Yesterday, the FTC published a blog post outlining what companies should expect if they find themselves as the subject of an FTC data security investigation. In addition to highlighting the different phases of the FTC’s investigative process, the FTC’s discussed the types of information that it seeks as well as the questions it wants answered.
May 2015
Lost in Transmission: Email Failure Results in Untimely Size Protest
The Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) Office of Hearings and Appeals (“OHA”) recently issued a decision exemplifying the well-known reality that protest deadlines are short and unforgiving. In Size Appeal of Supplies Now, Inc., SBA No. SIZ-5655 (Apr. 30, 2015), OHA denied, as untimely, an appeal of an SBA Area Office decision. The appellant, Supplies…
AGOA Moves Forward: Reviewing Last Week’s Reauthorization in the U.S. Senate
By Cov Africa
On Thursday of last week and with a vote of 97-1, the U.S. Senate approved the “Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015,” which includes reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). With this action, the Senate seeks to reaffirm the “centerpiece of trade relations between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa,”…
FERC Outlines its Role in Implementing EPA’s Clean Power Plan
Earlier this year, FERC held four technical conferences to discuss the implications of state, regional and/or federal plans for compliance with EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) rule to set carbon emission limits for existing electricity generating units. A major issue raised was the impact of the CPP on electric grid reliability as coal-fired generators…
Supreme Court to Consider Whether A Settlement Offer for Complete Relief Moots a Plaintiff’s TCPA Claim
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and agreed to consider Campbell-Ewald Company v. Gomez, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a consumer’s failure to accept an advertiser’s settlement offer that would fully satisfy the consumer’s claim did not render moot either the consumer’s individual claim under the…
Going to Kenya is an Important Undertaking, Mr. President
By Cov Africa
Dear Mr. President:
Recently, the distinguished Harvard professor, Robert Rotberg, made the argument that your planned visit to Kenya in July is a “dumb” idea.
I couldn’t disagree more, and here is why:
One of Professor Rotberg’s central points is that your visit will exacerbate ethnic tensions in the country, as your father was…
India’s Investment Treaties – Will the Government Reject a Core Standard of Investment Protection?
By Marney Cheek & Nikhil Gore
Almost all of the more than 3,000 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in existence offer foreign investors the protection of “fair and equitable treatment” under international law. India’s new draft model BIT does not. In place of the well-established standard of protection, which has been interpreted and applied in hundreds of prior investment arbitrations, the model…
FTC’s Throttling Case Against AT&T to be Heard by Ninth Circuit
A federal judge in the Northern District of California recently certified his denial of AT&T’s Motion to Dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) complaint alleging that AT&T misled consumers by limiting its “unlimited” data plan for mobile customers. This means that AT&T will now be able to appeal that decision to the Ninth Circuit.…
This Week in Congress — May 18, 2015
Both chambers are in session this week with the Memorial Day recess period staring them in the face. But there will be a great deal of work to get done before senators and representatives can head home.
The Senate returns on Monday to resume consideration of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill. Last week, despite…
Burundi: “Third Term-ism” and the Threat to Democracy
By Covington
On Tuesday morning, weeks of violent protests in the East African nation of Burundi ratcheted up considerably when Major General Godefroid Niyombare attempted to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza. At the time of the announcement, President Nkurunziza was in Tanzania attending a Heads of State Emergency Summit that the East African Community (EAC) had convened to…