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Compliance
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June 25, 2024
Public Pensions Have Personnel Authority, Calif. Panel Rules
A county public employee retirement system has the authority to create employment classifications and set its employees' salaries, a California appellate court ruled Monday, reviving the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association's lawsuit seeking confirmation of its authority to make key personnel decisions.
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June 25, 2024
Tuna Buyers Settle $1B Price-Fixing Claims Before July Trial
Tuna buyers seeking $1 billion in damages over allegations that StarKist, its parent company and a private investment firm that put money into Bumble Bee Foods conspired to hike the price of the tinned fish have reached settlements just ahead of trial, according to a California federal judge's order Tuesday.
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June 25, 2024
Temu Is A 'Data-Theft' Biz And Not Marketplace, Ark. AG Says
App-based online shopping platform Temu is in reality "dangerous malware" that can override phone privacy settings and collect sensitive user information, according to a "first-of-its-kind" state lawsuit by Arkansas alleging deceptive trade practices and privacy violations.
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June 25, 2024
PetroChina Unit Fined $14.5M Over Inaccurate Export Reports
PetroChina International America will pay $14.5 million to settle allegations it misclassified over $32 million worth of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel for certain export transactions in 2019 and 2020 in violation of export laws, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Texas announced on Tuesday.
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June 25, 2024
Mich. Judge Blocks State Abortion Waiting Period, Counseling
A Michigan state judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a 24-hour waiting period, mandatory counseling and other requirements on people seeking abortions in the state, finding they likely violate an amendment in the state constitution guaranteeing the right to an abortion.
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June 25, 2024
Adviser, Firm Owe SEC $425K For Mishandling Crypto Assets
A Florida federal judge on Tuesday approved approximately $425,000 in settlements in a suit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against an investment adviser and its owner, alleging they hid investment strategies and lost control of the firm's recordkeeping, preventing them from accessing crypto assets possibly worth $10 million.
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June 25, 2024
SEC Accuses Ex-CEOs Of Duping Market In $138M Offering
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday reached a $1 million deal with a company allegedly involved in a market manipulation scheme and also brought claims against the two former CEOs who allegedly led the scheme, which fraudulently raised $137.5 million from investors, according to the regulator.
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June 25, 2024
Cummins Brass Face Investor Suit For $2B Clean Air Act Deal
Executives and directors of engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit accusing them of concealing the company's use of unlawful emissions control devices in certain engines, which eventually resulted in a record $1.68 billion fine against the company and more than $326 million in related payments.
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June 25, 2024
CFPB Delays Start Of Small-Biz Loan Rule Deadlines Until '25
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday formally pushed back the compliance deadlines for its contested rule that establishes reporting requirements for the small-business lending market, putting nearly 10 more months on the clock for banks and other lenders after a court-ordered stay.
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June 25, 2024
USDA Tackles 'Inconsistent' Court Handling Of Packers Suits
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sought Tuesday to empower itself, and perhaps individual farmers, in lawsuits against allegedly unfair practices in the livestock, meat and poultry industries, by proposing a new rule that would replace the current case-by-case adjudication of what counts as a violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
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June 25, 2024
Norfolk Southern Torched In NTSB Final Derailment Findings
Norfolk Southern used "reprehensible" tactics to interfere with the investigation into last year's derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and pushed for an "unnecessary" controlled vent and burn of highly flammable vinyl chloride during the accident's chaotic aftermath, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
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June 25, 2024
GOP Lawmakers Urge 8th Circ. To Quash SEC's Climate Rule
A group of 35 Republican lawmakers on Tuesday moved to weigh in on the consolidated challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted climate disclosure rule, arguing that the Eighth Circuit should vacate the measure due to a lack of clear congressional authorization.
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June 25, 2024
Verizon To Pay $1M For Southeast 911 Outage, FCC Says
Verizon has agreed to pay just more than $1 million and follow a compliance plan after a December 2022 breakdown of 911 connectivity throughout the Southeast, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.
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June 25, 2024
Broker's Lax ACH Monitoring Led To $330K Theft, FINRA Says
A broker-dealer that was once a unit of Oregon-headquartered Umpqua Bank has agreed to pay $225,000 to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority after self-reporting supervisory oversights that enabled unauthorized parties to siphon over $330,000 out of a customer's account.
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June 25, 2024
Flint Judge Wants To Keep City 'Motivated' To Fix Lead Pipes
A Michigan federal judge on Tuesday all but approved a proposal from the state to step in and help the city of Flint finish replacing lead water service lines and restoring properties for residents, noting the city's repeated failures to meet its obligations under a 7-year-old settlement agreement.
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June 25, 2024
FCC Says Anti-Redlining Rule 'Dutifully' Carries Out Law
The Federal Communications Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit to toss multiple industry challenges to its rules against discrimination in broadband deployment, saying its use of a wide-reaching standard for prohibited bias fits the law's requirements.
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June 25, 2024
FTC Suit Merely 'Publicity Stunt,' Seattle Bill Pay Biz Says
A Seattle-based online bill pay platform has accused the Federal Trade Commission of filing a baseless consumer protection suit against it, telling a Washington federal court the company has already gone above and beyond its legal obligations to satisfy regulators' concerns about misleading ads and hidden fees.
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June 25, 2024
FTC Looks To Ax MGM Suit Over Cybersecurity Probe
The Federal Trade Commission rebuffed claims from MGM Resorts International that the agency improperly declined to recuse chair Lina Khan from investigating the hospitality giant's data security practices, urging a D.C. federal judge to toss MGM's lawsuit that seeks to stop the probe.
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June 25, 2024
Firm Accused Of Raising $12M On Fake Investment Claims
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued an investment firm and its adviser over allegations they fraudulently raised $12.5 million from investors while claiming it had ties to an art investing platform and had a major accounting firm as its auditor.
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June 25, 2024
Exxon Bid For Avangrid Docs In Greenwash Case Faces Doubt
A Massachusetts judge on Tuesday questioned the relevance of potentially millions of wind energy company Avangrid's documents being sought by ExxonMobil in its defense of a greenwashing case brought by the state.
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June 25, 2024
Pot Cos. Push Back On Calif. City's Bid To Toss $5.4M Fee Suit
Six cannabis companies are fighting the California city of Cudahy's bid to dismiss a suit alleging that the city reneged on a promise to waive $5.4 million in fees accrued during the COVID-19 shutdowns, saying the motion largely disputes allegations that the court has to accept as true under a motion to dismiss.
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June 25, 2024
Drilling Permit Challenge Should Stay Dead, DOI Tells DC Circ.
The U.S. Department of the Interior told the D.C. Circuit a federal judge correctly ruled environmental groups cannot challenge the federal approval of thousands of drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming because they failed to establish any particularized injury.
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June 25, 2024
EU Opens Microsoft Case, Unappeased By Teams Unbundling
European Union antitrust authorities opened a formal complaint against Microsoft on Tuesday over the company's bundling of its Teams communications program with its Office 365 suites, calling out as insufficient the disconnection of the services Microsoft initiated last year to appease enforcers.
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June 25, 2024
Int'l Paper Gets US Clearance On $7.2B DS Smith Buy
International Paper Co. and its U.K. competitor DS Smith PLC said Tuesday that the waiting period for U.S. antitrust authorities to try and block their planned roughly $7.2 billion merger has expired.
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June 25, 2024
NY Judge Partially Lifts Trump Gag Order Ahead Of Sentence
The Manhattan judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's hush-money case on Tuesday vacated key parts of a gag order intended to shield jurors and witnesses from his verbal attacks, although an order protecting the jurors' identities remains in place.
Expert Analysis
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High-Hazard Retailers: Are You Ready For OSHA Inspections?
In light of a bill introduced this month in Congress to protect warehouse workers, relevant employers — including certain retailers — should remain aware of an ongoing Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiative that has increased the likelihood of inspection over the next couple of years, say Julie Vanneman and Samantha Cook at Dentons Cohen.
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5 Lessons From Ex-Vitol Trader's FCPA Conviction
The recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering conviction of former Vitol oil trader Javier Aguilar in a New York federal court provides defense takeaways on issues ranging from the definition of “domestic concern” to jury instruction strategy, says attorney Andrew Feldman.
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SEC Amendments May Launch New Execution Disclosure Era
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted amendments to Rule 605 of Regulation NMS for executions on covered orders in national market system stocks modernize and enhance execution quality reporting, but serious guidance is still needed to make the reports useful for the public investor, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Ga. Law Creates Challenges For Foreign Ownership Of Land
Under Georgia's new law limiting certain foreign possessory interests in agricultural land and land near military properties, affected foreign persons and entities will need to do significantly more work in order to ensure that their ownership remains legal, say Nellie Sullivan and Lindsey Grubbs at Holland & Knight.
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Mitigating Incarceration's Impacts On Foreign Nationals
Sentencing arguments that highlighted the disparate impact incarceration would have on a British national recently sentenced for insider training by a New York district court, when compared to similarly situated U.S. citizens, provide an example of the advocacy needed to avoid or mitigate problems unique to noncitizen defendants, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert.
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Contract Disputes Recap: Saying What Needs To Be Said
Edward Arnold and Bret Marfut at Seyfarth Shaw examine three recent decisions that delve into the meaning and effect of contractual releases, and demonstrate the importance of ensuring that releases, as written, do what the parties intend.
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Navigating Title VII Compliance And Litigation Post-Muldrow
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Muldrow v. St. Louis has broadened the scope of Title VII litigation, meaning employers must reassess their practices to ensure compliance across jurisdictions and conduct more detailed factual analyses to defend against claims effectively, say Robert Pepple and Christopher Stevens at Nixon Peabody.
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The Opportunities, Risks And Rewards Of AI Acquisitions
As artificial intelligence acquisitions become an increasing area of focus for investors and technology buyers, entities should pay special attention to target identification, due diligence and more when structuring and executing a transaction with a company that has an AI-centric business model, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.
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Tiny Tweaks To Bank Merger Forms May Have Big Impact
The impact of proposed changes to the Federal Reserve Board's and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank merger review forms would be significant, resulting in hundreds of additional burden hours for bank merger applicants and signaling a further shift by the prudential bank regulators toward more rigorous scrutiny of mergers, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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How CFPB Credit Card Rules Slot Into Broader Considerations
Swirling legal challenges against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent rulemaking concerning credit card late fees raise questions about how regulated entities should respond to the bureau's rules — and how quickly they should act, say Caitlin Mandel and Elizabeth Ireland at Winston & Strawn.
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AI And Trade Controls: A Guide To Expanding Restrictions
With restrictions on trade related to commodities, software and technology integral to high-performing artificial intelligence capabilities expected to expand — particularly between the U.S. and China — companies must carefully consider the export classification of the items they design, produce or procure, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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4 Takeaways From Biden's Crypto Mining Divestment Order
A May 13 executive order prohibiting the acquisition of real estate by a foreign investor on national security grounds — an enforcement first — shows the importance of understanding how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States might profile cross-border transactions, even those that are non-notified, say attorneys at Kirkland.
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Novel Applications May Fizzle After Fed Master Account Wins
Two recent federal court rulings that upheld decisions denying master account applications from two fintech-focused banks are noteworthy for depository institutions with novel charters that wish to have direct access to the Federal Reserve's payment channels and settle transactions in central bank money, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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FTC Noncompete Rule's Impact On Healthcare Nonprofits
Healthcare entities that are nonprofit or tax-exempt and thus outside of the pending Federal Trade Commission noncompete rule's reach should evaluate a number of potential risk factors and impacts, starting by assessing their own status, say Ben Shook and Tania Archer at Moore & Van Allen.