Amazon Must Defend “Yelp Law” Claim–Ramos v. Amazon
I support statutes that restrict businesses from contractually “gagging” their customers’ reviews. This pernicious business practice emerged around 15 years ago. Eventually, both state legislatures and Congress banned the practice. The flagship law in this area is the Consumer Review…
Snap’s TOS Withstands an Unconscionability Challenge–Howard v. Snap
A Snap user connected with another Snap user, bought drugs offline from the other Snap user, and overdosed. Her estate sued Snap in Nevada for its alleged complicity in the death. Snap successfully invoked its TOS venue selection clause, sending…
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Treated as General Partnership for Liability Purposes–Samuels v. Lido DAO
Yay, I’m blogging about more crypto losses. 🙄 An investor bought LDO tokens issued by the Lido DAO (“Decentralized Autonomous Organization”), which is an Ethereum staking service capitalized by token sales, and lost money. Everyone apparently agrees the tokens were…
Can EdTech Vendors Force Parents into Arbitration?–Shanahan v. IXL
IXL Learning sells edtech subscription services to schools. The plaintiffs claim that IXL “collected and monetized the data of millions of school-age children who used the IXL platform without parental consent,” in violation of the ECPA and state law. IXL…
Another “Sign-in-Wrap” TOS Formation Process Fails–Morrison v. Yippee
When properly implemented, “sign-in-wraps” support TOS formation. Unfortunately, some websites make dubious choices in their implementation, even though the protocols for proper formation seem so simple to me. Courts are also struggling with how to compare “sign-in-wraps” to “clickwraps,” which…
Virtual Casino’s “Sign-in-Wrap” Formation Fails–Kuhk v. Playstudio
This case involves the following screens: You may need to enlarge the images to see the purported call-to-action. In the top image, it’s purple lettering on a purple background. Serisouly, who does that? The green one is only slightly easier…
Ticketmaster’s Attempt to Game Arbitration Services Fails–Heckman v. Live Nation
In an effort to curb mass arbitration, Ticketmaster sought to switch arbitration service providers to New Era ADR, including for past ticket purchases. New Era incorporated some defense-favorable provisions to its mass arbitration provision. The Ninth Circuit holds those provisions…
What Is It With “Kennedy” Politicians Bringing Weak Lawsuits Against Facebook?–Baldwin-Kennedy v. Meta
Ronda Baldwin-Kennedy, a lawyer, ran for the US Senate in Nevada as a Republican. She got less than 2,000 votes in the June 2024 primary. Now, she’s suing Meta for a variety of gripes related to her Facebook and Instagram…
Consumers Who Don’t Read “Clickwraps” Are Still Bound By Them–Toth v. Everly Well
Raise your hand 🙋♂️ if this could describe you too: Joyce Toth clicked on a checkbox indicating that she read and accepted certain terms and conditions, which were contained in a linked “User Agreement.” Her representation was only half true….
Five Decisions Illustrate How Section 230 Is Fading Fast
Section 230 cases are coming faster than I can blog them. This long blog post rounds up five defense losses, riddled with bad judicial errors. Given the tenor of these opinions, how are any plaintiffs NOT getting around Section 230…