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Compliance
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October 25, 2024
Pharmacy Must Pay $39.2M In Conn. Kickback Case
A defunct compounding pharmacy must pay $39.2 million in damages and penalties for its role in a kickback scheme that made illegal payments to Connecticut state employees and retirees, a state court judge ruled Friday while letting the company's proprietor off the hook.
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October 25, 2024
Maritime Unions Tell EPA To Reject Calif. Workboat Rule
Three maritime labor unions and a tugboat trade association called on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan to deny California's request for a Clean Air Act waiver to enforce its rule mandating the installation of diesel particulate filter technology on workboats.
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October 25, 2024
UK Antitrust Arm Opens Formal Probe Of $35B Software Deal
United Kingdom antitrust authorities triggered a formal investigation Friday into Synopsys Inc.'s $35 billion acquisition of Ansys Inc., satisfied that the transaction has enough ties to the country to merit greater scrutiny.
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October 25, 2024
FCC Didn't Play Favorites For Soros In Audacy Deal, GOP Told
The Federal Communications Commission's approval of radio station chain Audacy's recent ownership change mirrored the way it handled similar media deals in past years, the FCC's chief told critics alleging it fast-tracked the Audacy plan to benefit Democratic donor George Soros.
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October 25, 2024
GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week
Most in-house legal teams expect to spend a lot more on outside counsel costs in 2025, mostly due to increased lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. And it appears the former general counsel of Moody's Corp. will be spending the holidays in prison after being sentenced to eight months for failing to file income tax returns on $54 million in income.
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October 24, 2024
Bell Says Vendor Shouldn't Get $127M In Trade Secret Suit
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. told a Texas jury that a third-party vendor took the aerospace company's tech and "slapped their name on it," saying during closing arguments Thursday that jurors should reject California-based digital avionics equipment supplier Rogerson Aircraft Corp.'s ask of $127 million.
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October 24, 2024
FTC Official Doubts Election Will Deter Antitrust 'New Era'
The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition director defended the agency's new guidelines and its track record during a wide-ranging discussion at the 34th annual Golden State Institute on Thursday, and he expressed confidence that whichever presidential candidate wins, a new administration won't deter this "new era" of FTC antitrust enforcement actions.
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October 24, 2024
LinkedIn Hit With €310M Irish Fine For Targeted Ad Practices
Ireland's data protection commission has handed down a €310 million ($335 million) penalty against LinkedIn for allegedly failing to have an adequate legal basis for processing European Union users' personal data for targeted advertising purposes, the regulator announced Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
Bank Groups Appeal Loss In Suit Over CFPB Small Biz Rules
Lender trade groups that sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over its reporting requirements for small businesses have appealed to the Fifth Circuit after a Texas federal judge granted the bureau's request for summary judgment in August.
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October 24, 2024
FTC Probing Boeing's $4.7B Spirit Aero Takeover
The Federal Trade Commission wants to know more about Boeing's $4.7 billion plan to take over aircraft parts maker Spirit AeroSystems before it decides whether to sign off on the transaction, new filings have revealed.
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October 24, 2024
FINRA Says Its Regs Apply To Metaverse, Seeks Comments
Broker-dealers and other firms that are weighing incorporating the metaverse into their business operations should be mindful of how Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rules apply to such activities and reach out with any concerns about regulatory ambiguities, the regulator said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
SEC Says Broker Still Owes $3.5M Over Pre-IPO Stock Scheme
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants a Manhattan federal court to enforce its nearly $3.5 million administrative order against an unregistered broker-dealer and its managing member, who allegedly made over $65 million selling interests in a portfolio of companies that hadn't yet gone public.
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October 24, 2024
Think Tank Fights DOJ Pandemic Loan Investigation
The Center for Immigration Studies Inc. is asking a D.C. federal judge to stop the U.S. Department of Justice from demanding its internal documents in a probe into whether the organization misrepresented itself to obtain a pandemic relief loan.
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October 24, 2024
Hemp Shops Sue DC Over Cannabis Raids
Washington, D.C.'s cannabis authority is unjustly targeting two hemp retailers, preventing them from selling a number of their products and pushing them to the "brink of collapse," after incorrectly assuming they sell illicit marijuana, according to a lawsuit filed in D.C. superior court.
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October 24, 2024
AMA Latest To Sue MultiPlan Over Out-of-Network Pricing
The American Medical Association and the Illinois State Medical Society are the latest to accuse MultiPlan and the nation's largest health insurers of colluding through the use of the data firm's pricing tools to systematically underpay out-of-network providers, alleging in Illinois federal court Thursday that the "far-reaching and unlawful cartel" inhibits its members from offering critical care.
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October 24, 2024
Trade Orgs Back Google's Bid For 9th Circ. Play Store Pause
Trade groups and cybersecurity experts have told the Ninth Circuit to extend the pause on the mandate forcing Google to open up its Play Store and help rival app stores compete through that distribution mechanism, backing Google with amicus briefs warning of major disruptions to the app ecosystem.
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October 24, 2024
CAT Is 'Out Of The Bag': Judge Won't Block SEC Data Tool
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can continue to monitor markets through a surveillance tool known as the consolidated audit trail while it fights a class action lawsuit challenging the tool's existence, with a Texas federal judge saying Thursday that enjoining data collection now would cause chaos and disruption.
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October 24, 2024
CFPB Cautions Over 'Unchecked Surveillance' Of Workers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday it is taking action to protect consumers from "unchecked surveillance" in the labor force, issuing guidance that warns companies to get consent from workers when using algorithmic hiring scores or other outside profiling data for employment purposes.
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October 24, 2024
Va. Judge Won't Block Feds' Nonprofit Disclosure Law
A Virginia federal judge on Oct. 24 refused to stop the U.S. Department of the Treasury from enforcing a law that requires nonprofits such as community associations to disclose personal identifying information about their beneficial owners and applicants to a Treasury agency that focuses on stopping financial crimes.
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October 24, 2024
EPA Agrees To Review Nitrogen Oxides Standard By 2028
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it would revisit its national ambient air quality standards for nitrogen oxides by 2028 under a proposed consent decree reached with conservation groups.
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October 24, 2024
FCC Won't Hold Off Prison Phone Rate Caps During Suits
The Federal Communications Commission has turned down three bids for the agency to shelve new prison phone service rate caps during legal appeals of the FCC's rule, saying such lawsuits are unlikely to prevail.
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October 24, 2024
DOJ Pushes Justices To Revive Bid-Rigging Conviction
Federal prosecutors told the U.S. Supreme Court that the Fourth Circuit got it wrong last year when it vacated the bid-rigging conviction of aluminum pipe maker Contech's former executive, arguing Wednesday that agreements between firms can be per se unlawful even when they have a vertical relationship.
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October 24, 2024
Broadcasters Doubt Legality Of FCC Blackout Reporting Regs
TV broadcasters questioned a Federal Communications Commission plan to require cable and satellite companies to report programming "blackouts" caused by carriage disputes to a central database, saying the agency appears to lack legal authority to impose such a requirement.
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October 24, 2024
FINRA Fines Broker Over Securities Lending Algorithm Issues
Interactive Brokers LLC has agreed to a $475,000 fine from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to resolve alleged issues with its securities lending algorithm that resulted in the firm returning borrowed shares to customers when it should not have and for allegedly allowing an unregistered person to work on the algorithm's software development.
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October 24, 2024
PBMs Want Separate FTC Hearings Over Insulin Prices
Caremark Rx LLC, Express Scripts Inc. and OptumRx Inc. are calling for separate proceedings in the Federal Trade Commission's case accusing the pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes.
Expert Analysis
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How A Trump Win Might Affect The H-1B Program
A review of the Trump administration's attempted overhaul of the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program suggests policies Donald Trump might try to implement if he is reelected, and specific steps employers should consider to prepare for that possibility, says Eileen Lohmann at BAL.
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Challenge To Ill. Card Fee Law Explores Compliance Hurdles
A recent federal lawsuit challenging an Illinois law that will soon forbid electronic payment networks from charging fees for processing the tax and tip portions of card transactions, fleshes out the glaring compliance challenges and exposure risks financial institutions must be ready to face next summer, says Martin Kiernan at Amundsen Davis.
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Compliance Considerations For Calif. Child Labor Audit Law
California employers will need to conduct a fact-intensive analysis to determine whether a new state law that imposes transparency rules for child labor audits applies to their operations, and should look out for regulatory guidance that answers open questions about deadlines and penalties, says Sylvia St. Clair at Faegre Drinker.
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.
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Harris Unlikely To Shelve Biden Admin's Food Antitrust Stance
A look at Vice President Kamala Harris' past record, including her actions as California attorney general, shows why practitioners should prepare for continued aggressive antitrust enforcement, particularly in the food and grocery industries, if Harris wins the presidential election, says Steve Vieux at Bartko.
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Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Navigating HHS' New Reproductive Healthcare Privacy Rule
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule regarding protections for the privacy of reproductive health information will require regulated entities to grapple with difficult questions about whether to comply with state law requirements or federal privacy prohibitions, says Christine Chasse at Spencer Fane.
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Illinois May Be Gearing Up To Ban E-Verify
Recently passed amendments to the Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act appear to effectively ban the use of E-Verify in the state, but ambiguity means employers will have to weigh the risks of continued use while also taking note of other work authorization requirements imposed by the updates, say Julie Ratliff and Elizabeth Wellhausen at Taft.
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Breaking Down CFTC's Novel Theory Driving Uniswap Action
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement action against Uniswap concerning digital asset liquidity appears to be a unilateral attempt to expand its regulatory authority in the absence of official congressional approval, putting forth a novel theory of liability that will likely be tested through litigation, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Mental Health Parity Rules: Tips For Plans And Issuers
Following federal agencies' release of final mental health parity rules, plan sponsors and health insurance issuers should develop protocols for preparing compliant nonquantitative treatment limitation comparative analyses, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
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Applying High Court's Domestic Corruption Rulings To FCPA
After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the domestic corruption statutes in three decisions over the past year and a half, it’s worth evaluating whether these rulings may have an impact on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and if attorneys can use the court’s reasoning in international bribery cases, says James Koukios at MoFo.
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Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.
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A Look At 5 States' New Data Privacy Laws
With new data privacy laws in Utah, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Montana recently in effect or coming into force this year, state-level enforcement of data privacy creates significant challenges and risks for how businesses interact with employees and consumers, and for companies that provide and use technologies in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Politics In California Workplaces: What Employers Must Know
As the election looms, it is critical that California employers ensure their compliance with state laws providing robust protections for employees' political activity — including antidiscrimination laws, off-duty conduct laws, employee voting leave laws and more, say Bradford Kelley and Britney Torres at Littler.