Web site use sparks Bekins settlement; moving company caves after learning of angry customer Internet page

Article Abstract:

Clients of attorney Herbert Waldman created a Web site to tell their side of a dispute with Bekins Van Lines Co and in so doing invited other Bekins customers to complain about the national moving company. Bekins capitulated, offering Waldman's clients total restitution on their claim, with only the condition that the site be taken down.It was, and the check for the restitution was in the mail within days.

Public relations, Bekins Van Lines L.L.C.

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SEC may lack basis to bar stock touting; some view Web chat boost of share prices as naughty but legal

Article Abstract:

Issues regarding the SEC effort to prosecute recommending stocks online are discussed. The SEC used a market-manipulation theory, requiring a material misrepresentation regarding trading in the stock but not proof of a fiduciary duty. The SEC claimed recommendations on the Internet message board constituted such misstatements.

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Even small items may be 'material;' 2d Circuit is the first circuit to endortse SEC's position that qualitative, rather than quantitative factors, should be the test

Article Abstract:

The evolution of the definition of materiality in securities law disclosure is discussed. The 2d Circuit's ruling in Ganino v. Citizens Utilities Co. endorsed the SEC's favoring qualitative, rather than quantitative matters in the definition of materiality.

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