Unfortunate Expansion of ‘Failure to Warn’ Exception to Section 230–Beckman v. Match
You recall the Ninth Circuit’s Doe v. ModelMayhem (Doe #14 v. Internet Brands) ruling from earlier this year. It held that a website couldn’t invoke Section 230 against a claim that the site should have warned its users about potential…
Anarchy Has Ensued In Courts’ Handling of Online Contract Formation (Round Up Post)
[Eric’s introduction: ever since the Ninth Circuit mishandled the already-muddled definitions of “clickwrap” and “browsewrap” in the Nguyen case, we’ve seen a steady decline in the coherence of the law of online contract formation. Judges can’t figure out whether or…
FTC Sues 1-800 Contacts For Restricting Competitive Keyword Advertising
For over a decade, I’ve blogged about 1-800 Contacts’ campaign to suppress competitive keyword advertising, including its legislative games (e.g., those times when 1-800 Contacts asked the Utah legislature to ban competitive keyword advertising) and at least 15 lawsuits against…
Judge Declines to Enforce Uber’s Terms of Service–Meyer v. Kalanick
This is an antitrust case against Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, alleging that Mr. Kalanick “orchestrated and participated in an antitrust conspiracy.” Uber moved successfully to intervene, and then moved to force arbitration (Mr. Kalanick joined in this motion)….
Want An Enforceable Online Contract? Don’t Use A Footer Link Called “Reference”–Zajac v. Walker
This lawsuit involves the purchase of items I don’t understand. Let’s just call them “thingies.” The buyer Zajac needed thingies with an appropriate rating. It bought the thingies from a distributor, Walker, then realized the thingies didn’t have the appropriate…
Priceline Avoids Liability For Resort Fees Due To Its Onsite Disclosures–Singer v. Priceline
This is a lawsuit alleging that Priceline improperly failed to disclose “resort fees” in connection with its Name Your Own Price service. The service allowed consumers to name a price (bid a dollar amount) for a hotel in a given…
Internet Troll’s “Political Shenanigans” Are Protected Speech–State v. Hirschman (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Prof. Jane Bambauer, University of Arizona James E. Rodgers College of Law Aaron Hirschman, a self-proclaimed “Internet troll,” posted the following message on Craigslist: Wanna make an easy $20 for voting? (Downtown Bend) Are you interested in…
Courts Approve Terms of Service-Based Arbitration Clauses for Uber and Groupon
[Note: this is part 2 of TOS Arbitration Day. You can access Eric’s post from this morning here.] Online terms, and in particular arbitration clauses, have been subject to attack by plaintiffs’ lawyers. News reports have also raised the specter…
“Modified Clickwrap” Upheld In Court–Moule v. UPS
[Eric’s introduction: today Venkat and I are “celebrating” (?) TOS Arbitration Day here at the Technology & Marketing Law Blog. Independently, we each drafted blog posts about arbitration clauses in terms of service–covering different cases! We could have combined the…
Ted Cruz’s Presidential Campaign Apparently Committed Copyright Infringement. Oops.
I know it may be my own idiosyncratic and romanticized view of governance, but I hold politicians to a higher standard when it comes to knowing, and complying with, the law. After all, if the people in charge of making…