Sixteen U.S. school districts joined the mounting wave of lawsuits against social media platforms Wednesday, as budget-strapped schools seek to hold tech companies responsible for rising costs associated with surging student mental health issues. San Diego-based Frantz Law filed 15 cases for school districts in California, Idaho, Oklahoma, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah, charging Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, Google, Snapchat and TikTok with violations of public nuisance laws, negligence and racketeering. A similar complaint was filed in Kentucky.

The March 27 order from U.S. District Judge Manish Shah for Northern Illinois in Chicago denying in part Walmart’s motion to dismiss an FTC enforcement action (see 2304040010) “raises fundamental questions about the FTC’s legal authority and the proper interpretation of key provisions of the FTC Act,” said Walmart. Walmart filed its memorandum of law Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-03372) in support of its motion to certify the order for interlocutory appeal.

The California Assembly Privacy Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would hold online platforms liable for knowingly, recklessly or negligently helping facilitate child sex trafficking.

The Court of International Trade on April 11 upheld the Commerce Department's final results of its 2019-2020 antidumping duty administrative review on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from China, in the face of challenges to Commerce’s surrogate value selection raised by Hangzhou Ailong Metal Products.

The Court of International Trade on April 11 ordered the Commerce Department to redo parts of an antidumping duty administrative review on glycine from Japan. Judge Stephen Vaden remanded the final results of the review to Commerce for the agency to reconsider its decision that the "compensation for payment expense" was properly categorized as a general and administrative expense. The judge sustained Commerce's decision to use generally accepted accounting principles-compliant research and development cost records instead of trial balances was supported by law, as well as the agency's finding that respondent Nagase waited too long in finding its own assessment rate error.

The White House is eyeing former acting NTIA Administrator Anna Gomez, ex-Wiley, and to a slightly lesser extent NASA Chief of Staff Susie Perez Quinn as the most viable potential candidates to replace ex-nominee Gigi Sohn as President Joe Biden’s pick fill the long-vacant third Democratic FCC seat, lobbyists and others said in interviews. Officials cautioned that the Biden administration is also looking at other potential candidates and several remained viable Tuesday, including Narda Jones, chief of staff to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The complicated series of transactions in the Standard/Tegna deal and the companies’ own submission of “narrowly crafted” concessions at a “late stage” of the process led to the protracted review of the purchase and subsequent hearing process (see [Ref;2304040063]), said the FCC in a partially redacted response filing Tuesday (docket 23-1084) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The broadcasters' response is due Friday.

The complicated series of transactions in the Standard/Tegna deal and the companies’ own submission of “narrowly crafted” concessions at a “late stage” of the process led to the protracted review of the purchase and subsequent hearing process (see [Ref;2304040063]), said the FCC in a partially redacted response filing Tuesday (docket 23-1084) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The broadcasters' response is due Friday.

The Court of International Trade substituted its own judgment for the Commerce Department's when it overruled the agency's rejection of antidumping duty respondent Z.A. Sea Foods' (ZASF's) Vietnamese sales as third country sales in an AD review on frozen warmwater shrimp from India, AD petitioner Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee argued in its opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Z.A. Sea Foods Private Ltd. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1469).

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri in St. Louis should deny the motion of home entertainment retailer Vintage Stock to dismiss Count II of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action of Sheila and Dennis Thompson (see 2301120009) because the defendant “was expressly forbidden to send any advertising text messages but did so in violation of federal law,” said the Thompsons’ amended response Thursday (docket 4:23-cv-00042). Their injury in fact was from sending and receiving illegal text messages, it said. The court also should deny Vintage Stock’s motion to dismiss or strike the Thompsons’ class allegations, it said. The defendant is improperly raising issues of class definition at the motion to dismiss stage of this case, “but issues of class definition are determined at the class certification phase and not on a motion to strike or dismiss,” it said.