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Ninth Circuit Torpedoes FDCPA Class Settlement as ‘Worthless’

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a class action settlement as “worthless” for absent class members in a recent federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case. The decision represents another addition to the growing list of FDCPA and other consumer-related class action settlements facing tough scrutiny where absent class members receive minimal or no monetary relief in proportion to …


Internet Trolling Paper Published Email Without Consent; Retraction Sparked Lawsuit Threat

When a paper was retracted earlier this year with an opaque notice, we set out to figure out why. We’re still not entirely clear of the reason, but we’ve uncovered one aspect of the paper that raised objections from another researcher: The paper, on internet trolling, included an email he sent without his permission. The retraction sparked our interest, both because of the journal’s opaque …


Caribou Coffee Wakes Up to TCPA Class Action

A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin last Thursday morning, alleging that Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (“Caribou”) violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) by sending unsolicited text message advertisements without obtaining the prior express written consent to do so. The TCPA class action complaint seeks to …


Down to Lunch Smartphone App Illegally Used Users’ Phone Contact Lists to Send Spam Promo Texts

The owners and developers of the hot new social networking app Down To Lunch have been hit with a class action lawsuit, alleging they illegally used text messages to “spam-vite” potentially thousands of people to download the app. On April 22, attorney Ari J. Scharg, of the firm of Edelson PC, of Chicago, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of plaintiff Matthew Warciak and a …


Class Action Says Trump Campaign Sent Unsolicited, Automated Text Messages, Broke Federal Law

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the campaign texted people without permission, and should pay as much as $1,500 for each improper text message sent. On April 25, plaintiff Joshua Thorne, identified in the court documents as a resident of Cook County, filed suit in Chicago federal court against Donald J. Trump for President Inc. – Trump’s …