Political consultant Steve Kramer, broadband provider Lingo Telecom and robocall broadcaster Life Corp sent “thousands of robocalls” two days before the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary to people they thought were likely Democratic voters, featuring deepfake simulations of the voice of President Joe Biden, alleged a complaint Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-00073) in U.S. District Court for New Hampshire in Concord.
Plaintiff Michelle Righetti moved to relate 14 class actions arising out of MGM Resorts International’s September data breach, said her motion to consolidate Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-01719) in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas. All the cases involve the same defendant, set forth similar or identical proposed classes, raise virtually identical legal and factual issues, and seek the same or substantially similar relief, said the motion, saying consolidation would provide “judicial efficiency and economy of resources.” Righetti sued MGM on Dec. 14, alleging claims for negligence, violations of the California’s Privacy and Customer Records acts and its Unfair Competition Law. The motion includes the 14 class actions plus any additional related cases that may be filed or transferred to the Nevada court, it said.
The Senate Commerce Committee needs to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Intelligence Committee before deciding on potentially marking up TikTok-related national security legislation, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday (see 2403130039).
The House voted 352-65 Wednesday to approve legislation that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest the app in six months (see 2403120062).
Proposed conclusions in the draft of the FCC's annual report to Congress about the state of broadband deployment and competition raised eyebrows among industry groups, with some calling for the commission to consider additional data. The FCC also defended proposing higher broadband speed goals in the draft report. Commissioners will consider the item, required by Section 706 of the Telecom Act, Thursday during their open meeting (see 2402220059).
When 23andMe made several announcements about a data breach in October, it didn’t disclose that hackers who infiltrated its computer network “were after the personal information of Jewish and Chinese customers,” alleged a class action Friday (docket 3:24-cv-01418) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. 23andMe customer Rudy Thompson filed the complaint.
If ever there were a petition for rehearing en banc that should be granted, it's Cox Communications’ petition in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Frontier Communications’ amicus brief Monday (docket 21-1168) in support.
Crown Castle co-founder Ted Miller’s complaint to invalidate the “cooperation agreement” the Crown Castle board entered into with “activist” investor Elliott Investment Management (see 2402290063) “is without merit,” said the answer Thursday (docket 2024-0176) from 12 defendants, including Crown Castle Chair Robert Bartolo, to the Feb. 27 lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court.
An FCC proposal requiring that MVPDs reimburse customers for programming affected by retransmission consent blackouts (see 2401170072) is outside the agency’s authority, unworkable, and would lead to higher prices for subscribers, said MVPDs and MVPD trade groups in comments filed in docket 24-20 by Friday’s deadline. The rebate proposal would be an “unnecessary government intrusion into already difficult negotiations” and “disrupt the marketplace by placing the government’s thumb on the scale to the detriment of cable subscribers,” said NCTA.
The plaintiffs in a fraud suit against Amazon didn’t receive the benefit of their bargain when the company hiked prices for its Prime Video subscription service in January, alleged their class action Thursday (docket 2:24-cv-00309) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.