Trending on LXBN: Standard Fire v. Knowles, Eagle v. EdComm, FTC’s Online Advertising Guidelines

When the case is in their wheelhouse, LXBN members have become incredible adept and responsive at covering rulings from the Supreme Court. This week we had just such an example as Standard Fire v. Knowles, a case with major implications for class actions, has generated a remarkable amount of discussion. Also trending on LXBN: the FTC updating its online advertising guidelines and an interesting suit on LinkedIn account ownership.

• Since the Standard Fire v. Knowles decision was handed down on Tuesday by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, we’ve seen a remarkable sixteen posts from LXBN members offering analysis on the ruling—with more coming in constantly. In the big Class Action Fairness Act case, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously to close a notorious loophole used to avoid federal jurisdiction on class action suits.
• Eagle v. Edcomm—in which whether an employee or employer owns a LinkedIn account and its contacts is at dispute—is a case we’ve been tracking on LXBN for some time, having actually done an LXBN TV interview on the case with Mintz Levin’s Martha Zackin. The employee here, Dr. Linda Eagle did end up winning the suit but the victory was a hollow one as she was not awarded any monetary damages for her former employer taking over her LinkedIn account.
• The Federal Trade Commission has been quite active as of late, and that continues with the FTC updating their online advertising guidelines, or what they call their “.com Disclosures.” As we mentioned in our LXBN Roundtable on the matter, the vast array of technology at consumers’ disposal means it’s hard to set any firm guidelines with such technological variance and, as a result, the onus here is really shifted onto the advertisers.