Virtual private network company Surfshark violates California’s Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) when it fails to present subscription terms “in a clear and conspicuous manner,” a class action (docket 5:24-cv-02299) alleged Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.

The four plaintiff-appellees who allege that Ford duped them into buying or leasing its vehicles with inoperable 3G modems following AT&T’s “decommissioning” of its 3G network in 2022 should have submitted their claims to arbitration “as provided by the individual arbitration agreements they each entered into,” said the automaker’s opening brief Wednesday (docket 23-3966) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sheila and Dennis Thompson were correct to ask U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark for Eastern Missouri to remand count II of their first amended Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint against Vintage Stock to St. Louis County Circuit Court where it originated before the home entertainment retailer removed it in January 2023, said Clark’s memorandum and order Tuesday (docket 4:23-cv-00042).

A 3rd U.S. Circuit Appeals Court panel of Judges Michael Chagares, David Porter and Anthony Scirica affirmed the district court's July 18 decision dismissing Andrew Perrong’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act case against the Democratic Committee of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, for failure to state a claim (see 2308090033), said Chagares’ opinion Wednesday (docket 23-2415).

The same law firm, Boies Schiller, that filed a 2020 privacy class action vs. Google in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland over its data collection practices, is filing batches of what Google is calling "copycat" complaints in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California on behalf of thousands of plaintiffs, seeking monetary relief.

Virginia broadband providers applauded a federal court for tossing a railroad association’s challenge of a 2023 state law that gave ISPs access rights to railroad property. In an opinion Monday, U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia Judge David Novak dismissed a lawsuit by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) against state officials including Virginia State Corporation Commission Judge Jehmal Hudson (case 1:23-cv-00815-DJN-WEF). The court rejected two counts for lack of standing, two for failure to state a claim and two as barred by sovereign immunity.

AT&T and Verizon customers seeking to vacate T-Mobile’s 2020 Sprint buy “rest” their antitrust claims against T-Mobile on “a boundless theory of causation,” said CTIA’s amicus brief Monday (docket 24-8013) in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Video game companies make their games addictive to young people to maximize profits, alleged a class action (docket 1:24-cv-00064) against Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive Software, Rockstar Games, Microsoft, Mojang Studios, Sony Interactive, Roblox, Nintendo of America and Google, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Northern Florida in Gainesville.

The FCC is asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court to deny the Insurance Marketing Coalition’s April 3 motion to stay portions of its Dec. 18 order implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts, pending the disposition of the coalition’s appeal to vacate the order (see 2312220059). The commission filed its opposition Monday (docket 24-10277).