Another Court Shuts the Door on “Yelp Law” Drive-By Lawsuits–Arterberry v. Peet’s
Last week, I blogged the Moss v. GoDaddy decision holding that a key part of California’s Yelp Law doesn’t authorize a private right of action. If you didn’t read that post, go read it now because this post assumes you…
When You Reject Cookies, You Might Be Agreeing to Arbitration–Alba v. Harbor Freight
Starting in 2024, Harbor Freight deployed the following cookie banner: The court accepts Harbor Freight’s claim that the “2024 Cookie Banner was displayed on each page on the Website until the user interacted with it, even if the user had…
Appeals Court Shuts Down Bogus Private Enforcements of the ‘Yelp Law’–Moss v. GoDaddy
The “Yelp Law,” California Civil Code 1670.8, has two main provisions: (a)(1) A contract or proposed contract for the sale or lease of consumer goods or services may not include a provision waiving the consumer’s right to make any statement…
Court Upholds Instagram’s TOS–Feds for Freedom v. Meta
Feds for Freedom is an anti-COVID vax organization. 🙄 It registered an Instagram account. F4F is upset that Instagram allegedly warned anyone who tried to repost their content that: This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by…
Large Roundup of Section 230 Rulings
This blog post rounds up nearly 20 Section 230 cases (and adjacent cases), mostly from the past four months, that for whatever reason I didn’t cover in a standalone blog post. Section 230’s effects are waning overall, but this post…
Section 230 Doesn’t Apply to Generative AI Enhancements to Ad Copy (But the Plaintiffs Lose Anyway)–Bouck and Suddeth v. Meta
The blog post covers two cases involving scammy ads on Facebook that were part of a pump-and-dump for Chinese penny stocks. The first two rulings came in March. In the Bouck case, the court rejected Facebook’s Section 230 defense because…
When Can Amazon Block an Agentic AI Service?–Amazon v. Perplexity (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy On March 9, 2026, Judge Chesney granted a preliminary injunction in the case of Amazon v. Perplexity, concluding Amazon was likely to succeed on its CFAA and California Penal Code section 502 theories. If you’re…
Section 230 Ends Lawsuit by Twitter Premium Subscriber–Taddeo-Waite v. X
This court summarizes: “At the core of Taddeo-Waite’s complaint is his desire to hold X liable for allegedly maintaining a graphic and upsetting post on its platform, amplifying the reach of that post, and hampering the extent of Taddeo-Waite’s own…
The YOLO Remand Shows Why the 9th Circuit Should Stop Carving Up Section 230–Bride v. Snap
This is the remand of the troubling Ninth Circuit Section 230 decision in Bride v. YOLO. As you may recall, the plaintiffs claims that YOLO made statements about its content moderation and the safety of its environment that the plaintiffs…
TOS Formation Fails, and So Does Section 230–Judge v. Academia
The named plaintiff is a professor. The defendant is a website, Academia, that helps professors share their works publicly. Academia heavily promotes its “Mentions” service that tracks a professor’s mentions and citations. [Historically, I have used a variety of free…