Allison Libeu

Complex Commercial Litigation

Newport Beach

Like all the lawyers at her firm, Allison Libeu is a generalist trial lawyer. She has tried or arbitrated cases ranging from breach of contract to trademark to international business disputes.

If she has a favorite field, it's cases that are "technology adjacent," she said. And Libeu has had a number of those recently.

Two resulted in huge verdicts for client Monster Energy Co., including a $293 million false advertising and trade secrets win, believed to be the largest award ever under the Lanham Act. In that case, Libeu co-led a team that convinced a jury that the claim that Bang Energy contained "Super Creatine" was simply not true. She handled the damages aspect of the case, leading to the record award. In October, the judge tacked on another $43 million in fees and costs. Monster Energy Company v. Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 5:18-cv-01882 (C.D. Cal., filed Sept. 4, 2018).

While that case was underway, the company that makes the Orange Bang drink asked Monster and Hueston Hennigan for help to stop Bang Energy from stepping on its Bang trademark. That litigation ended in a $175 million arbitration award to Libeu's clients.

And when those wins pushed Vital Pharmaceuticals into bankruptcy, Libeu handled the adversary proceedings for her clients.

In another technology-adjacent matter, Libeu is co-lead counsel for Epic Games in at least 10 federal lawsuits against it and other game makers for allegedly addicting players to video games, including Ayers v. Epic Games, Inc., 1:24-cv-00064 (N.D. Fla., filed April 12, 2024).

The plaintiffs also are seeking to bring the cases together as multidistrict litigation. Libeu is opposing the MDL motion as well as filing motions to dismiss the lawsuits on First Amendment grounds.

"It's like saying that Taylor Swift's music is too compelling or too addictive," she said. "You can't make Taylor Swift stop making music because she has a First Amendment right to do so. And video games are the same."

Libeu is also co-leading the defense of Amazon and its streaming platform Twitch in litigation stemming from the May 14, 2022, mass shooting at a grocery in Buffalo, N.Y., in which 10 Black people died. The lawsuits generally claim social media companies' algorithms radicalized the shooter and incentivized him to carry out the racially motivated attack. Salter v. Meta Platforms, 808604/2023 (Erie County N.Y. Supreme Ct., filed Aug. 9, 2023).

"The theory is that he became a white supremacist online," she said. "But what's interesting about the case is that that's not the theory against Twitch. There's no allegation he was radicalized on Twitch."

Instead, the lawsuits allege Twitch was at fault for allowing the shooter to livestream his crimes for about two minutes before cutting off the stream.

Libeu claims that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes Twitch. She also says the livestream is protected by the First Amendment. She expects the issues to be before the appellate division of the New York court within a few months.

-- Don DeBenedictis