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…
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”…
Another Confused Entry in the Social Media Account Ownership Jurisprudence–JLM v. Gutman
This is a lawsuit between a wedding gown company, JLM, and Hayley Paige Gutman, a designer/influencer who worked for JLM. For background, check out my post on the district court’s ruling here: “Social Media Ownership Disputes Part II: Bridal Wear…
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…
Court Denies Class Certification in Click Fraud Case–Singh v. Google
15 years ago, there was a now-mostly-forgotten battle royale over click fraud in Google AdWords (see links at the post’s bottom). Fun times. Since the resolution of that litigation, click fraud issues have largely faded into the background, flaring up…
Antitrust Law Doesn’t Prevent Apple From Rejecting Apps From Its App Store–Coronavirus Reporter v. Apple
This case involves two apps that Apple rejected from its app store. The Coronavirus Reporter app “sought to collect ‘bioinformatics data’ from users about COVID-19 symptoms that it would then share with ‘other users and [unidentified] epidemiology researchers.’” Sounds sketchy…
New York Court Is the Wrong Venue for UK GDPR Class Action–Finch v. Xandr
Maybe I’ve missed other cases in this genre, but I don’t recall seeing them. Xandr self-describes as “the only open, end-to-end platform for scaled, sophisticated campaigns on premium inventory across screens on premium inventory from CTV to data-driven linear and…
A 512(f) Plaintiff Wins at Trial! 👀–Alper Automotive v. Day to Day Imports
Background A refresher: in 1998, Congress created a notice-and-takedown scheme for user-submitted items that allegedly infringe copyright. Copyright owners send takedown notices, and service providers either remove the items or lose the safe harbor. Congress recognized how much power it…
One More Time: Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Atkinson v. Facebook
Cameron Atkinson self-describes as “a Christian, a trial and appellate lawyer at Pattis & Smith, LLC, a former business consultant, a published constitutional scholar, and a general hell-raiser.” Publicly testing his appellate/Conlaw chops and hell-raising skills, he took his own…