Law 15 January 2026 - 16 May 2026

LegalZoom Drops Ahead of Shareholder Meeting as AI Fight Hangs Over Stock
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LegalZoom Drops Ahead of Shareholder Meeting as AI Fight Hangs Over Stock

LegalZoom.com traded lower in premarket Wednesday, with the stock near $6.53 as investors prepared for the company’s annual meeting. Shares have had trouble translating stronger sales into better numbers on the bottom line. The latest price was off 14.5 cents from Tuesday’s close, giving LegalZoom a market cap near $1.16 billion. The timing sets the scene. U.S. markets are open as usual, and Nasdaq’s 2026 holiday list shows the next full day off is Juneteenth, June 19. LegalZoom’s shareholder meeting is scheduled for later in the day, not on a weekend or holiday.
June 3, 2026
Coles faces court setback on ‘Down Down’ promo, boosting fine risk
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Coles faces court setback on ‘Down Down’ promo, boosting fine risk

Coles Group Ltd is facing penalties after Australia’s Federal Court ruled its “Down Down” price campaign misled shoppers about grocery price drops. The ACCC said the case involved 245 items, with the court finding false or misleading claims on some tickets. Supermarket pricing is back in the spotlight in Australia, where Coles and Woolworths hold most of the market and families face cost-of-living strain. The decision could push grocers to change “was/now” price labels, which show current prices against earlier, higher ones.
May 16, 2026
Fortescue Ltd’s A$150 Million Hit Isn’t Over: Yindjibarndi Weighs Appeal
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Fortescue Ltd’s A$150 Million Hit Isn’t Over: Yindjibarndi Weighs Appeal

Fortescue Ltd could soon be pulled back into court, with Yindjibarndi traditional owners weighing a possible appeal against the unprecedented A$150 million cultural-loss ruling linked to the company’s Solomon Hub iron ore site in Western Australia. The case is significant right now, with the Federal Court handing down one of the largest ever native title compensation payouts in Australia. It could also offer a rough benchmark for similar claims miners may face when operating on Indigenous land. Under Australian law, native title recognizes Indigenous rights and interests in land or waters. Reuters put the payout at A$150 million—about $108 million—plus an additional A$100,000 for economic loss.
May 14, 2026
Tesco PLC’s Equal Pay Fight Just Got Harder After Court Ruling
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Tesco PLC’s Equal Pay Fight Just Got Harder After Court Ruling

Tesco Stores Ltd, the Tesco PLC subsidiary, lost nearly all arguments in its Court of Appeal push to shape the assessment of evidence in its lengthy equal pay dispute—a blow to Britain’s largest supermarket as it fights on in a separate tribunal. Judges threw out every ground except one, leaving the litigation to proceed. The final decision is still pending. This case has fresh urgency, with Tesco revealing around 62,000 claims so far from both current and ex-hourly store workers—a figure that’s likely to climb as the legal fight drags on. Those bringing the claims argue that jobs in stores and distribution centers should count as equal work when it comes to pay. Tesco, for its part, maintains that it’s
May 14, 2026
Tesco Court Loss Puts £4bn Equal-Pay Fight Back in Focus as £750m Buyback Rolls On
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Tesco Court Loss Puts £4bn Equal-Pay Fight Back in Focus as £750m Buyback Rolls On

Tesco came away mostly empty-handed from its Court of Appeal challenge over tribunal methods for calculating job value in its ongoing equal-pay dispute, leaving a hefty legal shadow as the supermarket giant continues with its £750 million buyback. Tuesday’s ruling focused on whether Tesco’s own training materials could stand as crucial evidence for the demands placed on shop-floor versus distribution workers. Timing is at play here. The case gets renewed attention now, as the ruling lets the tribunal sidestep a full redo of a critical phase that’s been in motion since 2018. The court, however, made clear that a final verdict on the claims remains “a long way off.” Here, equal value boils down to whether distinct roles place similar
May 13, 2026
RELX Falls as Anthropic’s Legal-AI Push Reopens the Moat Debate
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RELX Falls as Anthropic’s Legal-AI Push Reopens the Moat Debate

Investors offloaded RELX in a session where broader markets rallied. The stock dropped to 2,396p by 12:03 BST, off 59p, or 2.4%. It started the day at 2,412p and touched a low of 2,388.01p. Both the FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX were in positive territory earlier, so RELX’s slide wasn’t a simple case of following the indices. Legal AI is the story here. On Tuesday, Anthropic rolled out an expanded Claude offering tailored for law firms and attorneys, bundling in new legal tools and integrations with the likes of Thomson Reuters, Harvey, Box, Everlaw, and DocuSign. “The legal industry is seeing an incredible uptick” in AI use, Anthropic associate general counsel Mark Pike told Reuters.
May 13, 2026
Utah’s VPN Age-Check Law Starts Wednesday, And Websites Face A Hard Choice
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Utah’s VPN Age-Check Law Starts Wednesday, And Websites Face A Hard Choice

Utah’s new online age-verification law takes effect Wednesday, making the state the first in the U.S. to expressly pull VPN use into enforcement of adult-site age checks. The measure does not ban VPNs, but it makes covered websites responsible for Utah users even when they mask where they are. That matters now because the fight has moved from whether adult sites must check ages to whether they can be forced to police hidden location. A VPN, or virtual private network, routes traffic through another server so a user’s internet address and apparent location can change; Utah’s statute says a person physically in Utah still counts as a Utah visitor.
May 5, 2026
GSK Wins Paxil Trademark Fight in India, But Its Bigger Test Is Still Ahead
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GSK Wins Paxil Trademark Fight in India, But Its Bigger Test Is Still Ahead

Glaxo Group Limited, under the GSK Group umbrella, secured a Bombay High Court decision this day requiring Shreya Life Sciences Private Limited to cancel its registration of the Paxil trademark in India—a notable brand victory for GSK plc and its popular medicine. The dispute focused on Shreya’s lack of use of the mark in actual pharmaceutical products. The court's decision lands at a time when GSK faces scrutiny over whether new CEO Luke Miels can defend sales, speed up drug development, and handle looming patent cliffs. Shares dropped last week despite a first-quarter beat—traders picked over the numbers and flagged issues beneath the surface. “Quality concerns around the earnings beat,” Verso Investment Management analyst James Eugene noted, pointing to non-recurring
May 4, 2026
BAE Systems Faces £120 Million Lawsuit as Fresh Arms Sales Put Defence Giant in Spotlight
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BAE Systems Faces £120 Million Lawsuit as Fresh Arms Sales Put Defence Giant in Spotlight

BAE Systems plc has been hit with a £120 million lawsuit from Kenya’s EnComm Aviation, which alleges damages after BAE pulled support for Advanced Turbo-Prop aircraft critical for aid flights across Africa. The legal challenge lands as the British defence giant is being linked to fresh U.S.-backed arms deals. According to Aviation Week, EnComm is seeking around $160 million in the UK High Court for losses and damages. This case is drawing attention as BAE rides a wave of record sales and its largest-ever order backlog, buoyed by ramped-up defence budgets in Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East. Back in February, the company posted 2025 sales at £30.66 billion, underlying EBIT of £3.32 billion, and logged an order backlog
May 2, 2026
Elon Musk Found Liable in Twitter Fraud Trial as Jury Says Investors Were Misled in $44 Billion Deal
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Elon Musk Found Liable in Twitter Fraud Trial as Jury Says Investors Were Misled in $44 Billion Deal

SAN FRANCISCO, March 23, 2026, 2:27 PM PDT A San Francisco jury has decided Elon Musk misled Twitter investors amid his 2022 battle to acquire the company, a case tied to the $44 billion buyout he ultimately closed. Musk's legal team plans to appeal, but according to shareholders’ attorney Francis Bottini, estimated damages land near $2.5 billion.
March 23, 2026
Elon Musk, SEC Enter Twitter Lawsuit Settlement Talks as Shareholder Jury Deliberates
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Elon Musk, SEC Enter Twitter Lawsuit Settlement Talks as Shareholder Jury Deliberates

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2026, 11:25 EDT. Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are negotiating a potential settlement of the government’s lawsuit tied to his lag in disclosing Twitter share purchases back in 2022, according to a court filing. That development could sidestep more hearings in Washington. The settlement talks emerged just as a San Francisco jury began deliberating a separate shareholder suit focused on Musk’s statements about fake accounts during the $44 billion Twitter buyout.
March 18, 2026
Google’s AI Overviews draw a fresh EU antitrust complaint from publishers
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Google’s AI Overviews draw a fresh EU antitrust complaint from publishers

Brussels, 10 February 2026, 15:24 On Tuesday, the European Publishers Council lodged an antitrust complaint with EU regulators targeting Alphabet’s Google and its AI-generated summaries, called AI Overviews. The group alleges Google is exploiting publishers’ content “without authorisation, without effective opt-out mechanisms, and without fair remuneration.”
February 10, 2026
EU charges TikTok over “addictive design” under Digital Services Act, setting up forced app changes
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EU charges TikTok over “addictive design” under Digital Services Act, setting up forced app changes

Brussels, 6 February 2026, 18:15 CET On Friday, EU regulators accused TikTok of violating the bloc’s Digital Services Act, claiming the app’s design encourages addictive behavior and poses risks to children. The Commission warned ByteDance’s platform to overhaul key features or face fines reaching up to 6% of ByteDance’s worldwide revenue.
February 6, 2026
UNICEF says 1.2 million children hit by AI deepfake abuse — and wants tougher laws now
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UNICEF says 1.2 million children hit by AI deepfake abuse — and wants tougher laws now

UNICEF urged governments on Wednesday to criminalise the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material, saying it was alarmed by reports of a rise in artificial intelligence images sexualising children. https://www.reuters.com/technology/unicef-calls-criminalization-ai-content-depicting-child-sex-abuse-2026-02-04/ The agency warned that the damage from “deepfake” abuse was “real and urgent” and said, “Children cannot wait for the law to catch up.” It said the risks can be compounded when generative AI tools are built into social media platforms where manipulated images spread rapidly.
February 5, 2026
U.S. senators move to police synthetic DNA sales as bioweapon fears sharpen
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U.S. senators move to police synthetic DNA sales as bioweapon fears sharpen

Two U.S. senators have put forward a bill aiming to establish federal regulations on synthetic DNA sales. The proposal would require gene-synthesis companies to vet customers and orders for genetic sequences that might be used to create hazardous pathogens. This shift comes as designing DNA becomes more straightforward. More researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to create new genetic sequences, while compact “benchtop” devices convert digital instructions into actual material, narrowing the space between concept and sample.
February 4, 2026
Google’s $135 Million Android Data Settlement: Who Could Get Paid and What Changes Next
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Google’s $135 Million Android Data Settlement: Who Could Get Paid and What Changes Next

Google has agreed to a $135 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by smartphone users who claimed the company programmed Android to gather their cellular data without consent, according to a court filing. The agreement was submitted Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California, and awaits judicial approval. This case hits home since it involves something users actually pay for — cellular data — and treats the supposed data draining as a property issue, not just a privacy complaint. It comes at a time when tech companies are under increasing legal scrutiny over the way their software gathers and utilizes data behind the scenes.
January 28, 2026
Google to pay $68 million to end Google Assistant “recordings” lawsuit — who’s covered
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Google to pay $68 million to end Google Assistant “recordings” lawsuit — who’s covered

Google will pay $68 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging its Google Assistant recorded and shared private conversations without user consent, fueling targeted advertising. The class-action deal, filed Friday in federal court in San Jose, California, covers users impacted by “false accepts”—moments when the assistant mistakenly triggers on its wake word—dating back to May 18, 2016, according to court documents. The deal arrives as voice assistants embedded in phones, earbuds, and smart home devices become ubiquitous, evolving from a convenient tool into a growing privacy headache. Plaintiffs argue simply: gadgets designed to capture commands can also overhear without consent, and those recordings might be shared beyond what users expect.
January 26, 2026
India puts Apple’s iPhone App Store on the clock as $38 billion antitrust fine risk looms
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India puts Apple’s iPhone App Store on the clock as $38 billion antitrust fine risk looms

India has delivered a final warning to Apple in its antitrust probe concerning the iPhone App Store, signaling it will press forward next week after dragging on for over a year. Apple has countered, warning that fines could reach up to $38 billion if calculated on global revenue. The warning emerges as New Delhi considers a sweeping smartphone security overhaul, requiring manufacturers to provide source code—the core programming instructions—for government review and to retain device logs for a year. Akash Karmakar, a partner at Panag & Babu, described this level of access as “a massive step backwards” for India’s efforts to improve ease of doing business.
January 15, 2026