Oculus Faces Messy Ownership Claims Over Its Head Mounted Display–Total Recall v. Luckey
Palmer Luckey, who ultimately developed the much-hyped Oculus Rift, entered into an agreement with a company called “Total Recall”. Although it was not crystal clear, the agreement was technically with Thomas Seidl, one of the partners of Total Recall. The…
More Data Breach Lawsuits Fail In Court–Michaels Stores and SuperValu
Courts recently dismissed more data breach lawsuits for failure to allege harm. Michael Stores: Michaels confirmed that consumer account information had been compromised and acknowledged that approximately 2.6 million cards could have been affected between 2013 and 2014. It offered…
2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 7 (Marketing, Advertising, E-Commerce)
Marketing/Advertising * Jezebel: The Big Bad World of Products Celebrities Promote on Instagram. Related blog post. * NY Times: Cool Influencers With Big Followings Get Picky About Their Endorsements * NY Times: Since signing with Brooks on Jan. 1, 2014,…
Big Fish’s Virtual Casino Doesn’t Violate Washington’s Gambling Statute
Eric and Angie blogged about the Machine Zone slot machine ruling from Maryland. This is a similar lawsuit brought against Big Fish, alleging that Big Fish’s virtual casino violates Washington’s anti-gambling statute. (Here’s a Recorder article covering these and other…
Virtual Casino Doesn’t Violate California’s Gambling Law–Mason v. Machine Zone (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Angie Jin [Eric’s note: Angie Jin is a Cornell Law 3L who volunteered to write up this post on a case that was festering in my queue for a few months.] Plaintiff, Mia Mason, filed a Class…
Shutterfly Can’t Shake Face-Scanning Privacy Lawsuit
A putative class action accuses Shutterfly of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The plaintiff, who is not a Shutterfly user, alleges that, when an identified Shuttterfly user uploaded pictures of plaintiff, Shutterfly created a “face scan” using the…
Online Dating Services Must Give California Users a “Cooling Off” Period–Howell v. Grindr
California has a statute applicable to dating contracts that gives consumers the right to cancel within 3 days of signing up. Companies must advise clients of this and provide a cancellation mechanism and a full refund. Grindr, an online dating…
Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in Amazon’s Terms of Service–Fagerstrom v. Amazon
This lawsuit alleges that Amazon overstated the extent of discounts it offered customers (in stating the extent of the discount customer achieved when shopping at Amazon versus competing retailers). Amazon moved to compel arbitration, and the court grants the motion….
Google Play Defeats Lawsuit Over Unauthorized Bank Charges–Harvey v. Google
In March 2013, Susan Harvey bought a game via Google Play, which required her to electronically link her bank account. She alleges that hundreds of unauthorized charges hit her bank account, totaling thousands of dollars. Google allegedly offered to make…
Senate Passes Consumer Review Freedom Act
As you recall, the Consumer Review Freedom Act would prevent businesses from restricting consumers’ reviews of their businesses. This week, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent. On the floor, the sponsors introduced a new version of the bill….