Morrison Foerster’s Class Dismissed blog provides insights, recommendations, and timely reports on the latest defense news, developments, and trends in the most current class actions lawsuits and product liability issues that affect consumer-facing companies. Through Class Dismissed, attorneys from our nationally recognized Consumer Class Action and Products Liability practices offer a real-time assessment of the developments in matters that are shaping the industry. This blog examines the full spectrum of consumer-related class action and product liability lawsuits ranging from false advertising, privacy, consumer product safety, ADA, food misbranding, TCPA, environment, retail, and government actions as well as nationwide and multidistrict litigation class actions.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Julie Park protects her clients’ products no matter what kind of product issue they face—whether it is planning for new product development, recalling an existing product, or defending clients against product liability or consumer class actions. Drawing on her deep technical and legal expertise, Julie counsels clients on consumer product safety regulation and pharmaceutical and medical device preemption while also managing complex and multijurisdictional litigation both in state and federal court.

Julie Y. Park

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe frameborder="0" class="sticky-video" allowfullscreen="1" title="Meet Penny Preovolos, Litigation Partner" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hv7hYn-Bl7c?rel=0&showinfo=0;vq=hd1080" title="iframe"></iframe></div>Penelope has served as lead counsel in major consumer class actions and antitrust cases for more than 35 years, successfully representing high-profile defendants in antitrust, consumer fraud, and product defect matters. Her clients span a range of industries, including consumer electronics, technology, retail, publishing, food and beverage, cosmetics, and household products. According to Chambers USA, Penelope has a “great reputation for antitrust and product liability work” and is a “superb all-around antitrust lawyer.”Penelope was named the 2019 Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the Antitrust, UCL, and Privacy Section of the California Lawyers Association. She was co-chair of MoFo’s antitrust practice for 14 years. She has served as chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section of the State Bar of California and as a member of the Ninth Circuit Advisory Committee on Local Rules and Operations. She is an editor of and frequent contributor to Morrison & Foerster’s <a href="https://classdismissed.mofo.com/">Class Dismissed blog</a>, as well as a frequent speaker about class action and antitrust issues.More About PenelopePenelope clerked for the Honorable Charles M. Merrill, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was executive editor of the Harvard Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review. Penelope was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the University of California, Berkeley. She was awarded the University Medal, the highest undergraduate honor at the university, as well as the English Departmental Citation (awarded to the outstanding graduate in that department).

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Senior Counsel

Penelope has served as lead counsel in major consumer class actions and antitrust cases for more than 35 years, successfully representing high-profile defendants in antitrust, consumer fraud, and product defect matters. Her clients span a range of industries, including consumer electronics, technology, retail, publishing, food and beverage, cosmetics, and household products.

Penelope A. Preovolos

Claudia focuses her practice on the defense of consumer class actions and on complex commercial litigation, including unfair business competition, false advertising, product liability, and privacy matters. She is currently representing numerous consumer goods manufacturers and retailers in false advertising and mislabeling class action lawsuits. Claudia also regularly counsels clients in the food, cosmetics, retail, and technology industries. She represents companies in false advertising disputes before the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc.<h5>More about Claudia</h5>Claudia is active in MoFo’s pro bono efforts, and recently traveled to El Paso, Texas, to work with families separated and detained at the border. She is also supervising a pro bono collaboration with Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit fighting for gender justice in work places and schools across the country. The initiative will help students who have been victims of sexual assault, attempted assault, or harassment find support and seek justice. Claudia is also a board member of Bay Area Legal Aid and a former board member of Equal Rights Advocates. Claudia is an editor and frequent contributor to MoFo’s <a href="https://classdismissed.mofo.com/">Class Dismissed</a> blog, which provides reports about the latest defense news, developments, and trends in class action lawsuits and product liability issues that affect consumer-facing companies. Her perspectives are also respected in the larger legal community: Claudia has published articles about class action and false advertising issues, and is a co-author of Chapter 7 — “Unfair Competition in California Business Litigation 2016” — of The Recorder. She also regularly speaks at conferences on class action and advertising trends. Claudia is currently serving as a Lawyer Representative for the Northern District of California. She received her J.D. degree in 2004 from Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall School of Law), where she was an associate editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.

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Claudia focuses her practice on the defense of consumer class actions and on complex commercial litigation, including unfair business competition, false advertising, product liability, and privacy matters. She is currently representing numerous consumer goods manufacturers and retailers in false advertising and mislabeling class actions.

Claudia M. Vetesi

Alexandra Barlow is a partner in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s San Diego office.Alexandra litigates product liability matters involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, automobiles, and AI. Alexandra's litigation expertise spans the entire case life cycle in both state and federal courts. She handles all phases of discovery, including fact investigation and expert discovery. Alexandra has taken over twenty-five depositions, including experts, plaintiffs, treating physicians, and third-party witnesses. She drafts and argues motions of all types, including motions for summary judgment, motions to quash, and motions for preliminary injunction.Alexandra has significant trial experience. She has first-chaired a one-week jury trial and second-chaired a five‑week jury trial, both involving multiple claims and witnesses. She also has extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, representing clients at mediations, mandatory settlement conferences, and early neutral evaluations.Alexandra enjoys tracking developments and keeping her clients updated on product liability and personal injury claims, frequently writing or presenting on emerging areas such as autonomous vehicles and smart devices. Alexandra’s experience also extends to professional liability, warranty claims, eminent domain, and construction law.Alexandra earned her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law. While in law school, the San Diego Law Review published her comment on the recovery of damages by plaintiffs in a persistent vegetative state, and she also served as a comment editor. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish. A San Diego native, she attended a Spanish immersion school through the eighth grade. Alexandra is active in the San Diego community, advising students at a local college. She is also a member of several legal organizations in San Diego, including Lawyer’s Club, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, and Wallace Inn of Court.

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Alexandra Barlow is a partner in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s San Diego office. Alexandra litigates product liability matters involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, automobiles, and AI. Alexandra’s litigation expertise spans the entire case life cycle in both state and federal courts. She handles all phases of discovery, including fact investigation and expert discovery. Alexandra has taken over twenty-five depositions, including experts, plaintiffs, treating physicians, and third-party witnesses. She drafts and argues motions of all types, including motions for summary judgment, motions to quash, and motions for preliminary injunction.

Alexandra Barlow is a partner in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s San Diego office. Alexandra litigates product liability matters involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, AI, and robotics. Alexandra's litigation expertise spans the entire case life cycle in both state and federal courts. She handles all phases of discovery, including fact investigation and expert discovery. Alexandra has taken over twenty-five depositions, including experts, plaintiffs, treating physicians, and third-party witnesses. She drafts and argues motions of all types, including motions for summary judgment, motions to quash, and motions for preliminary injunction.

Alexandra Barlow

Adam J. Hunt is a partner in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s New York office. His practice focuses on complex litigation, with an emphasis on class action and commercial litigation.Mr. Hunt has extensive experience representing consumer products companies, financial institutions, and technology firms in class action cases and complex commercial disputes before state and federal trial courts, as well as in arbitrations. Clients seek Mr. Hunt’s counsel for his creative, strategic thinking in high-stakes, high-profile matters. He has represented clients facing claims under false advertising, antitrust, and privacy laws throughout the country, securing wins at the pleading stage, summary judgment, and trial, in addition to negotiating favorable settlements, often early in the case. Representative experience includes successfully securing rulings dismissing two putative false advertising class action cases against one of the best-known consumer electronics companies in the world; obtaining a complete win on summary judgment for a major shipping and logistics company in a multimillion-dollar commercial dispute; appearing as counsel at trial for a leading financial institution in a $100 million commercial dispute, winning a bench trial verdict; and prevailing on motions to dismiss false advertising class actions against a leading Greek yogurt company.Mr. Hunt is also an editor of the firm’s <a href="https://classdismissed.mofo.com/" target="_self">Class Dismissed blog</a>, which provides insights, recommendations, and timely reports on the latest defense news, developments, and trends in the most current class action lawsuits that affect consumer-facing companies.Mr. Hunt maintains an active pro bono practice and is the recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s 2017 President’s Pro Bono Service Award for the First Judicial Department, the 2018 Public Service Award from New York University School of Law, and Morrison Foerster’s Kathi Pugh Award for Pro Bono Services.Mr. Hunt received his B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College and his J.D. cum laude from New York University.

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Adam Hunt is a partner in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s New York office. His practice focuses on complex litigation, with an emphasis on class action and commercial litigation.

Adam Hunt

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The Future of Section 230: Protection Against Product Liability Claims? | Class Dismissed

Erin M. Bosman

Ashley E. Quinn

Rachel A. Kaiser

Courts around the country are grappling with <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title47/pdf/USCODE-2022-title47-chap5-subchapII-partI-sec230.pdf" target="_blank">Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act</a>. Section 230 generally shields online platforms from liability for content posted by third-party users, but courts are now deciding if it can also protect online platforms from product liability claims. Plaintiffs have recently attempted to circumvent Section 230’s robust immunity by bringing claims against online platforms based on theories of product liability, contending that Section 230 cannot protect against such claims.Described by one scholar as the “twenty-six words that created the internet,” Section 230 provides: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” In other words, Section 230 protects online platforms from civil liability for third-party content posted by a platform’s users.The Scope of Section 230Passed in 1996, the Act was created in response to two cases contemplating how to handle online forums where users could post comments. These cases highlighted that existing law was ill-equipped to handle liability issues that accompanied the rise of the internet, and prompted lawmakers to create legislation that would encourage and protect free speech online. Since it was enacted, Section 230 has allowed online platforms to operate without fear of liability for content posted by third parties.Litigants have repeatedly argued over the statute’s scope and the extent of its protections. Yet, in keeping with the deferential language in the statute, courts have consistently construed the protection offered by Section 230 broadly, holding that Section 230 offers online platforms near-total immunity from civil liability for providing a forum for information created by third parties.This expansive understanding of Section 230 has historically required dismissal of practically all claims against internet companies for content posted to their platforms by third-party users.But recently Section 230 has come under increasing fire from the plaintiffs’ bar, who argue that the law as interpreted by courts provides online platforms with too much protection from liability involving user-generated content. In an effort to circumvent these protections, plaintiffs’ attorneys have begun to rebrand claims against online platforms as product liability claims based on the allegation that the platforms are defectively designed “products.”A Traditional Section 230 DefenseA Section 230 defense contains three elements: First, the online platform must be a provider of an interactive computer service, such as a social media website. Second, the cause of action must treat the defendant as the publisher of the content in question. And, third, the content in question must have been provided by someone other than the defendant (generally, a third-party user of the online platform).No one disputes that social media and communications platforms meet the first two elements. The focus is on the third element: whether the content in question was provided by the online platform as a publisher or by a third-party user. Traditionally, courts have dismissed claims against social media companies as barred by Section 230 because the companies cannot be considered the “publishers” of third-party content. As plaintiffs pursue product liability cases, however, they have tried to shift the focus of their claims away from this test.The Product Liability ArgumentRecently, some courts have been forced to evaluate product liability claims against tech companies and online platforms in cases alleging that the platforms are defective “products” rather than publishers of third-party content with Section 230 immunity. Some courts are finding that the inquiry is highly fact-based and cannot be determined on the face of the pleadings, allowing these cases to survive motions to dismiss.But consistent with historic precedent, other courts have continued to reject claims brought against online platforms based on Section 230. These courts have asserted that tech companies are still immune under Section 230, despite plaintiffs’ efforts to re-brand their claims.For example, the Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision that the defendant could not be liable for sexual abuse that allegedly occurred over its photo-messaging app. Although the plaintiff attempted to characterize their argument as a negligent design claim, the court found that the plaintiff ultimately sought liability for information provided by a third-party user—which Section 230 expressly prohibits.Tech companies have responded to plaintiffs’ attempt to recharacterize Section 230 by setting forth how Section 230 is critical to their business model. Limiting the scope of Section 230’s protection, they caution, would lead to online censorship and curb free speech. Supporters of Section 230’s protections have also noted that permitting claims against online platforms based on theories of product liability would render the Act nearly meaningless and encourage the kind of misdirected litigation that Section 230 was designed to prevent.Looking AheadCourts have had many opportunities to weigh in on Section 230’s ability to foreclose product liability claims, but often sidestep the issue. The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in, but this issue seems prime for future review.Although the weight of authority counsels that Section 230 immunizes editorial content and algorithm recommendations, the Third Circuit recently bucked that trend, finding that the extent to which the software pushes content on users is relevant to the Section 230 inquiry. In August 2024, the Third Circuit found that Section 230 did not immunize TikTok against claims arising from the death of a 10-year-old girl who attempted a self-asphyxiation “blackout challenge” that she saw on the app. The Third Circuit, in reversing the district court’s order granting TikTok’s motion to dismiss, held that Section 230 did not shield TikTok from liability because the platform curates recommendations and “expressive content” to users through its “For You Page” algorithm. TikTok has moved for rehearing en banc, arguing that its algorithm serves a “publisher” function that has long been held to enjoy Section 230 immunity.In 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas <a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/akveadbzzvr/frankel-doevsnap--thomasfacebook.pdf" target="_blank">called for</a> SCOTUS to take up the matter and decide the scope of Section 230, stating: “Assuming Congress does not step in to clarify Section 230’s scope, [the Court] should do so in an appropriate case.” Based on Thomas’s statement and the inconsistency of lower court rulings in recent years, guidance from the Supreme Court seemed imminent. But in July 2024, the Court declined to grant certiorari in a case appealing a Fifth Circuit ruling that prevented the plaintiff from bringing suit against a social media company based on Section 230 immunity. Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the Court’s decision not to hear the case, writing, “[M]ake no mistake about it—there is danger in delay. . . . Social-media platforms have increasingly used Section 230 as a get-out-of-jail free card.”Until the issue is settled by the Supreme Court, companies that run online platforms should continue to take precautions to protect themselves from possible product-liability exposure. For example, software developers should carefully consider what warnings might be appropriate on the platform and continue to refine best practices with respect to possible safety concerns as they design this software. We encourage developers to consult with counsel to discuss whether Section 230 can protect against product liability and other safety‑related claims directed at their platforms and will continue to provide updates on these issues.