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Supreme Court Sharply Cuts Back TCPA Liability

April 1, 2021

Today, the United States Supreme Court resolved a circuit split regarding what constitutes an “autodialer” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In a blow to the plaintiffs’ bar, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of defendant Facebook, establishing a narrower, nationwide standard for what type of dialing equipment constitutes an “autodialer.” The TCPA prohibits auto-dialed calls and texts to cellphones without prior express consent. Statutory penalties under the TCPA are severe: $500 per call in violation…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

Supreme Court To Weigh Threshold for Article III ‘Injury’ in Class Claims for Statutory Damages

By Joseph A. Fischetti

March 18, 2021

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 30, 2021, in a case that will help clarify when an intangible, nonmonetary injury is sufficiently “concrete and particularized” to give rise to Article III standing.1 The Supreme Court’s decision will likely provide guidance for class-action plaintiffs seeking to bring (and class-action defendants looking to defend against) claims for civil penalties in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins.2…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

New York Whistleblower Suit Results in $105 Million From Hedge Fund Manager Who Evaded Taxes

By Carly Coleman, Kathleen A. McGee & Rachel Maimin

March 5, 2021

A White Collar Criminal Defense alert by Rachel Maimin, Kathleen McGee, and Carly Coleman discusses the $105 million settlement that New York State and New York City recently received from a hedge fund manager accused of evading tax liability. This settlement results from a qui tam suit filed in 2018 under the New York False Claims Act, which permits a whistleblower to receive a significant portion of any recovery. Read the alert here…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

Citibank’s $900 Million Black Swan

By David Erroll & Jennifer Fiorica Delgado

February 23, 2021

On February 16, Judge Furman of the Southern District of New York handed down a ruling in In re Citibank August 11, 2020 Wire Transfers concluding that Citibank could not recover $900 million inadvertently wired to lenders. The entire 105-page decision[1] is a fascinating read, describing a near-perfect storm of convoluted financial arrangements, technological limitations, and all-too-understandable human error that culminated in the following screen shot from Citibank’s internal system:[2] The premise was that…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

11th Circuit Adds to Circuit Split, Holding Threat of Future Harm and Associated Mitigation Efforts Is Not Enough to Confer Article III Standing on Data Breach Victims

By Naomi D. Barrowclough

February 16, 2021

Earlier this month, the Eleventh Circuit, in Tsao v. Captiva MVP Restaurant Partners, LLC, No. 18-14959, 2021 WL 381948 (11th Cir. Feb. 4, 2021), affirmed the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of patrons of a restaurant chain, holding that data breach victims must show more than a heightened risk of future injury or costs incurred to mitigate potential harm in order to establish Article III standing. The plaintiff in Tsao alleged that…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

After Biden Inauguration, Prominent Judges with Heavy Footprints in Financial Services Litigation Go Senior

By Joseph A. Fischetti

February 11, 2021

Last March, The New York Times reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had been “quietly making overtures” to older Republican-nominated judges to encourage them to retire so that then-President Trump could fill their vacancies before the end of his term. After the 2020 presidential election, the Los Angeles Times reported that, reciprocally, some federal judges had been deliberately delaying their retirements in the hope that a different president would be able to nominate their…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

AI in Credit Decision-Making Is Promising, but Beware of Hidden Biases, Fed Warns

By Carly Coleman

January 19, 2021

As financial services firms increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI), banking regulators warn that despite their astonishing capabilities, these tools must be relied upon with caution. Last week, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (the Fed) held a virtual AI Academic Symposium to explore the application of AI in the financial services industry. Governor Lael Brainard explained that “particularly as financial services become more digitized and shift to web-based platforms,” a steadily growing…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

Sub-Zero Oil Isn’t Snake Oil: A First Ruling on Losses From Crude’s Dip Into Negative Prices

By David Erroll & Jennifer Fiorica Delgado

December 31, 2020

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In the wake of the Great Financial Crisis, global financial markets got their first experience of negative interest rates, something classical economists had long thought to be unworkable if not impossible. On April 20, concerns surrounding the effects of the COVID-19 crisis introduced investors to another negative first: crude oil prices. On July 9, investors brought a class action complaint [1] alleging violations of Section 6b(e)(3) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) [2] and its…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

Recent Developments in FINRA’s Award of Credit for Extraordinary Cooperation Offers Guidance to Member Firms

By Craig Dashiell, Jennifer Fiorica Delgado & Ethan Silver

December 29, 2020

In 2020, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) settled alleged rule violations with various large investment firms, including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CGMI), Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. (TFA), and RBC Capital Markets, LLC (RBC), with the majority of the Letters of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent in those matters being signed in just the past two months. What is notable is not that these firms were found to have violated FINRA’s rules but…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

Petco Cyberattack Serves as Useful Reminder of Best Practices for Preventing Data Breach

By Naomi D. Barrowclough & Kathleen A. McGee

December 28, 2020

A putative consumer class action filed in California state court on Friday the 18th against Petco Animal Supplies Stores Inc. (Petco) and its wholly owned subsidiary PupBox Inc. (PupBox) alleges that between February and August an “unauthorized plugin” on the PupBox website caused the personal and credit card information of approximately 30,000 consumers to be stolen by an unauthorized third party. The complaint asserts, on information and belief, that the cyberattack resulted from the defendants’…

Capital Markets Litigation Blog

Litigation News for the Financial Community

Blog Authors

Supreme Court Sharply Cuts Back TCPA Liability

Supreme Court To Weigh Threshold for Article III ‘Injury’ in Class Claims for Statutory Damages

New York Whistleblower Suit Results in $105 Million From Hedge Fund Manager Who Evaded Taxes

Citibank’s $900 Million Black Swan

11th Circuit Adds to Circuit Split, Holding Threat of Future Harm and Associated Mitigation Efforts Is Not Enough to Confer Article III Standing on Data Breach Victims

After Biden Inauguration, Prominent Judges with Heavy Footprints in Financial Services Litigation Go Senior

AI in Credit Decision-Making Is Promising, but Beware of Hidden Biases, Fed Warns

Sub-Zero Oil Isn’t Snake Oil: A First Ruling on Losses From Crude’s Dip Into Negative Prices

Recent Developments in FINRA’s Award of Credit for Extraordinary Cooperation Offers Guidance to Member Firms

Petco Cyberattack Serves as Useful Reminder of Best Practices for Preventing Data Breach

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