruling with implications for both net neutrality and privacy, the Ninth Circuit ruled en banc today that the common carrier exemption in Section 5 of the FTC Act is activity-based, reversing a 2016 panel ruling that the exemption was status-based. Today’s decision bolsters the FTC’s authority to bring consumer protection (including privacy) and … Continue Reading
The closely watched lawsuit alleging Spokeo, Inc., violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) may proceed, after a federal appeals court ruled — on remand from the Supreme Court — that publication of the inaccuracies alleged by the plaintiff would constitute a sufficiently “concrete” harm to give the plaintiff standing to sue in federal court. … Continue Reading
The Ninth Circuit announced today that the full court will rehear the case in which the three-judge panel opinion had dismissed the FTC’s lawsuit against AT&T for allegedly violating Section 5 of the FTC Act due to past “throttling” practices around unlimited data plans. According to the panel opinion, the FTC lacked jurisdiction over AT&T’s … Continue Reading
On Monday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) protected Yelp from liability relating to an allegedly defamatory user-generated review. In doing so, the Court rejected several attempts by the Plaintiff to plead around the CDA’s broad immunity provisions by accusing Yelp of playing a … Continue Reading
In an opinion released today, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) lawsuit against AT&T for violating Section 5 of the FTC Act due to its throttling practices. AT&T’s practice of throttling the speed of customers with unlimited data plans once they reached a certain data usage threshold had been challenged by the … Continue Reading
Courts continue to grapple with how to apply existing privacy laws to new (and even not-so-new) technology. The recent Ninth Circuit decision, affirming the Northern District of California’s decision to dismiss a proposed class action suit against Pandora for disclosure of listener music preferences in violation of Michigan’s Preservation of Personal Privacy Act (PPPA), resolved … Continue Reading
In a decision released Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit held that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act’s (“CFAA”) prohibition on accessing a computer “without authorization” is violated when a person whose access to a computer system has been “affirmatively revoked” nonetheless accesses that computer system by other means. In United States v. Nosal, the Ninth Circuit … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court released its highly anticipated decision yesterday in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, which addresses whether plaintiffs have standing to pursue statutory damages even in the absence of actual harm under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). As we previously reported, the case was expected to have significant down-stream implications for standing in privacy … Continue Reading
The Ninth Circuit recently issued two opinions addressing whether companies should require customers to explicitly agree to key provisions of user terms and other policies. On Monday, a unanimous three-judge panel issued an opinion in Knutson v. Sirius XM Radio. In this case, the plaintiff purchased a Toyota that included a trial subscription to Sirius. … Continue Reading
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed lower-court dismissals of two lawsuits under California’s “Shine the Light” law. Shine the Light (or “STL”) requires businesses that disclose customers’ personal information to third parties for those parties’ direct marketing purposes to respond to customer requests for information about such disclosures. The … Continue Reading
