Poorly Executed “Sign-in-Wrap” Contract Formation Process Fails–Berman v. Freedom Financial
The Ninth Circuit recently considered when consumers assent to terms through interacting with a website: Berman v. Freedom Financial Network, LLC. The court confirms that to ensure enforceability, consumers should (1) check the box and (2) be advised that checking…
Database Access After Failed Negotiations Didn’t Violate the CFAA–Carfax v. Accu-Trade
Plaintiff (Carfax) manages information regarding used cars and light trucks. It owns a “QuickVIN” tool that allows users to search vehicle-related information by license plate number, rather than by VIN number. Defendant Accu-trade is a valuation platform and is a…
California Courts Continue to Trim Section 230’s Protection for Amazon’s Marketplace (and Everyone Else)–Lee v. Amazon
The California Appeals Courts have turned against Amazon’s marketplace. In 2020, in Bolger v. Amazon, the court held that Amazon may be strictly liable for marketplace sales it fulfills. Then, last year, in Loomis v. Amazon, the court extended Bolger’s…
Court Mistakenly Thinks Copyright Owners Have a Duty to Police Infringement–Sunny Factory v. Chen
Fuxi, the putative copyright owner, has a registration for an image of printed sage leaves (the left image): The alleged infringer, the Sunny Factory, sells the candles on the right on Amazon. Fuxi’s lawyer, Haoyi Chen of Arch & Lake,…
26 Trademark Academics Oppose the SHOP SAFE Act
[Today, Betsy Rosenblatt, Rebecca Tushnet and I sent the following letter to Congress on behalf of 26 trademark academics (here’s a PDF version). This complements a separate letter sent by 38 organizations and companies also opposing the SHOP SAFE Act….
Airline Sues to Stop Popular Web-Scraping Service–American Airlines v. The Points Guy (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Those interested in web scraping legal issues had high hopes that the Supreme Court’s opinion in Van Buren v. United States last summer would provide clear guidelines on which types of online data access were…
Section 230 Protects Google for Including Telegram In Its App Store–Ginsberg v. Google
The plaintiffs claim that violent extremists, anti-Semites, haters, and other malefactors use Telegram, and thus its availability in the Google Play Store violates Google’s Developer Guidelines. This is yet another remix of the old Noah v. AOL case, where a…
California Appellate Court Rejects Poorly Executed “Sign-In Wrap”–Sellers v. JustAnswer (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Contracts are a state-law issue. And online contracts, even though they exist in the friction-less, boundary-less world of the internet, are also generally governed by state-law principles. Which is why it is perhaps odd that…
LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Policy May Cover Theft of Cryptocurrency Assets–Atwal v. LifeLock
This is a lawsuit against LifeLock. In August or September of 2018, Atwal allegedly lost approximately $12 million worth of cryptocurrency because a third party misappropriated his credentials. A few months prior, Atwal had subscribed to a LifeLock “Ultimate Plus”…
Uber’s TOS Fails in Court (Again)–Sarchi v. Uber
The plaintiff sued because she’s blind and an Uber driver refused to pick her up with her guide dog. Uber invoked the arbitration clause in its TOS. The Maine Supreme Court says that the TOS wasn’t properly formed. This is…