Samsung, one of the world’s largest makers of televisions and other electronics, has been hit with a class action lawsuit over allegedly defective remote controls for its smart TVs, centered on claims the remotes can overheat and cause the AA batteries inside to leak potentially dangerous “battery juice.” The lawsuit was filed July 25 in Chicago federal court.
Privacy advocates, trial lawyers and other supporters of an Illinois biometrics privacy law fueling lawsuits around the country have pledged to fight any attempt to rewrite the 2008 law, and say they believe the law should be "mimicked around the country."
While technological privacy advocates cheered, a California federal judge this spring sent shockwaves through the tech world and many other industries, determining an Illinois law that has spawned a wave of litigation already could be applied to businesses based virtually anywhere, so long as they did business in Illinois.
Illinois' unique law to protect biometric privacy has already had an impact, as several of social media's giants have been hit with class action lawsuits alleging their photo sharing policies ran afoul of it. But in coming years, those actions could rope in a growing number of businesses of many sizes, as judges have begun to determine the statute, enacted in 2008, could have implications far beyond even social media or Illinois' state borders.
A Chicago woman’s class action lawsuit that accused Chicago-based food delivery app operator Grubhub of sending unwanted text messages in violation of federal law, has landed in federal court.
A federal judge has ruled that even though a putative class-action suit against Facebook – which alleges the company lifted users’ biometric information without permission – was moved from Illinois federal court to California federal jurisdiction, Illinois law regarding privacy will apply in the case.
A federal judge has ruled a group of companies that used promises of free cruises to entice people to take telephone political surveys appeared to have broken federal law, clearing the way for a class action to continue against a cruise line and seller of vacation timeshares.
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.
A California woman has dialed up a potential class action lawsuit against a Chicago-based debt collection firm she claims violated federal and California law when they called her mobile phone to try to collect debt on her unpaid traffic tickets.
While already pursuing a class action complaint against nationwide tanning salon franchiser L.A. Tan, an Illinois woman has lodged a second complaint against its Schaumburg franchisee, alleging the franchise business owner should be made to pay, as well, for collecting, storing and sharing customers’ fingerprints when enrolling them in L.A. Tan’s customer rewards program.
A federal judge has sided with online casino-style game company Double Down Interactive in a potential class action lawsuit which alleged the company's games violated Illinois gambling laws, and the company should pay back those who had paid to play its games.
One of the country’s largest radio networks, and the parent company of several Chicago stations, has been served with a class action lawsuit alleging it violated federal law when it replied to listeners’ song requests and other text messages with texts containing advertisements for online games, apps, convenience stores and other sponsors.
An Instagram user has brought a class action against Groupon, arguing Chicago-based e-commerce deal provider has been wrongly using photos posted to Instagram to promote deals crafted by Groupon for restaurants and other businesses.
A federal judge has signed off on an agreement to settle the bulk of the litigation against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over concussions and other brain injuries suffered by college athletes nationwide.
On Tuesday, Jab. 26, U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee granted preliminary approval to the settlement agreement between the NCAA and a potential class of more than 4.4 million student athletes nationwide.
A Cook County resident fed up with receiving unwanted phone calls from a profitable prophet hopes a class action lawsuit will stop the ringing. Jeffrey Molitor filed the complaint Jan. 5 in Cook County Circuit against New York-based Manasseh Jordan Ministries and Yakim Manasseh Jordan.
A federal judge has signed off on an $11 million settlement offered by Walgreen Co. to end a class action lawsuit over the company’s practice of sending prescription reminders to customers’ cell phones - even though more than a third of the settlement award will go to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
A federal lawsuit brought in Chicago by residents of states on the U.S.’s West Coast against an insurance telemarketer will be allowed move forward, but without the telemarketer’s sister company, which a judge said doesn’t do enough business in Illinois to make Chicago’s courtrooms the appropriate place for the legal actions against them.
Drinkers of Templeton Rye have another month to submit their claims to get up to a $36 share of a $2.5 million settlement the company has reached to end a class action over the company’s allegedly deceptive marketing tactics. The class representatives and other named plaintiffs in the action, and the attorneys who represented them, however, are guaranteed to get quite a bit more, regardless of how many of Templeton Rye’s customers can verify they bought the whiskey since 2006.
Three class actions pending against Facebook over the potential privacy implications of the social media site’s so-called tag suggestion feature have been relocated from Chicago’s federal courts to San Francisco’s. U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel on July 29 granted a request from Facebook, and supported by attorneys for the plaintiffs, to transfer the cases filed this spring in the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago to the Northern District of California.
