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June 14, 2024
SEC Says Bahamas Firm Was Set Up To Skirt Day Trading Rules
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened its case Friday against high-frequency trading expert — and former government informant — Guy Gentile, telling jurors in Florida federal court that he set up a broker-dealer in the Bahamas specifically to evade U.S. day trading regulations designed to protect American investors.
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June 14, 2024
BP Unit Slapped With $300M Franchise Termination Suit
A trio of entities controlled by two self-proclaimed franchise veterans filed suit in Ohio federal court against a travel center operator acquired by BP in 2023, alleging the company terminated a franchise agreement without warning and caused at least $300 million in damages.
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June 14, 2024
France Offers $750M For Atos' Cyber, Data Assets
Information technology firm Atos SE said Friday that it has received a nonbinding offer from the French government to buy certain big data and cybersecurity operations at an enterprise value of €700 million ($750 million).
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June 14, 2024
Employment Authority: High Court's NLRB Injunction Shift
Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion involving Starbucks that standardized the National Labor Relations Board's injunction test, a look at Law360's pay disclosure law tracker and a review of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's amicus briefs in the first half of 2024.
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June 14, 2024
X Dodges Porn Filter BIPA Suit For Now
An Illinois federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action accusing X Corp. of violating the state's biometric privacy law through its use of software to police pornographic images, saying the lead plaintiff failed to allege that the tool can be used to identify specific individuals.
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June 14, 2024
'Alkaline Water' Co. Owes Another $3.1B For Liver Failures
A Las Vegas jury awarded $3 billion in punitive damages and $89.75 million in compensatory damages Friday to a group of children and adults who experienced severe liver problems after drinking toxin-adulterated "alkaline water," adding to the product maker's legal woes.
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June 14, 2024
Novant Urges 4th Circ. To Reject FTC's 'Emergency' Bid
Novant Health told the Fourth Circuit there is no need to block its planned North Carolina hospital purchase while the Federal Trade Commission pushes a merger challenge, saying the deal will increase competition by preventing the hospitals from closing.
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June 14, 2024
DOJ Can't Force Retroactive FARA Registration, DC Circ. Says
The U.S. Department of Justice can't force casino magnate Steve Wynn to retroactively register as a foreign agent because his alleged lobbying efforts on behalf of China ended years ago, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday.
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June 14, 2024
Off The Bench: Ex-Players Claim NIL, Loss For Trans Swimmer
In this week's Off The Bench, the 1983 men's college basketball champions want a piece of the loot the NCAA made off of their names, swimmer Lia Thomas loses in her bid to overturn an international trans athlete ban, and the House gets a bill through committee that would keep college athletes from becoming employees.
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June 14, 2024
Burford Bound To Sysco And Pilgrim's Unsigned Chicken Deal
An Illinois federal judge on Friday rejected a Burford subsidiary's bid to block a global protein price-fixing settlement that Pilgrim's Pride and Sysco memorialized through email but never signed on paper, saying it's clear the parties reached a material agreement.
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June 14, 2024
Daimler Truck Unit Says Mexican Supply Slowdown Cost $18M
A Daimler Truck subsidiary claimed in a lawsuit filed in Michigan federal court that a supplier's failure to keep up with production volumes has forced the diesel-engine manufacturer to stall its own production and lose more than $18 million.
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June 14, 2024
GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week
The governor of Vermont vetoed a legislative proposal that would have given consumers not only new data privacy rights but also the rare opportunity to sue large businesses for certain violations, and a multipart Delaware General Corporation Law amendment that would let boards cede some governance rights to big stockholders sailed through the state's Senate without debate or an opposing vote. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.
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June 14, 2024
Full DC Circ. Won't Hear Foreign Disclosure Penalty Dispute
The D.C. Circuit declined to reconsider its ruling overturning a major U.S. Tax Court decision that had crimped the administrative collection arm of the Internal Revenue Service, letting stand a panel's restoration of the agency's power to more freely penalize undisclosed foreign corporations.
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June 14, 2024
Japan's Kirin Plans $1.4B Fancl Purchase Amid Health Kick
Kirin Holdings Co. said Friday that it plans to buy the remaining shares it doesn't own in Fancl Corp. for about $1.4 billion, part of the Japanese beverage giant's continued push into the consumer health sector.
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June 14, 2024
DOJ's Google Ad Tech Suit Bound For Sept. Trial
A Virginia federal judge said Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit accusing Google of monopolizing technology used to place ads on third-party websites will go to trial, finding too many factual disputes to let the search giant nix the case.
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June 13, 2024
Visa, Mastercard Fee Deal Not 'Likely' To Get Court Approval
A New York federal judge said at a hearing Thursday that she will "likely not approve" Mastercard and Visa's proposed settlement in long-running litigation over merchant transaction fees, according to the case docket.
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June 13, 2024
Apple Fights To Ax 'Speculative' IPhone App Antitrust Suit
Apple urged a California federal judge Thursday to toss a proposed antitrust class action alleging the company illegally prevents iPhones from running web-based apps that don't need to be downloaded, arguing consumers don't have standing to bring the "speculative" litigation since they're not directly injured by Apple's agreements with developers.
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June 13, 2024
Goldman Exec's 'Mind Entirely Blown' By Fake Ozy Media Call
A former Goldman Sachs executive who was looking into taking a stake in Carlos Watson's Ozy Media testified on Thursday that she was floored during a due diligence call when it became clear that someone was impersonating a YouTube executive in an apparent effort to persuade the bank to invest in Watson's startup.
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June 13, 2024
DirecTV's 'NFL Tax' Gouged Sunday Ticket Buyers, Jury Told
DirecTV gouged its Sunday Ticket subscribers by charging 24.6% above the "optimal price" it should have charged if the company was looking to maximize its profits instead of instituting an "NFL tax," an economist told a California federal jury considering multibillion-dollar antitrust claims against the league on Thursday.
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June 13, 2024
IP Forecast: Cooley Atty Faces DQ Bid Over Past Patent Work
A prominent Cooley LLP lawyer will face questions next week in a Philadelphia courtroom over her work a decade ago at her former firm defending a cloud software startup that is now suing a Cooley client. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.
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June 13, 2024
'Trump Too Small' Opinion Leaves Some Justices, Attys Vexed
In denying a bid to register "Trump Too Small" as a trademark for apparel, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously concluded Thursday there was no free speech violation. But Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion leaning on tradition to justify prohibiting names as marks without an individual's consent left some justices and attorneys dissatisfied.
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June 13, 2024
Canadian Businessman Cops To Stealing Tesla Trade Secrets
A Canadian businessman residing in China pled guilty in New York federal court to scheming to sell secret battery manufacturing technology that belongs to Tesla, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
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June 13, 2024
Apple Workers' Suit Says Women Are Paid Less For Same Work
A pair of Apple workers lodged a proposed class action in California state court Thursday claiming that the company has systematically paid thousands of women less than their male counterparts for substantially similar work for years.
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June 13, 2024
Textualism Still Dominates Justices' Arbitration Decisions
The U.S. Supreme Court's approach to arbitration issues this past term has helped to exemplify a growing trend by the justices in favor of textualism and away from a less nuanced pro-arbitration mindset that had been favored in previous decades, experts say.
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June 13, 2024
FTC's Ferguson Says He's A Law Enforcer, Not A Policymaker
Recently minted Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson said Thursday that he views his new role as a law enforcer and not a policymaker and said the biggest issue for antitrust law right now is dealing with Big Tech.
Expert Analysis
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A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System
As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.
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When The Platform Is A Product, Strict Liability Can Attach
A New York state court's recent ruling in Patterson v. Meta, holding that social media platforms can be considered products, appears to be the first of its kind — but if it is upheld and adopted by other courts, the liability implications for internet companies could be incredibly far-reaching, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.
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Asset Manager Exemption Shifts May Prove Too Burdensome
The U.S. Department of Labor’s recent change to a prohibited transaction exemption used by retirement plan asset managers introduces a host of new costs, burdens and risks to investment firms, from registration requirements to new transition periods, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Bankruptcy Courts Have Contempt Power, Del. Case Reminds
A Delaware bankruptcy court recently held Camshaft Capital and its principal in contempt, serving as a reminder to bankruptcy practitioners and anyone else that appears before a bankruptcy judge that there are serious consequences for failing to comply with court orders, say Daniel Lowenthal and Kimberly Black at Patterson Belknap.
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7 Effects Of DOL Retirement Asset Manager Exemption Rule
The recent U.S. Department of Labor amendment to the retirement asset manager exemption delivers several key practical impacts, including the need for managers, as opposed to funds, to register with the DOL, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Opinion
Climate Change Shouldn't Be Litigated Under State Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court should reverse the Hawaii Supreme Court's October decision in Honolulu v. Sunoco that Hawaii could apply state law to emissions generated outside the state, because it would lead to a barrage of cases seeking to resolve a worldwide problem according to 50 different variations of state law, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.
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4 Sectors Will Likely Bear Initial Brunt Of FTC 'Junk Fees' Rule
If the Federal Trade Commission adopts its comprehensive proposed rule to ban unfair or deceptive fees across the U.S. economy, many businesses — including those in the lodging, event ticketing, dining and transportation sectors — will need to reexamine the way they market and price their products and services, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Standardizing Early Case Appraisal In Securities Class Actions
While an initial economic assessment of securities class action litigation is far too often not undertaken, it's an important step in planning the defense strategy that can provide counsel, clients and insurers with a much clearer view of the case, and can be simplified through standardized analyses, says Assen Koev at SCA iPortal.
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Protecting IP May Be Tricky Without Noncompetes
Contrary to the Federal Trade Commission's view, trade secret law cannot replace noncompetes' protection of proprietary information because intellectual property includes far more than just trade secrets, so businesses need to closely examine their IP protection options, say Aimee Fagan and Ching-Lee Fukuda at Sidley.
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Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures
The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Dual-Track IPO-M&A Exit Strategies For Life Science Cos.
A dual-track process for life sciences companies offers a proven path to securing favorable deal terms for an exit, and strategic moves can include running a crossover financing round in the lead-up, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes
Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.
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Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape
Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.
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How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers
Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.