The Ninth Circuit Has a Lot to Say About Online Contract Formation (Much of It Confusing)–Chabolla v. ClassPass
I previously summarized this case: The plaintiffs claim they signed up for a ClassPass membership but got unexpectedly auto-renewed. (ClassPass appears to be an aggregator of third-party fitness classes). ClassPass sought to send the case to arbitration based on its…
Copyright Owner Prevails in Lawsuit Over Form Contracts–Equine Legal v. Fireline Farms
🚨🚨 Calling all cyberlaw nerds: here is a bona fide “Law of the Horse” case. 🚨🚨 The plaintiff is an Oregon law firm practicing equine law. The defendant runs a Florida horse ranch. In 2016, the defendant licensed the plaintiff’s…
The Competition Between Temu and Shein Moves Into a Courtroom–Whaleco v. Shein
As you know, DMCA takedown notices and 512(f) can be, and regularly are, used as anti-competition tools. This time, the pugilists are fast-fashion marketplaces Shein and Temu. I imagine some of you want both of them to lose. Given that…
Another N.D. Ill. Judge Balks at SAD Scheme Joinder–Zaful v. Schedule A Defendants
Zaful is an online retailer with a trademark that seemingly rhymes with…awful? It claims copyright in 1,800+ product shot photos and says TEMU merchants are infringing those product shots in their listings. (Longtime readers know how I feel about copyright…
Uber’s TOS Formation Upheld Again–Wu v. Uber
Goodness gracious, I could teach an entire semester of Internet Law focused solely on Uber’s TOS formation. It’s a source of never-ending, and sometimes avoidable, drama. This opinion is a companion to the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s decision in Good v….
Amazon Must Defend “Yelp Law” Claim–Ramos v. Amazon
I support statutes that restrict businesses from contractually “gagging” their customers’ reviews. This pernicious business practice emerged around 15 years ago. Eventually, both state legislatures and Congress banned the practice. The flagship law in this area is the Consumer Review…
Judge Rejects SAD Scheme Joinder–Toyota v. Schedule A Defendants
Toyota brought a SAD Scheme case against 103 defendants before Judge Daniel in the Northern District of Illinois. (Seriously, Toyota? Using abusive IP enforcement tactics? Do better). As I recently mentioned, Judge Daniel is calling out overreaching joinder allegations in…
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Treated as General Partnership for Liability Purposes–Samuels v. Lido DAO
Yay, I’m blogging about more crypto losses. 🙄 An investor bought LDO tokens issued by the Lido DAO (“Decentralized Autonomous Organization”), which is an Ethereum staking service capitalized by token sales, and lost money. Everyone apparently agrees the tokens were…
Another “Sign-in-Wrap” TOS Formation Process Fails–Morrison v. Yippee
When properly implemented, “sign-in-wraps” support TOS formation. Unfortunately, some websites make dubious choices in their implementation, even though the protocols for proper formation seem so simple to me. Courts are also struggling with how to compare “sign-in-wraps” to “clickwraps,” which…
Virtual Casino’s “Sign-in-Wrap” Formation Fails–Kuhk v. Playstudio
This case involves the following screens: You may need to enlarge the images to see the purported call-to-action. In the top image, it’s purple lettering on a purple background. Serisouly, who does that? The green one is only slightly easier…