The Danish and Polish data protection authorities issued their first GDPR fines last month. The cases serve as indicators of the kinds of technical violations enforcement officials are looking to deter as they police the EU’s new privacy regulation.
In Denmark, Datatilsynet recommended fining the taxi company Taxa 4×35 nearly $180,000 for failing to delete
FTC Chairman Joe Simons recently acknowledged the Commission’s plan to use its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act to examine the data practices of large technology companies. In written responses to questions from members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee following in-person testimony in November 2018, Chairman Simons confirmed that plans were underway
Last week, in Cline v. Touchtunes Music Corp., No. 18-1756, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Manhattan district judge’s decision to approve a low-cost class action settlement in what the judge termed a “nuisance” case, while basically zeroing out the $100,000 fee requested by the plaintiffs’ class counsel.
Defendants who have faced
Businesses often include mandatory arbitration clauses in their pre-dispute dealings with customers to prevent costly consumer class actions in favor of streamlined (often individual) arbitration. The Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) makes such arbitration agreements “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.”
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that it is seeking comments on proposed amendments to the Privacy Rule and Safeguards Rule under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). These two rules outline obligations for financial institutions to protect the privacy and security of customer data in their control. While the proposed changes to the Privacy
Asserting the authority to oversee the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, have requested information from the Commission concerning the CPSC’s workload and its dealings with the public with regard to consumer
The current and future definition of what qualifies as an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS or autodialer) remains a hotly debated and evaluated issue for every company placing calls and texts, or designing dialer technology, as well as the litigants and jurists already mired in litigation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Last year, the D.C. Circuit struck down the FCC’s ATDS definition in ACA International v. FCC, Case No. 15-1211 (D.C. Cir. 2019). Courts since have diverged in approaches on interpreting the ATDS term. See, e.g., prior discussions of Marks and Dominguez. All eyes thus remain fixed on the FCC for clarification.
In this post, we revisit the relevant details of the Court’s decision in ACA International, and prior statements of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai concerning the ATDS definition to assess how history may be a guide to how the FCC approaches this issue.
In a decision that will limit the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ability in both consumer protection and antitrust matters to bring certain claims in federal court, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held in FTC v. Shire Viropharma, Inc. that the FTC may only bring a case under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act when
This week, President Trump signed an executive order outlining a national plan to promote the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The order serves as the official launch of the “American AI Initiative,” which includes five areas of focus:
Most of our posts regarding “Made in USA” claims relate to FTC investigations and enforcement actions. Private plaintiffs, however, also closely watch those claims. For example, in 2018 plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against New Balance Athletics Inc. challenging qualified “Made in USA” claims. Although the plaintiffs acknowledged that New Balance qualified the claim
