On 26 September 2013, the highest EU Court issued two important judgments, Dow and EI DuPont. These judgments confirm that a parent company can be held liable and fined by the European Commission (“Commission”) for the antitrust infringement of its 50:50 JV in the EU. In so stating, the EU Court endorsed the current
October 2013
Covington and the George Washington University’s Cybersecurity Initiative Release Issue Brief on Cyberespionage and Trade Secret Theft
At a co-hosted event last week, Covington & Burling LLP and The George Washington University’s Cybersecurity Initiative released an issue brief on the growing threats of cyberespionage and trade secret theft and responses to address these threats. The paper provides an overview of existing laws and policy reforms being considered in the U.S. and European…
Copyright Suits Against Anonymous Defendants Must Involve Common ‘Swarm’
A federal court last week ruled that copyright owners can only sue multiple peer-to-peer users if all of the defendants participated in the same infringement scheme.
In recent years, copyright owners have sued people who have shared their movies, songs, and other content via peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent. The copyright owners use proprietary software to…
The Federal Shutdown and the FEC: The Impact on Federal PACs and Other Political Committees
The federal shutdown has resulted in the furlough of all FEC employees except the Commissioners. As with most agencies, the greatest impact on the regulated community will appear over time: On-line data will grow stale, advisory opinions will be delayed, enforcement cases will not advance. The FEC has summarized the process here.
For political…
Supreme Court To Resolve Whether Severance Pay for Layoffs Is Subject to FICA Tax
Earlier today, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Sixth Circuit’s decision United States v. Quality Stores. In that decision, the Sixth Circuit sided with taxpayers and concluded that certain severance payments that qualify as supplemental unemployment benefit payments (or “SUB” payments) for federal income tax purposes are not subject to tax under the…