Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Compliance
-
November 13, 2024
Md. Electricity 'Greenwashing' Law Is A Muzzle, Judge Told
A Maryland law attempting to crack down on electricity suppliers' "greenwashing" claims unconstitutionally mandates companies speak about their product in a way that conforms to what the state considers "sustainable energy," a renewable energy company and an advocacy organization argued in Maryland federal court.
-
November 13, 2024
Cox Eyes Federal Suit After RI Court Tosses BEAD Case
Cox Communications has signaled that it may sue in federal court after a Rhode Island state judge tossed on jurisdictional grounds its complaint accusing state officials of botching the rollout of federal broadband deployment dollars.
-
November 13, 2024
Investors Ask FCC To Review $2.4B Paramount-Skydance Deal
The Federal Communications Commission should refuse to approve Paramount Global's request to merge with Skydance Media LLC until minority shareholders have a chance to finish their investigation into the financial details of the deal, the leader of those investors told the agency.
-
November 13, 2024
Colo. Hospital System To Settle ER Billing Claims For $23M
University of Colorado Health has agreed to pay $23 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the hospital system was submitting false claims to federal health care programs, U.S. Department of Justice officials announced Tuesday.
-
November 13, 2024
EPA Tells DC Circ. That Mercury Rule Is Sound
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the D.C. Circuit that opponents of its rule strengthening standards for mercury and other toxic air emissions at power plants are seeking to hamstring the agency with a too-narrow interpretation of the Clean Air Act.
-
November 13, 2024
Trump Is Poised, Once Again, To Jolt US Trade Policy
Donald Trump's first stint in the White House saw steep tariffs against China and other trade partners, and with the Biden administration having largely maintained and even expanded those levies, the president-elect is well-positioned to further pull those levers.
-
November 13, 2024
FTX Prosecutors Tout Tech Chief's 'Outstanding Cooperation'
Manhattan federal prosecutors urged a lenient sentence for former FTX technology chief Zixiao "Gary" Wang, telling the court on Wednesday that his "outstanding cooperation" was instrumental in securing the lightning-fast indictment and ultimate conviction of founder Sam Bankman-Fried for an $11 billion fraud that sank the crypto exchange.
-
November 13, 2024
Outgoing DOJ Antitrust Head Wants To Unstack Healthcare
The U.S. Department of Justice's top antitrust official looked to the future Tuesday, of both healthcare and his own exit with the change in presidential administration, as he defended the Biden era's more aggressive, nuanced approach to merger enforcement that wouldn't allow massive insurers and others to stack up the industry like Tetris.
-
November 13, 2024
Madigan's Atty Seeks To Discredit Key Government Witness
The cross-examination of a former ComEd executive who wore a wire for the government as it built its corruption case against ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan veered Wednesday into the informant's messy divorce proceedings and his failure to disclose felony charges when trying to buy a gun to kill snakes, as Madigan's attorneys tried to call his credibility into question.
-
November 13, 2024
Short-Term Rental Owners 'Unreasonable,' Dallas Tells Court
A Dallas short-term rental advocacy organization loves to focus on property rights, but it never considered the rights of neighbors who want safe neighborhoods and don't want to live next to an active business, a city attorney told a Fifth Court of Appeals panel during oral arguments Wednesday.
-
November 13, 2024
Justices Puzzled By Nvidia's Position In Investor Case
Some U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed to regret the decision to hear a dispute between chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and its investors, wondering whether a disagreement over what the company knew about its sales to crypto miners has any bearing on other securities class action lawsuits.
-
November 13, 2024
Highway Workers Reach Deal In Misclassification Row
Three construction firms have agreed to settle a False Claims Act suit after the U.S. Department of Labor agreed with an electrical workers union and a whistleblower that a subcontractor misclassified employees who worked on 25 federally funded highway projects in Pennsylvania.
-
November 13, 2024
NJ Sues Gun Retailers That Sold Ammo To Undercover Cops
Two Garden State firearms retailers have been hit with lawsuits for selling ammunition and gun-related products to undercover investigators without asking for proof that they could lawfully possess a firearm, the state's top law-enforcement official announced Wednesday.
-
November 13, 2024
LNG Co. Says Full DC Circ. Must Revive Texas Project
The company behind a liquefied natural gas project on the Texas Gulf Coast urged the full D.C. Circuit on Wednesday to vacate a panel's ruling nixing its federal approval, citing another panel's decision finding the White House Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act regulations are unenforceable.
-
November 13, 2024
SEC's Uyeda Says Limits On Private Funds Need Review
Smaller private and venture capital funds could benefit from less-stringent registration requirements, a Republican member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told an advisory panel Wednesday, saying the time is ripe to review whether existing thresholds still make sense.
-
November 13, 2024
Feds Ink $52M Deal Over Phony Vet Gov't Contract Scheme
Virginia-based contractor Paragon Systems Inc. has agreed to pay the U.S. government $52 million to settle claims that the company knowingly engaged in a fraudulent scheme to use small businesses that it controlled to obtain contracts reserved for veteran-owned or socially or economically disadvantaged businesses and that its executives received monetary kickbacks.
-
November 13, 2024
NC Wetlands Developer Wants 4th Circ. To Revive Projects
A North Carolina landowner has urged the Fourth Circuit to block a new rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act, arguing that the new rule saddles him with "extraordinary compliance costs" for wetland development projects and goes beyond the law's actual scope.
-
November 13, 2024
Insurers Say Hyundai, Kia Should Pay For Combusting Cars
A slew of insurers for owners of certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles are suing the companies in a case removed to California federal court Wednesday, seeking to recoup costs associated with almost a decade of claims for cars that allegedly spontaneously combust and have not been fixed by the manufacturers.
-
November 13, 2024
FERC Tells 9th Circ. It Properly Rescinded PG&E Grid Perk
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told the Ninth Circuit it correctly yanked a grid incentive for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for voluntarily belonging to a regional transmission organization, noting California now mandates the state's major utilities join an RTO.
-
November 13, 2024
3rd Circ. Wary Of Easing Cheesesteak Shop Owner's Sentence
Third Circuit judges seemed mostly skeptical of overturning an extension to the prison sentence of a Philadelphia cheesesteak shop owner who admitted to paying employees off the books, saying during oral arguments it was unclear whether the employees should be considered co-conspirators in the tax fraud.
-
November 13, 2024
Trump Taps DOJ Critic Matt Gaetz For Attorney General
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz to be the next U.S. attorney general, seeking to elevate a close political ally to lead a Justice Department that the Florida lawmaker has sharply criticized and that last year declined to charge him in a sex-trafficking investigation.
-
November 13, 2024
EPA Effluent Rule Is Fatally Flawed, 8th Circ. Told
Republican-led states, utilities and industry groups called on the Eighth Circuit to vacate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rule setting new wastewater limitations for coal-fired power plants, saying it is based on economically unavailable technologies in an effort to further the Biden administration's goal of shuttering coal plants.
-
November 13, 2024
FTC Antitrust Case Against Meta Is Heading To Trial
A D.C. federal court ruled Wednesday that Meta will have to face trial on the Federal Trade Commission's claims that the Facebook parent company monopolized personal social networking through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
-
November 12, 2024
Ex-FDIC Head Urges Banks To 'Push Back' Against Examiners
A former top Trump banking regulator on Tuesday called for bank executives to show "backbone" and push back when they are challenged with bad exam findings from their regulators, urging resistance as an antidote to perceived excesses in bank oversight.
-
November 12, 2024
Trump Taps Elon Musk To Head New 'Gov't Efficiency' Dept.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a newly created "Department in Government Efficiency" for his administration come January.
Expert Analysis
-
California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.
-
Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.
-
New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright
The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
-
A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers
A newly enacted California law prohibits artificial intelligence tools from making medical necessity determinations for healthcare service plans or disability insurers, addressing core questions that have arisen around AI's role in coverage decisions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
-
Colorful Lessons From NYC's Emotional Support Parrot Suit
A recently settled lawsuit in New York federal court concerning housing discrimination claims from a resident who had emotional support parrots highlights the importance of housing providers treating accomodation questions seriously even if they may appear unusual or questionable, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
-
To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations
A recent Bureau of Industry and Security enforcement policy change grants cooperation credit to those that report violations of the Export Administration Regulations committed by others, but the benefits of doing so must be weighed against significant drawbacks, including the costs of preparing and submitting a report, says Megan Lew at Cravath.
-
Mitigating Construction Employers' Risks Of Discrimination
Recent heightened government scrutiny of construction industry employment practices illustrates the need for nondiscriminatory recruitment and proactive assessment of workforces and worksites, including auditing for demographic disparities and taking documented steps to address such issues, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
-
With Esmark Case, SEC Returns Focus To Tender Offer Rules
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent enforcement action against Esmark in connection with its failed bid to acquire U.S. Steel indicates the SEC's renewed attention under Rule 14e‑8 of the Exchange Act on offerors' financial resources as a measure of the veracity of their tender offer communications, say attorneys at MoFo.
-
Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork
Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
-
What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean
A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
-
HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk
The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.
-
Deadline Extension Highlights PFAS Reporting Complexities
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent extension of reporting and recordkeeping timelines for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act offers relief to the regulated community, but the unprecedented volume of data required means that businesses must remain diligent in their data collection efforts, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
-
6th Circ. Preemption Ruling Adds Uncertainty For Car Cos.
Automakers and their suppliers need uniformity under the law to create sufficient scale and viable markets — but the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Fenner v. General Motors creates more uncertainty around the question of when state law consumer claims related to violations of federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards are preempted, say attorneys at Sidley.
-
What's Inside Feds' Latest Bank Merger Review Proposals
Recent bank merger proposals from a trio of federal agencies highlight the need for banks looking to grow through acquisition to consider several key issues much earlier in the planning process than has historically been necessary, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
-
State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.