A judge asked if district court proceedings should be stayed until the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on Florida's appeal of a preliminary injunction against the state's social media law. Parties should respond by Aug. 18 in case 21-cv-00220-RH-MAF, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ruled Wednesday. Hinkle set trial for June 6 next year after discovery wraps Feb. 7. Florida wanted until May for discovery (see 2108030053).

Best Buy bilked six entrepreneurs out of $2.65 million through its participation in a “fraudulent scheme,” inducing them to invest in “sham businesses that supposedly provided delivery and installation services to Best Buy, but in reality, did no such thing and were actually part of a Ponzi scheme,” alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey. Best Buy “validated these potential investments by twice providing private guided tours of its restricted New Jersey distribution center” to the entrepreneurs, “during which many Best Buy employees corroborated all of the investment’s sales pitch,” it said. “Armed with Best Buy’s representations that the businesses were not only legitimate, but thriving,” the plaintiffs went forward with their investments but soon discovered “that the supposed businesses did not own any trucks, did not make any pickups from Best Buy’s warehouse, and did not deliver any products on Best Buy’s behalf,” it said. Alleging Best Buy aided and abetted fraud and engaged in “negligent misrepresentation,” the complaint seeks recovery of the $2.65 million, plus interest. Best Buy didn’t respond to our queries Wednesday.

Amazon threw its weight into Section 301 litigation inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade, alleging in a complaint Monday that the Lists 3 and 4A tariffs are unlawful under the 1974 Trade Act. It said they violate Administrative Procedure Act rules against sloppy rulemakings and are unconstitutional because only Congress, not the executive branch, can levy taxes. Amazon reported 2020 revenue of $386.1 billion and is believed now to be the second largest Section 301 plaintiff behind Walmart, which sued March 8. Walmart reported $559.2 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31. Both companies are the relatively few among the roughly 6,500 importer plaintiffs to challenge the tariffs on constitutional grounds. Crowell & Moring is representing Amazon. Walmart’s attorneys are from Hogan Lovells. Both law firms sit on the 15-member plaintiffs’ steering committee formed in March to help manage the litigation.

Importers seeking suspended liquidations of customs entries from China with Section 301 Lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure under the July 6 preliminary injunction (PI) order of the U.S. Court of International Trade would need to file their requests in a “repository” to be set up in the Customs and Border Protection’s Automated Commercial Environment database and back them up with emails to their appropriate CBP Center of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), say draft DOJ instructions (in Pacer) filed with the court Friday in docket 1:21-cv-52. “We have conferred with plaintiffs and understand that they will respond separately with their responses to these draft instructions,” said DOJ attorneys. Akin Gump lawyers for sample case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products didn’t comment. They're expected to repeat many of the same objections plaintiffs' steering committee lawyers raised at a July 23 status conference that the government, in complying with the PI order to suspend liquidations, wants to put too much onus on importers in processing liquidation-suspension requests. The instructions would establish 11 CEE “mailboxes” for importers to email their requests, each for a specific product sector with Lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure. Importers would be required to attach Excel spreadsheets to their emails listing seven “columns” of information the government says CBP requires to process suspension requests. Plaintiffs’ steering committee lawyers countered at the status conference that much of the information CBP seeks from importers already resides in the ACE system. The court requires the government to have the repository up and running by Aug. 6. It scheduled another status conference for Monday at 2 p.m.

New York is enjoined from enforcing its broadband affordability law, in a stipulated final judgment (in Pacer, docket 21-CV-02389) approved Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip, Long Island. Hurley ruled last month that ISPs would likely succeed on conflict and field preemption arguments, and granted a motion for preliminary injunction by the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA, ACA Connects, USTelecom, NTCA and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (see 2106110064). Under the stipulated final judgment, the sides agreed to a final judgment in favor of the ISP interest plaintiffs conceding that the state law is preempted by federal law. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) reserves the right to appeal the stipulated final judgment, declaration and permanent injunction. Her office didn't comment. For our report on the sides settling this case that may go to an appeals court, see here.

Forty-six states, the District of Columbia and Guam appealed a U.S. District Court's June rejection of an antitrust complaint they and the FTC brought against Facebook (see 2106280057), per a notice of appeal (in Pacer, docket 20-cv-03589) Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FTC isn't part of the appeal. It and Facebook didn't comment.

The FCC tacitly agreed Dish Network cured every de facto control issue with AWS-3 auction designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless when the agency focused on new items to keep denying auction credits, and the commission hasn't provided adequate justification for its focus as compared with large investors in other DEs whose applications for bidding credits were granted. That's per a Dish intervenor brief (in Pacer, docket 18-1209) Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on behalf of the SNR and Northstar challenge to being denied AWS-3 auction credits. Dish said its disparate treatment puts it at a competitive disadvantage in the wireless market relative to established incumbents that were able to invest in DEs, and the FCC hasn't offered a rationale "for such a departure from its pro-competition policies." The agency didn't comment Tuesday.

A Hollywood Hills, California, electrical engineer was sentenced Thursday to 63 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme to illegally export chips with military uses to China, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Administration Regulations, said DOJ. Yi-Chi Shih, 66, was convicted July 2 and ordered to pay the IRS $362,698 in restitution for lying to the agency about his foreign assets, and also was fined $300,000. Shih defrauded a U.S. manufacturer of high-power broadband chips to gain access to the company’s confidential and proprietary business information, then used an accomplice posing as a domestic customer to buy the chips for U.S. use, said DOJ. “Shih concealed his true intent to export.” Attempts to reach Shih’s lawyers for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

DOJ lawyers “are still conferring internally” about modifications proposed by the Section 301 plaintiffs to the July 6 preliminary injunction (PI) order freezing liquidations of unliquidated customs entries from China with Lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure, said a government filing at the U.S. Court of International Trade in docket 1:21-cv-5200 (in Pacer), made “under protest” due to defendants’ opposition to the PI. “A lack of response to any specific proposal should not be interpreted as agreeing to that proposal,” said DOJ. The government supports reliquidating, if the plaintiffs win the litigation, any entries that liquidated inadvertently during the PI order’s temporary restraining order (TRO) period due to Customs and Border Protection limitations, it said. “CBP only has the functionality to return liquidated entries to unliquidated status one entry at a time, and very few CBP personnel are knowledgeable and trained to utilize this very limited and extraordinary functionality,” said DOJ. The government has balked at accepting the plaintiffs’ proposal to obviate the need for CBP involvement by stipulating refunds would be available, at the end of the litigation if importers prevail on the merits, on all entries that liquidate in the normal course of business. The government missed Tuesday’s deadline for creating the “repository” required in the PI order for importers to identify for CBP which of their entries should not be liquidated. The repository is now due Aug. 6, said an order (in Pacer) signed Tuesday by Judges Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves. Chief Judge Mark Barnett, who dissented from the PI order, didn't sign. The court also extended the TRO period when no entries can liquidate to Sept. 2 from Aug. 2. The government wanted it extended to 30 days after the repository is created. Plaintiffs wanted a 90-day TRO. The judges scheduled two more virtual status conferences, one Friday at 11 a.m., the other Aug. 2 at 2 p.m. For both conferences, said Tuesday’s order, “the Parties are ordered to each bring an individual authorized to make decisions for the respective Party.”

Utah v. Google is assigned to Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley and to the alternative dispute resolution multi-option program. The sides are scheduled to meet for a case management conference 1:30 p.m. PDT Oct. 7 in San Francisco for the state’s antitrust case (see 2107080063) against the company, per a U.S. District Court in San Francisco order in cv-05227 Tuesday.