Articles by Jonathan Stempel

23andMe Settles Data Breach Lawsuit for $30 Million

23andMe will pay $30 million and provide three years of security monitoring to settle a lawsuit accusing the genetics testing company of failing to protect the privacy of 6.9 million customers whose personal information was exposed in a data breach …

Buffett’s Insurance Leader Ajit Jain Sells Large Part of Berkshire Stake

Ajit Jain, the longtime top insurance executive at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N, sold more than half of his Class A shares in the conglomerate this week. According to a Wednesday night regulatory filing, the 73-year-old Jain sold 200 Berkshire …

Trojan Condoms Contain ‘Forever Chemicals,’ Lawsuit Claims

A new lawsuit on Monday claims that Trojan condoms are not safe because they contain toxic “forever chemicals,” which have been linked to cancer. In a proposed class action filed in Manhattan federal court, the plaintiff Matthew Goodman said Church …

Major Book Publishers Defeat Internet Archive Appeal Over Digital Scanning

A U.S. appeals court sided with four major book publishers that accused the nonprofit Internet Archive of illegally scanning copyrighted works and lending them to the public online for free and without permission. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals …

Hershey Attacks Lawsuits Targeting Product Packaging, Seeks to End Reese’s Case

Hershey urged a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it misled consumers about several Reese’s peanut butter candies, using its request to level a broadside against what it considers baseless class action litigation over product packaging. In a Wednesday …

Robinhood in $3.9M Settlement With California Over Crypto Withdrawals

A cryptocurrency platform run by Robinhood Markets will pay $3.9 million to settle claims it failed to let customers withdraw cryptocurrency from their accounts from 2018 to 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. The civil settlement with Robinhood Crypto …

Invisalign Maker Reaches $27.5M Settlement of Consumer Antitrust Lawsuit

Align Technology, the maker of Invisalign clear teeth aligners, agreed to pay $27.5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it entered an illegal antitrust conspiracy that drove up prices of aligners made by rival SmileDirectClub. The settlement would cover nearly …

GM Must Face Big Class Action Over Faulty Transmissions

General Motors was ordered by a federal appeals court to face a class action claiming it violated laws of 26 U.S. states by knowingly selling several hundred thousand cars, trucks and SUVs with faulty transmissions. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court …

US Appeals Court Revives Google Privacy Class Action

A U.S. appeals court said Google must face a revived lawsuit by Google Chrome users who said the company collected their personal information without permission, after they chose not to synchronize their browsers with their Google accounts. The 9th U.S. …

Pilgrim’s Pride Agrees to $100M Settlement Over Chicken Farmers’ Pay

Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the largest U.S. poultry processors, agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims it conspired with rivals to underpay chicken farmers, the final and by far the largest settlement in the seven-year-old antitrust case. A preliminary …