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Compliance
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April 30, 2024
EPA Finalizes Methylene Chloride Ban
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday finalized a rule banning all consumer uses and most industrial and commercial uses of methylene chloride, a chemical regulators say can increase cancer risks and cause reproductive damage with repeat exposure.
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April 29, 2024
ReNew Health To Pay $7M To Settle COVID-19 FCA Claims
ReNew Health Group LLC has agreed to pay the federal government and California $7 million to settle whistleblower allegations that the healthcare provider misused a COVID-19 waiver intended to free up hospital beds by submitting fraudulent claims for nursing home residents, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
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April 29, 2024
Judge Rejects 2 Challenges To Medicare Drug Price Talks
A New Jersey federal judge on Monday shot down a pair of challenges to the Medicare drug price negotiations, extending a string of court victories for the Biden administration as it defends the talks as entirely voluntary.
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April 29, 2024
Google Hit With Copyright Claims Over AI Image Generator
A group of visual artists has filed a proposed class action claiming Google's text-to-image artificial intelligence tool Imagen is trained by copying "enormous amounts" of artists' copyrighted works without authorization, the latest suit challenging the use of vast datasets for AI training.
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April 29, 2024
5th Circ. Urged To Block CFPB's Credit Card Late Fee Rule
Banking industry trade groups have called for the Fifth Circuit to act quickly to put the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee standard on hold, arguing that large credit card issuers stand to suffer "substantial" losses if it goes into effect even for just one day.
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April 29, 2024
9th Circ. Upholds NRC's Exemption For Diablo Canyon Plant
A Ninth Circuit panel ruled Monday that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not act arbitrarily or capriciously when it allowed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to belatedly renew its license to continue operating California's last remaining nuclear power plant.
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April 29, 2024
TD Ameritrade Fined $600K Over Flawed Automated Approvals
TD Ameritrade Inc. has agreed to pay a $600,000 fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which alleged the online stock trading platform relied on an inadequate automated approval system for options trading that allowed risk-prone customers to be approved for certain trades despite red flags.
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April 29, 2024
Meta Seeks Pause On Privacy Appeal For High Court Ruling
Meta urged the D.C. Circuit on Monday to pause the company's appellate efforts to block the Federal Trade Commission from pursuing changes to a $5 billion privacy settlement, asking the appeals court to wait for an impending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar case involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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April 29, 2024
High Court Uncertainty Stalls SEC Case Against Marcum CPA
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to stay an in-house proceeding against a partner at accounting firm Marcum LLP accused of failing to properly oversee public company audits, saying that an impending U.S. Supreme Court ruling could call into doubt the agency's ability to fine the accountant.
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April 29, 2024
Target, Grubhub Say Visa, Mastercard Fee Deal Is A Scam
Visa and Mastercard's settlement to slash their merchant fees by some $30 billion over the next several years has no fans in Target and Grubhub, who told the judge overseeing the long-running antitrust litigation that the deal isn't fair to anyone except the credit titans.
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April 29, 2024
Texas Judge Says X Can Access Watchdog's Internal Docs
A Texas federal judge has ruled that X Corp. can access the internal communications and donor lists of a media watchdog the tech company accused of spurring advertisers to ditch the social media platform, saying the watchdog hadn't shown a good enough reason to pause discovery.
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April 29, 2024
Bookstores Want In On FTC's Antitrust Case Against Amazon
A trade group for bookstores has asked a Washington federal court for permission to intervene in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Amazon to raise concerns about the e-commerce giant's sale of books and contracts with publishers.
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April 29, 2024
UnitedHealth's Cyberattack Response Is 'Inadequate,' AGs Say
Nearly two dozen state attorneys general urged UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary Change Healthcare "to do more" to address the fallout from a February cyberattack by Russian ransomware group Blackcat that breached their systems and services, noting their response efforts to the outage "have been inadequate."
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April 29, 2024
Don't Put Cable 'Junk Fee' Rules On Biz Services, FCC Told
Cable providers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to leave business services out of the commission's plans to end cable "junk fees," saying that doing otherwise would jeopardize lower rates negotiated by the businesses.
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April 29, 2024
GSA Guides Agencies On Responsible Generative AI Buying
The U.S. General Services Administration on Monday issued guidance to federal agencies for buying generative artificial intelligence services and related hardware, intended to ensure that emerging technology is used "responsibly and effectively."
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April 29, 2024
Court Can Make Widow Pull $2.5M From Swiss Bank, US Says
A Colorado federal court can force a widow to send $2.5 million from a Swiss bank to the U.S. to repay her late husband's penalties and interest for failing to report his foreign accounts, the U.S. told the court.
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April 29, 2024
US, Tribes Defend Water Rule Against States', Biz Groups' Suit
The federal government and several Native American tribes on Friday asked a North Dakota federal judge to toss a lawsuit by two dozen states challenging a rule defining the reach of the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction.
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April 29, 2024
Singapore Tech Co. To Pay FTC $1.17M In Mask False Ad Suit
The Federal Trade Commission has inked a $1.17 million deal with Singaporean American company Razer Inc. and its affiliates to resolve claims that it falsely advertised its "Zephyr" air purifier masks as being equivalent to N95 face masks.
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April 29, 2024
'Tornado Cash' Crypto Fraud Wasn't Free Speech, Feds Say
The founder of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency exchange is mistaken in his arguments that First Amendment protections on computer code are grounds to dismiss his money laundering and sanctions-dodging charges, prosecutors told a Manhattan federal judge.
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April 29, 2024
HHS Delays Menthol Cigarette Ban Indefinitely
U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said Friday that a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes has been put on hold for now, citing the need to process considerable feedback from civil rights groups and the criminal justice movement.
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April 29, 2024
Amid Backlash, FDA Extends Control For Lab-Developed Tests
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration inked a final rule Monday that gives the agency broad authority over lab-developed tests by classifying them as medical devices, a move that has drawn ire from congressional leadership and those in the healthcare and life sciences industries.
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April 29, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
A multibillion-dollar Tesla trust proposal, a Truth Social bond, power plays over Prince's estate, and three in the ring for World Wrestling Entertainment. All of this and much more came up in Delaware Chancery Court dockets last week.
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April 29, 2024
FCC Fines Wireless Carriers $195M For Selling Location Data
The country's top wireless carriers face fines totaling almost $200 million from the Federal Communications Commission after a yearslong probe into the companies' sales of user location data to third parties.
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April 29, 2024
AI Pharma Co. Sued By Investor Over Handling Of Fired CEO
Artificial intelligence-driven pharmaceutical company Exscientia PLC has been hit with a proposed class action alleging its former CEO engaged in inappropriate personal relationships with employees, and that the company's chairman knew but concealed it.
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April 29, 2024
No Need To Delay $811M Immigrant Bond Co. Fine, CFPB Says
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a Virginia federal judge that there is no need to hold off fining a bonding company $811 million for predatory bonding practices, saying the company's fear of collapse is mooted by a recent sale.
Expert Analysis
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Breaking Down EPA's Rule On PFAS In Drinking Water
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized the first enforceable federal drinking water regulation for PFAS, which, along with reporting and compliance requirements for regulated entities, will have a number of indirect effects, including increased cleanup costs and the possible expansion of existing Superfund sites, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Unpacking The Interim Vet-Owned Small Biz Verification Rule
Government contractors that intend to bid for service-disabled veteran-owned small business set-aside contracts should immediately consider the potential impacts of a recently issued rule that specifies how contracting officers will verify that they have certified their status, say Derek Mullins and Beth Gotthelf at Butzel.
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The Art Of Asking: Leveraging Your Contacts For Referrals
Though attorneys may hesitate to ask for referral recommendations to generate new business, research shows that people want to help others they know, like and trust, so consider who in your network you should approach and how to make the ask, says Rebecca Hnatowski at Edwards Advisory.
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Compliance Strategies To Mitigate 3 New Areas Of AI Risk
The era of artificial intelligence-assisted corporate crime is here, but several concrete mitigation strategies can allow companies to address the new, rapidly evolving threats posed by deepfakes, information barrier evasion and AI model manipulation, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Refresher On Employee Qualifications For Summer Interns
Before companies welcome interns to their ranks this summer, they should consider the extent to which the interns may be entitled to the same legal protections as employees, including the right to be paid for their hours worked and to receive at least minimum wage and overtime, says Kate LaQuay at Munck Wilson.
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Expect An Increase In Robinson-Patman Act Enforcement
Recent actions by the Federal Trade Commission and prominent lawmakers should be viewed as a harbinger of renewed scrutiny of price discrimination in all industries and a sign that Robinson-Patman Act investigations and enforcement actions are likely to see an uptick, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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The Drawbacks Of Banking Regulators' Merger Review Plans
Recent proposals for bank merger review criteria by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. share common pitfalls: increased likelihood of delays, uncertainties, and new hurdles to transactions that could impede the long-term safety and soundness of the banks involved, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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'Beauty From Within' Trend Poses Regulatory Risks For Cos.
Companies capitalizing on the current trend in oral supplements touting cosmetic benefits must note that a product claim that would be acceptable for an externally applied cosmetic may draw much stronger scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when applied to a supplement, say Natalie Rainer and Katherine Staba at K&L Gates.
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SEC Off-Channel Comms Action Hints At Future Enforcement
Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent enforcement action against Senvest does not shed light on how the agency will calibrate penalties related to off-channel communications violations, it does suggest that we may see more cases against standalone investment advisers, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Perspectives
Criminal Defendants Should Have Access To Foreign Evidence
A New Jersey federal court recently ordered prosecutors to obtain evidence from India on behalf of the former Cognizant Technology executives they’re prosecuting — a precedent that other courts should follow to make cross-border evidentiary requests more fair and efficient, say Kaylana Mueller-Hsia and Rebecca Wexler at UC Berkeley School of Law.
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McKesson May Change How AKS-Based FCA Claims Are Pled
The Second Circuit’s analysis in U.S. v. McKesson, an Anti-Kickback Statute-based False Claims Act case, provides guidance for both relators and defendants parsing scienter-related allegations, say Li Yu at Dicello Levitt, Ellen London at London & Stout, and Erica Hitchings at Whistleblower Law.
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How Cos. Can Prep For New Calif. Privacy Regulations
The California Privacy Protection Agency has been very active in the first quarter of 2024 and continues to exercise its rulemaking authority with proposed draft regulations, so retailers should prepare for California Consumer Privacy Act enforcement and figure out how best to comply, say attorneys at Dentons.
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5 Employer Actions Now Risky After Justices' Title VII Ruling
Last week in Muldrow v. St. Louis, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that harm didn't have to be significant to be considered discriminatory under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, making five common employer actions vulnerable to litigation, say Kellee Kruse and Briana Scholar at The Employment Law Group.
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EPA Chemical Safety Rule Raises Questions About Authority
Stakeholders should consider the practical and economic costs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recently finalized rule imposing novel board reporting regulations for certain chemical plants and refineries, which signals that the agency may seek a role in regulating corporate governance, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Series
Being An Equestrian Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond getting experience thinking on my feet and tackling stressful situations, the skills I've gained from horseback riding have considerable overlap with the skills used to practice law, particularly in terms of team building, continuing education, and making an effort to reset and recharge, says Kerry Irwin at Moore & Van Allen.