Commentary

The Article 29 Working Party adopted its "Working Document 1/2009 on pre-trial discovery for cross border civil litigation" on February 11, 2009.  The document is the first attempt by the Working Party to address the numerous issues associated with conducting discovery between EU and non-EU countries.

The Federal Judicial Center recently published a Pocket Guide for Judges on "Managing Discovery of Electronic Information." This 22 page booklet is written for federal judges and contains sections on: Describing Electronically Stored Information ("ESI"), Early Consideration of ESI – Rules 26(f) and 16, ESI and Initial Disclosures, Allocation of Costs, Discovery from Nonparties, Form of Production, Waiver of Privilege or Work-Product Protection, Preservation of ESI, and Spoliation and Sanctions.

Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular Wireless each contracted with DirectRevenue LLC to deliver ads to consumers. To service its clients (including Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular Wireless), DR installed adware on millions of computers. The adware, which was undisclosed to users and difficult to remove, monitored the websites visited by the users and collected the information they typed into web forms. The NY AG filed a law suit alleging that DirectRevenue had violated New York consumer protection law, then pursued DirectRevenue's three major advertiser clients.