Alerts

In light of the development of a COVID vaccine, employers across all industries are beginning to plan for their employees to return to the workplace.

Prop 65 Counsel: What To Know

New Jersey has legalized adult, recreational cannabis use. With more than two-thirds of voters in favor of amending the state Constitution, it became the first in the Tri-State region to permit recreational marijuana use.

Folgers Coffee Co., and its parent company, J.M. Smucker, were sued in federal court for allegedly inflating the number of servings contained in certain canisters of Folgers’ ground coffee.

The latest trends and developments in the class action world.

Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the EEOC) proposed two final rules: One under the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA), and the other under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). 

Our initial alert highlighted various hospitality and service industry businesses suing their insurers to recover for losses arising out of closure and stay-at-home (Civil Authority) orders.

The latest trends and developments in the class action world

In this issue of the Arent Fox Class Action Quarterly Update, we will be focusing on one recent California Supreme Court decision and two court of appeal decisions impacting the fashion and retail industries.

The Supreme Court ruled on several cases involving class actions in the last few months. A case awaiting certiorari could dramatically change the jurisdictional requirements for plaintiffs in class actions across the country.

During this political season, there’s no doubt that candidates and political groups have been urging their supporters – and complete strangers – to get to the polls by sending an unprecedented amount of text messages.

In November 2020, Montana joined Arizona, New Jersey, and South Dakota in legalizing recreational cannabis use.

Enrolling in such a CMS-sponsored innovation model now has an added benefit: a new Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) safe harbor.

The vast majority of class action litigation in the logistics industry over the past quarter, and indeed the last few years, has been focused on the issue of worker misclassification.

Class actions brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) continue to trend upward in favor of plaintiffs.

Effective January 1, 2021, every private employer in Florida must either use E-verify, a federal web-based program, to verify the identity and work authorization for each new hire.

Earlier this week, the federal government reopened the Paycheck Protection Program – and emphasized a renewed focus on preventing fraud and abuse.

On January 11, 2021, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed into law the Ban on Noncompete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020, passed by the Council of the District of Columbia in December 2020.

The new guidance includes helpful information about additional ‘eligible costs’ for which PPP funds may be used.

It may come as some surprise that embedded within the over 5,500-pages of the recent COVID-19 relief and government funding bill (the Consolidated Appropriations Act) are several (not-insubstantial) changes to copyright and trademark law and procedure.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

The recently-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “CAA”) augments the CARES Act by expanding the existing Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and adding additional stimulus programs in an attempt to lay some traction to the most troubled sectors of the US economy.

On January 6, the US Department of Labor announced a final rule, aimed at clarifying the distinction, under the FLSA, between employees and independent contractors.

In March 2020, photographer Michael Barret Boesen filed suit against the owner of sports news website, LongIslandTennisMagazine.com claiming that the website infringed on his copyrights by embedding an Instagram post featuring his photograph of tennis player Caroline Wozniacki.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a Final Rule in the Federal Register on December 2, 2020, overhauling the regulations governing the federal Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law).