Articles Posted in Consumer Law

Navient has been sued by members of the American Federation of Teachers over its alleged practices directing borrowers into student loan repayment programs and various types of forbearance which are not eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. 

Plaintiff Lenora Rice recently filed a class action lawsuit against National Beverage Corp., the makers of LaCroix, in an Illinois state court alleging that their popular sparkling water is not “100% Natural” as it is advertised. Rice claims that LaCroix beverages actually contain ingredients such as ethyl butanoate, limonene, linalool, and linalool propionate, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies as synthetic.

Last Friday, the law firm Hagens Berman filed a lawsuit in California federal court on behalf of Allen Lee who is suing both Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, for “unlawful and unfair business practices” that have “unjustly enriched” the ticket-seller at the expense of live events fans.

In the wake of the FCC's efforts to undo net neutrality protections under the Trump administration, California recently passed a law implementing net neutrality rules that are even stronger than the Obama-era regulations that have been rolled back at the federal level. Governor Jerry Brown signed the new law on September 30, which represents the strongest set of net neutrality protections in the country. The Department of Justice immediately filed a lawsuit in federal court, stating that California's law constitutes an impermissible burden on the federal government's efforts to deregulate the internet.

Last week, Match Group and its parent company IAC were sued by current and former employees of Tinder, among whom are co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen. The lawsuit includes allegations that the parent company withheld information about Tinder's potential growth to avoid paying billions of dollars to the start-up team.

A lawsuit seeking class action status has recently been filed against Google after the tech company admitted to tracking the location history of even users who have turned off location services.

Last week a San Francisco jury awarded former school groundskeeper Dewayne Lee Johnson more than $289 million in his lawsuit against agrochemical giant Monsanto for failing to warn consumers that exposure to Roundup weed killer causes cancer.

On Friday, June 29, 2018, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra brought suit in California Superior Court for the County of San Francisco against student loan servicer Navient Corp. and two of its subsidiaries, Pioneer and General Revenue Corp.

State politicians believe that the chemicals may harm the coral reefs and marine ecosystems in Hawaii, a critical part of the state's economy. However, corporations and doctors have questioned the law's impact on consumer health.

Last Thursday California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), granting California consumers the right to request that businesses disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information that they collect about the consumer, the categories of sources from which that information is collected, the business purposes for collecting or selling the information, and the categories of 3rd parties with which the information is shared. The law, which goes into effect January 1, 2020, also authorizes California consumers to opt out of the sale of personal information by a business and will prohibit the business from discriminating against the consumer for exercising this right, including by charging the consumer who opts out a different price or providing the consumer a different quality of goods or services, except if the difference is reasonably related to value provided by the consumer’s data. Moreover, the CCPA makes it more difficult for businesses to sell personal information for consumers less than 16 years of age.