Expert Analysis

• FTC-Deere Deal Tells Cautionary Tale On Repair Access Limits

  

  A recent proposed Federal Trade Commission antitrust settlement in Illinois federal court requires Deere & Co. to provide access to repair services previously available only to authorized dealers, and companies that limit access to aftermarket resources should ensure they can substantiate the reasoning behind any restrictions, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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  Being A Sommelier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Being a sommelier has quietly shaped how I practice law by changing the way I think, communicate and connect with people, and offers a constant reminder that expertise is about making your knowledge useful and accessible to others, says Kara Du at Sheppard.

• Deposit Contracts Do Heavy Lifting As Fraud Moves Upstream

  

  As courts increasingly find that upstream parties are best positioned to detect red flags in fraud disputes, most recently in Yangtze v. Ohio Valley Trackwork, companies should tighten treasury and deposit agreement verification protocols, indemnity terms, and insurance coordination to reduce exposure, says Nadine Dorsht at Stinson.

• DOJ's FCA Push Creates Risks For Construction Contractors

  

  The construction industry may be uniquely vulnerable to a new generation of False Claims Act enforcement driven by the U.S. Department of Justice's increasing usage of the FCA to target a much broader category of conduct than it has in decades past, specifically compliance certifications and regulatory representations, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

• 3 Private Suits Test Influencer Ads As FTC Stays On Sidelines

  

  Three lawsuits filed so far this year illustrate how influencer campaigns are facing growing scrutiny from private plaintiffs, despite the Federal Trade Commission not bringing an influencer marketing enforcement action since revising its endorsement guides to address the topic in 2023, but brands can take concrete steps to reduce the risks, says Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye.

• CIPA Tech Tracking Suits Highlight Uncertain Legal Ground

  

  Alexandra Samofalova at Spencer Fane discusses the state of California Invasion of Privacy Act website tracking litigation, why credible defendants choose to settle and how the businesses best positioned to face this uncertain legal landscape are the ones treating data practices as a legal compliance matter to address today.

• Where Is The Line On Actionable Comms In Securities Cases?

  

  Recent securities cases demonstrate the difficulty in discerning a clear difference between statements made in connection with the purchase or sale of securities and those that aren't, with that line more likely attributable to individualized factual situations than to any doctrinal differences of opinion between various courts, says Samuel Groner at Fried Frank.

• House-Passed KIDS Act Spurs Child Data Practices Audit

  

  Graham Dean, Brian Roper-Nelson and Will Quick at Brooks Pierce discuss the noteworthy sections of the U.S. House of Representatives' recently passed Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, the potential revisions as the law moves through the U.S. Senate and the significant business changes that the House law would require.

• FTC Focus: Enforcing Vertically Integrated Operating Systems

  

  As digital platforms increasingly pair operating systems with commerce, advertising, content and data, antitrust scrutiny will turn on whether those integrations create private bottlenecks that foreclose rivals through access, ranking, interoperability or defaults, pushing courts and enforcement agencies to adapt traditional utility and merger frameworks more aggressively, say attorneys at Proskauer.

• China's New Outbound Investment Rule Reshapes Deal Risk

  

  China's new outbound investment regulation introduces broad national security review and penalties, including personal liability, that will necessitate deeper diligence of cross-border deal participants with Chinese ties, earlier regulatory planning and closer attention to sanctions exposure, say attorneys at Freshfields.

• Calif. Wiretap Ruling May Reshape Pixel Tracking Litigation

  The recent dismissal of a proposed class action accusing Blue Shield of California of violating the federal Wiretap Act highlights the gap between legacy wiretap laws and modern browser architecture, and the tendency of pixel tracking complaints to oversimplify or mischaracterize how browsers work, says Phil Richards at ThreatHandle Consulting.

• How State Actions Are Reshaping Surveillance Pricing Risk

  

  Amid heightened state enforcement activity and expanding legislative action to curb surveillance pricing concerns related to transparency, fairness and discrimination, businesses should closely examine how consumer data is used in pricing decisions, say attorneys at Steptoe.

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  Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

• And Now A Word From The Panel: MDL Judge Selection

  

  To understand how the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation selects particular judges to preside over MDL proceedings, it helps to consider not only how much experience on the federal bench a judge has, but also whether they have specifically managed any prior MDLs, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

• What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

  

  The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.