Last year, we highlighted the Court of Federal Claims’ (“COFC”) decision in Starry Associates, Inc. v. United States, 127 Fed. Cl. 539 (2016), which sharply criticized a Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) decision to cancel a solicitation, a rare rebuke in an area where agencies enjoy considerable deference from the courts. The
April 2017
Can Pension Funds Help Solve Africa’s Infrastructure Deficit?
By Cov Africa
Despite the global focus on growth trends in Africa, one trend has flown mostly below the radar: the increase in the number and size of pension funds. In addition to evidencing increased income security, the continent’s growing number of pension funds could potentially be a new source of funding to address Africa’s infrastructure deficit, estimated…
New Mexico Becomes 48th State with Data Breach Notification Law; Tennessee Restores Exemption for Encrypted Data
By Caleb Skeath
Last week, New Mexico and Tennessee both passed legislation updating each state’s requirements for notifying residents following a data breach. New Mexico’s new law, H.B. 15, makes it the 48th U.S. state to enact a state data breach notification law, leaving Alabama and South Dakota as the only states that have not enacted similar laws. …
Air Pollution in India
India is home to 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world as documented by the World Health Organization (WHO). Half of Delhi’s 4.4 million children have permanent lung damage that they will never fully recover from. The 2017 State of Global Air report, published by the Health Effects Institute, shows that…
Irish Data Protection Commissioner Releases 2016 Annual Report
By Denitsa Marinova
On April 11, 2017, the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland (DPC) published her annual report for 2016, highlighting key developments and activities for the past year and outlining priorities for 2017 and beyond. The report will be of interest to Irish entities and multinational organizations with a base in Ireland, including companies…
The Latest Clue to Solving the Maropakis Riddle: The Affirmative Defense of Offset
When must a party’s “defense” be asserted as a Contract Disputes Act (CDA) claim in order to raise that defense during a Court of Federal Claims or Board of Contract Appeals proceeding?
In Kansas City Power & Light Co. v. United States, the Court of Federal Claims moves us one step closer to solving this…
A U.K. criminal offence: “Failure to prevent human rights abuses”?
The Joint Committee on Human Rights – comprised of members of both Houses – has published a report calling on the U.K. government to take significant further steps to improve corporate human rights practices, including criminalising “failure to prevent human rights abuses”.
The Committee acknowledges that the U.K. Government’s introduction of reporting requirements under the…
China Seeks Public Comments on Draft Regulation on Cross-Border Data Transfer
By Yan Luo
On April 11, 2017, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) released a draft of the Measures on Security Assessment of Cross-border Data Transfer of Personal Information and Important Data (“the Draft Measures”) for public comment (official Chinese version available here). The comment period ends on May 11, 2017.
The issuance of the long-anticipated Draft…
Broad Minnesota Warrant Seeks Data on All Users Who Googled Fraud Victim
A Minnesota state court on February 1, 2017, issued an unusually broad search warrant directed to Google in connection with a wire fraud case. The warrant seeks a broad set of data about all users who searched on Google for a specific person between December 1, 2016 and January 7, 2017. The warrant became public…
The Information Commissioner’s Office Publishes a Consultation Paper on Profiling and Automated Decision-Making under the GDPR
On April 2, 2017, the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) released a consultation paper for UK organizations to comment on how the new profiling provisions under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) could be interpreted and applied when the GDPR comes into force in May 2018.
The public consultation on what is described as “initial thoughts…