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On October 7, 2023 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two landmark climate disclosure laws aimed at making major companies publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and report on their climate-related financial risks.
Continue Reading First-in-the-Nation Climate Disclosure Bills Become Law In California

As we reported Friday, the FTC has proposed a rule to ban misleading and hidden fees. While that initiative is pending, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed similar legislation, SB 478, into law. Effective July 1, 2024, the California statute prohibits advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction, or postage or carriage charges that will be reasonably and actually incurred to ship the physical good to the consumer.
Continue Reading California Passes Legislation Banning Junk Fees

The FTC announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) targeting misleading and hidden fees, commonly known as “junk fees,” and how businesses may advertise and market prices to consumers. The NPRM was drafted based on over 2,000 public comments to the FTC’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in November 2022.
Continue Reading FTC Proposes Rule Banning “Junk Fees”

The FTC announced an enforcement action against online shoe seller Hey Dude, Inc. (a subsidiary of Crocs, Inc.) alleging Hey Dude suppressed more than 80% of consumer reviews that provided less than four out of five stars. The complaint also alleges multiple violations of the FTC’s Mail Order Rule between 2020 and 2022. A proposed consent order would require Hey Dude to pay nearly $2 million and take certain steps to prevent future violations.
Continue Reading Hey Dude: Review Suppression is Illegal and You’re Obligated to Ship Goods on Time

In June 2023, EPA announced the dates for the 2024 submission period for information required under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule. The information is collected every four years from manufacturers and importers of certain chemicals in commerce, generally when production volumes for those chemicals are 25,000 pounds or greater in a given reporting year. The 2024 submission period runs from June 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024.
Continue Reading EPA Announces Submission Period for 2024 Chemical Data Reporting

Since the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana in June 2022, trial courts in California have grappled with how to address the non-individual portion of a plaintiff’s PAGA claim that remains in court when a plaintiff’s individual PAGA claim is compelled to arbitration.
Continue Reading California’s High Court Authorizes Stay Of Non-Individual PAGA Claims During Pendency Of Arbitration

It has been two years since the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 141 S. Ct. 1017 (2021), holding that Ford could be subject to personal jurisdiction in Minnesota and Montana because the suit “related to” the company’s contacts with the states, even though there was not a causal relationship between Ford’s contacts with the forum and plaintiffs’ claims.
Continue Reading Celebrating the Two-Year Anniversary of Ford – The Ninth Circuit’s Recent Personal Jurisdiction Decision Shows It’s Not “Anything Goes”