Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AG’s have taken. Here are this week’s updates.
Wednesday, November 18
- Attorneys General from 34 states announced a $113 million settlement with Apple over its 2016 decision to throttle iPhone speeds to address shutdowns, rather than disclosing the battery issues it discovered to consumers or replacing batteries. The Attorneys General allege that failing to disclose these issues and throttling iPhone performance allowed Apple to profit from selling additional iPhones to consumers whose phone speeds were slowed. The settlement requires Apple to provide consumers with truthful information about iPhone battery health, performance, and power management on its website, in update installation notes, and in the iPhone user interface. The investigation was led by Arizona Attorney General Brnovich, Arkansas Attorney General Rutledge, and Indiana Attorney General Hill. Apple also settled class action litigation related to the same conduct, and will pay out up to $500 million in consumer restitution.
- New York Attorney General James announced her support for a relief package that will provide New York City taxi medallion owners with debt forgiveness on outstanding loans for the medallions. The relief package, introduced by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, will guarantee loans written down to no more than $125,000.
- Sixteen attorneys general and New York City sued the Department of Energy for failing to meet legal deadlines for reviewing and updating national energy efficiency standards for 25 categories of products and equipment, such as washers and dryers, microwave ovens, and air conditioners and heaters. The coalition argues that the failure to update the standards violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
Friday, November 13, 2020
- Ohio Attorney General Yost filed a second lawsuit to prevent the annual collection of $150 million in nuclear generation fees from Ohioans which go to Energy Harbor, as part of House Bill 6. The press release states that HB6 “was crafted and approved under corrupt and cloaked actions.”
- Law360 reported that the U.S. DOJ’s Antitrust Division released new guidance on Thursday, November 12, 2020 regarding when and how arbitration should be used in merger challenges in the future. The guidance states that arbitration should be used when merger challenges brought in the courts would cause an unacceptable delay and when they would not adequately conserve the division’s resources. Arbitration should also be used when the issues are easily enough agreed upon and when the case would benefit from the subject matter expertise of the arbitrator, as well as when the parties want to decide the potential remedies in advance of the proceedings.