Amazon Held Liable for Defective Product Sold by a Merchant

A consumer from Pennsylvania purchased a dog leash on Amazon, that when put to use, broke, recoiled back and hit the consumer’s face and eyeglasses, turning her permanently blind in her left eye. She sued Amazon for strict product liability. Her claims were dismissed by the United States federal district court on summary judgment, finding that the third-party merchant rather ...

New EU Regulation Governing the Use of Drones

The European Union has published common rules on the use of drones, aimed at harmonizing the law on this issue across the 28 member states of the EU, so that drone operators better understand what they may and may not do. According to the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), “once drone operators have received authorization in [their] state of ...

FTC Hits Facebook With an Unprecedented Fine for Privacy Violations and a Rigorous Order on Privacy Governance

Facebook was hit with a $5 billion fine, the largest penalty ever imposed on any company for violating consumer privacy, almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide to date and one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the U.S. government for any violation.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged that ...

Year Two of the GDPR Commences with Regulatory Attention on the AdTech Industry and Additional Fines Imposed

Italy’s privacy regulator imposes a million Euro fine on Facebook. Facebook’s pre-GDPR data protection breaches in the context of the Cambridge Analytica fiasco has now attracted a million Euro fine imposed by the Italian privacy regulator. The Italian regulator found that Facebook had disclosed to the third-party “This Is Your Digital Life” app, personal data of 214,077 Italian users. ...

Israeli Court Rules Bitcoin is Not a Form of Currency Exempted From Tax FROM TAX

The Israeli District Court in Lod delivered a landmark decision classifying Bitcoin as an asset subject to capital gains tax. The decision was handed down in a dispute between the Israeli tax authority and the founder of a Blockchain-technology transportation startup.


The founder gained over 8 Million Israeli Shekels (nearly $2,500,000) in profits, by selling Bitcoin he had previously purchased. ...

New State Laws in the U.S. Aimed at Strengthening Consumer Privacy and Data Security

The New York State legislature has passed updates to the state’s breach notification law, expanding the scope of “private information” protected under the law to include biometric information, email addresses, and their corresponding passwords or security questions and answers, and protected health information. It broadens the definition of a notifiable data breach to include unauthorized access to private information and ...

FTC Continues Enforcement of Unfair and Deceptive Online Activities

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued two administrative complaints and proposed settlements enforcing the U.S. federal Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA), against two companies that had included “non-disparagement” clauses in their consumer contracts, restricting consumers from posting negative reviews online. The CRFA prohibits non-disparagement provisions in consumer form contracts, which are standardized terms used in selling or leasing ...

San Francisco Bans Use of Facial-Recognition Technology

The city of San Francisco has decided to prohibit the use of facial recognition technology by police and other local government authorities. The ban is part of an anti-surveillance ordinance that the city's Board of Supervisors approved, making it the largest American city to ban facial recognition technology.

The ordinance will come into force next month. It prohibits the use ...