Amazon Again Avoids Liability for Defective Marketplace Item–Fox v. Amazon
This is a product liability lawsuit against Amazon due to a hoverboard purchased via Amazon that caught on fire. Plaintiffs bought the hoverboard from the Amazon site in November 2015 as a Christmas gift for their son. The son used…
Lawsuit Over Cancer-Curing Honey Ads Still Sucks–Abid v. Google
Abid markets cancer-curing honey. He bought AdWords to promote his MightyHoney website. Google rejected the ads. He sued Google pro se for a variety of claims. The court previously granted Google’s motion to dismiss with leave to amend. My prior…
More Bad News for Uber’s Contract Formation–Ramos v. Uber
In last year’s Meyer v. Uber, Uber won an important ruling in the Second Circuit upholding its online contract formation with riders. Still, the contract formation news has not been all good for Uber. For example, in last year’s Metter v….
TWiT’s Trademark Lawsuit Against Twitter Sent Back to the Drawing Board
The popular and long-running show “This Week in Tech,” commonly called TWiT, sued Twitter. TWiT provides audio and video content branded under the TWiT trademark. It alleges that Twitter’s offering of video services and content under the TWITTER brand infringes…
Redfin Must Defend Copyright Suit Over Property Photos–Stross v. Redfin
Stross is a photographer who licenses his photographs to real estate agents. He licensed the photos through ACTRIS, a multiple listing service that compiles listings into a database for use by brokers and realtors. ACTRIS users who upload their photos…
YouTube Defeats Another Remove-and-Relocate Lawsuit–Song Fi v. Google
The YouTube “remove-and-relocate” cases involve similar facts. A YouTuber uploaded a video and promoted it. YouTube suspected irregularities with the promotion, removed the video from its initial URL (breaking inbound links, stripping the comments, and resetting the like and view…
Recapping a Year’s Worth of Section 230 Cases That Got Stuck in My Blogging Queue
[Though most of these rulings are defense-favorable, Congress recently eviscerated Section 230 and isn’t done ruining its greatest online policy masterpiece] Twitter Defeats Defamation Claim As part of a custody dispute, a former spouse allegedly disparaged the other spouse in…
Google Successfully Amends Adwords Contract to Add Arbitration–AdTrader v. Google
Some advertisers sued Google over promised refunds for alleged click fraud. Google’s 2013 Adwords contract said: Google may add to, delete from or modify these Terms at any time without liability. The modified Terms will be posted at www.google.com/ads/terms. Customer…
Google Can Reject Ads Promoting Honey That Claims to Cure Cancer–Abid v. Google
Plaintiff Abid claims he has developed “a systems biology empirical approach based on prophetic medicine.” He created a website, Mighty Honey, that provides information about “prophetic medicine”/”Arabic herbal medicine” which appears to be supplement-infused honey (the screenshot to the right…
VRBO’s Anti-Fraud Guarantee Doesn’t Support Claim Over Fraudulent Listing–Hiam v. HomeAway
A vacationer found a listing of interest on VRBO (owned by HomeAway). After back-and-forth negotiations with the lister, he sent $46k for a week’s rental. The property proved to be fictional, so the vacationer got fleeced. VRBO investigated and, oddly,…