On May 16, the Supreme Court in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins found that the Ninth Circuit had not adequately addressed whether the named plaintiff had sufficiently alleged a “concrete” injury in connection with his putative FCRA class action against Spokeo, Inc.  In Spokeo, the plaintiff (Robins) sued the “people search engine” for alleged violations of …

Microsoft prevailed in its appeal to the Second Circuit from an order denying its motion to quash a warrant seeking a Microsoft user’s email stored on the company’s servers in Ireland.  The ruling sets important precedent limiting the extraterritorial reach of the federal government in seeking to compel disclosure of private company data under the …

In a letter dated July 21, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and  Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.), on behalf of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (the “Committee”), asked the heads of several federal agencies to provide the Committee with information concerning their understanding of the role of fintech in the consumer financial services …

On July 14, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it had entered into a final consent order with Ohio auto dealers Progressive Chevrolet Company and Progressive Motors Inc. (collectively, the “Progressive Dealers”), which the FTC had “charged with deceiving consumers by using advertising that touted low monthly car lease payments and down payments but failed …

On July 19, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reached a $107 million settlement agreement with three individuals who conspired with World Law Group to swindle millions of dollars from consumers in a debt-relief scheme. 

In August 2015, the CFPB brought suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against several defendants, including …

Most organizations understand the importance of timely implementing software updates and patches.  However, open platforms have permitted a level of customization such that a patch in one application may have unintended consequences in other parts of the overall system architecture, including customization of the software being updated.  A good example is the recent Microsoft security …

The FTC issued warning letters to 28 companies that allegedly advertised participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative Cross-Border Privacy Rules system (“APEC CBPRs”), but had not received the requisite certification.  A company seeking to participate in the CBPR system must first have its compliance established by an APEC-recognized accountability agent.

The APEC CBPRs is a…

The FTC recently approved increases to the maximum civil penalty amounts available for violations of statutes subject to FTC enforcement.  The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 authorizes increases affecting sixteen statutes under FTC enforcement authority.

The amended maximums take effect August 1, 2016.

New maximum civil penalties for the following violations will…

On July 13, the FTC filed a proposed settlement agreement in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida between a group of lead generators and the FTC and the Office of the Florida Attorney General.  The named lead generators included PC Cleaner, Inc.; Netcom3 Global, Inc.; Netcom 3, Inc., …

As we previously reported, Plaintiff Jonathan Torres filed a putative class action against Wendy’s in the wake of a data breach that the fast-food company suffered earlier this year.  Wendy’s subsequently filed a motion to dismiss Torres’ complaint, which the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted on July 15. 

In …