Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a hearing to determine what elements should be included in federal data-breach legislation. The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:
…
One of the items at the top of President Obama’s agenda in India this week is the long-delayed U.S.-India bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Such a treaty was proposed by the President during his 2010 visit to India, but the proposal got little traction with the prior government. It is likely to do better with the…
New consumer protection provisions that clarify how companies may collect, use, and protect personal information of consumers will come into effect in China on March 15, 2015.
On January 5, 2015, China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce (“SAIC”) issued measures to implement China’s Consumer Rights Protection Law (“CRPL”), which was amended effective March 2014…
Employers should consider reviewing their procedures for withholding and paying FICA tax in light of the recent district court decision in Davidson v. Henkel Corp. The court concluded that the employer was liable to participants in a nonqualified deferred compensation plan for failing to withhold FICA tax in a manner that would have decreased…
The Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (or “Cromnibus”) revamped the notification and funding requirements under § 4062(e) of ERISA. As interpreted by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”), § 4062(e) often required an employer to make substantial contributions or provide other financial commitments to a defined benefit plan when the employer ceased operations at…
On 12 January, the London-based private equity group Helios Investment Partners announced that it had exceeded the $1 billion target that it had set for Helios Investors III, L.P., or “Helios III”, thus making it the first $1 billion-plus private equity fund for African investments. Founded in 2007 by Nigerian-born Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye,…
Last month a federal court found Dish Network liable for calls that were alleged by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to violate various provisions of the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”). Specifically, the FTC’s 2009 complaint asserted that Dish Network initiated, or caused a telemarketer to initiate, calls to numbers on the National Do Not…
In the coming months, Egypt and the American company Blumberg Grain will create the world’s largest integrated food storage system for grain, constructing 93 sophisticated wheat storage facilities across Egypt that will process 3.7 million tons annually and store 750,000 tons of wheat. The food storage system will launch this April, and is expected to…
At the end of last year, the American Journal of Managed Care published a study — co-authored by researchers at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) — analyzing the use of electronic prescriptions for controlled substances. This is the first study on this subject since the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) revised…
An eight-year transition period for U.S. tax-qualified retirement plans covering Puerto Rico residents is set to end in 2015. Employers that cover Puerto Rico residents under U.S. tax-qualified plans should consider spinning off the Puerto Rico portion of the plan in 2015, to avoid subjecting Puerto Rico residents to U.S. federal income tax.…
