Another Court Shuts the Door on “Yelp Law” Drive-By Lawsuits–Arterberry v. Peet’s
Last week, I blogged the Moss v. GoDaddy decision holding that a key part of California’s Yelp Law doesn’t authorize a private right of action. If you didn’t read that post, go read it now because this post assumes you…
When You Reject Cookies, You Might Be Agreeing to Arbitration–Alba v. Harbor Freight
Starting in 2024, Harbor Freight deployed the following cookie banner: The court accepts Harbor Freight’s claim that the “2024 Cookie Banner was displayed on each page on the Website until the user interacted with it, even if the user had…
Appeals Court Shuts Down Bogus Private Enforcements of the ‘Yelp Law’–Moss v. GoDaddy
The “Yelp Law,” California Civil Code 1670.8, has two main provisions: (a)(1) A contract or proposed contract for the sale or lease of consumer goods or services may not include a provision waiving the consumer’s right to make any statement…
Federal Circuit Rebuffs SAD Scheme Plaintiff–Shenzhen Jisu v. Annex A Defendants
Nomenclature note: This is an Annex A case, not a Schedule A case, but they are the same thing. Snarky note about design patents: This is a design patent case. I don’t mean any disrespect towards design patent aficionados, but…
eBay Defeats Contributory Copyright Claim–Lee v. SBS
Lee is enforcing music copyrights against karaoke machine makers that allegedly include copyrighted songs. He sent numerous NOCIs to eBay targeting the machines. eBay apparently honored the NOCIs. However, Lee really wanted staydowns, which eBay did not do. Lee claims…
Large Roundup of Section 230 Rulings
This blog post rounds up nearly 20 Section 230 cases (and adjacent cases), mostly from the past four months, that for whatever reason I didn’t cover in a standalone blog post. Section 230’s effects are waning overall, but this post…
Court Rebuffs Emojico’s SAD Scheme TRO Request
This is a very recent Emojico SAD Scheme enforcement (filed last week). I’ve blogged a few Emojico cases before (see the link list below). Indeed, my interest in the SAD Scheme started with an Emojico case, so I pay a…
Section 230 Doesn’t Apply to Generative AI Enhancements to Ad Copy (But the Plaintiffs Lose Anyway)–Bouck and Suddeth v. Meta
The blog post covers two cases involving scammy ads on Facebook that were part of a pump-and-dump for Chinese penny stocks. The first two rulings came in March. In the Bouck case, the court rejected Facebook’s Section 230 defense because…
Fifth Circuit Keeps Doing Fifth Circuit Things 📉–SEAT v. Paxton
This case involves a Texas statute (Senate Bill 2420, the App Store Accountability Act) requiring app stores to age-authenticate their users and obtain parental consent (among other requirements). I oppose this law and all other online age authentication mandates. The…
When Can Amazon Block an Agentic AI Service?–Amazon v. Perplexity (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy On March 9, 2026, Judge Chesney granted a preliminary injunction in the case of Amazon v. Perplexity, concluding Amazon was likely to succeed on its CFAA and California Penal Code section 502 theories. If you’re…