Patrick Gregory

2 days ago | news.bloombergtax.com | Alex Ebert |Patrick Gregory |Alex Clearfield

Snap Inc., the owner of social media app Snapchat, is violating Florida law with “addictive features” and accounts for children age 13 and under, the state attorney general claimed in a lawsuit. The state court complaint, filed Monday, alleges the app markets to minors and includes features—such as infinite scrolling, push notifications, interactive metrics for posts, and auto-play videos—which are prohibited under a law enacted last year targeting minors’ social media exposure.

2 weeks ago | news.bloomberglaw.com | Stephanie Gleason |Patrick Gregory

Google LLC is unlawfully using its products—ubiquitous in K-12 education—to secretly gather information about school age children, substituting the consent of the school for that of parents, a proposed class action filed in California federal court said Monday.

3 weeks ago | news.bloomberglaw.com | Megan Crepeau |Patrick Gregory

Seventh Circuit judges on Tuesday wrestled with what Chief Judge Diane S. Sykes called “an unusual use” of a procedural mechanism: an attempt to have a Chicago federal judge decide a case involving a Texas law that allows citizens to sue abortion providers. Sykes repeatedly referred to claimants who sue under the Texas statute as “bounty hunters,” and noted that the law’s $10,000 minimum payout functions as a fine—albeit one that would be paid to a private citizen.

3 weeks ago | news.bloombergtax.com | Megan Crepeau |Patrick Gregory |Alex Clearfield

Dr. Alan Braid knew he might get sued. He said as much in the Washington Post, which published his op-ed announcing he’d performed an abortion in Texas just days after the state started allowing nearly anyone to take him to court for doing so. “I fully understood that there could be legal consequences—but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested,” the September 2021 piece said.

4 weeks ago | news.bloombergtax.com | Megan Crepeau |Patrick Gregory

Four ex-Commonwealth Edison insiders will be sentenced on convictions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a federal judge in Chicago said Thursday, rejecting a defense request to delay on grounds that the Justice Department is still reviewing the matter. And, prosecutors revealed, after sentencing they intend to dismiss the bribery counts that have been overhanging the case since Judge Manish Shah threw out defendants’ bribery convictions earlier this month.