Not-for-profit healthcare organization MedStar Health failed to encrypt or redact current and former patients’ protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) in a 2023 data breach that occurred between Jan. 25 and Oct. 13, alleged two Tuesday class actions (dockets 1:24-cv-01337 and 1:24-cv-01335) in U.S. District Court for Maryland. The virtually identical complaints were filed by Milberg Coleman attorney Thomas Pacheco.

The “hidden spy pixel trackers” that Target embeds in its marketing emails to customers violate Arizona’s Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act, alleged a class action Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-01048) in U.S. District Court for Arizona.

Online storage company Dropbox disregarded the rights of users by “intentionally” and “recklessly” failing to take adequate measures to protect their personally identifiable information (PII) and allowing it to be accessed in a data breach it purportedly discovered April 24, alleged a negligence class action Tuesday (docket 3:24-cv-02731) in U.S. District Court for Northern California.

Montana’s attempt to ban TikTok “is part of a long line of recent efforts by state governments to impose crippling restrictions on businesses that operate over the internet,” said NetChoice’s amicus brief Monday (docket 24-34) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the plaintiff-appellees -- five individual TikTok users challenging the ban, plus TikTok itself.

Apple’s “gatekeeping” of its App Store and “arbitrary decisions” hurt “honest developers,” alleged a Monday antitrust complaint (docket 5:24-cv-02698) against the iPhone maker in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

With the federal ban on TikTok, Congress has taken the "unprecedented" step of enacting a law that “bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide,” TikTok and ByteDance said Tuesday in their petition for review (docket 24-1113) in the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit to invalidate the ban.

Projector manufacturer AWOL Vision’s false advertising will continue to cause consumer confusion and deception “to the irreparable injury of Epson” without a court order enjoining its conduct, said a Lanham Act lawsuit (docket 9:24-cv-80583) Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in West Palm Beach.

Lowe’s embedded spy tracking pixels in marketing emails to Arizona residents to monitor the behavior of those who subscribed to its email list, alleged a privacy class action (docket 2:24-cv-01030) against the home improvement retailer and Salesforce Sunday in U.S. District Court for Arizona.

The Universal Service Administrative Co's. (USAC) role in administering the FCC's Universal Service Fund programs "is purely administrative," the FCC told the U.S. Supreme Court in response to Consumers' Research's challenge of how the commission determines quarterly contribution factors (see 2401100044). USAC "must comply with detailed regulations issued by the FCC" and "helps the FCC compute the amount of each quarterly payment" carriers must contribute, the agency said in an opposition brief filed in docket 23-456.