On November 8, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a new electronic monitoring law (S2628) requiring New York businesses that monitor or intercept employees’ e-mails, telephone calls, or internet usage to notify employees in writing of these practices. The new law amends the state’s civil rights law and takes effect on May
Regulatory
Task Force Releases Guidance on New COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Federal Contractors
On September 24, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force released guidance on workplace safety protocols for federal contractors and subcontractors related to COVID-19 (“the Guidance”). The Guidance was issued pursuant to President Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors.
As expected, the Guidance covers a broad range of contract
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Regulating lobbying in Ireland
By Marie Daly on
Lobbying. The descriptor we use for seeking to influence key decision makers. It’s been a part of commercial life for centuries and many societal structures were and are built on it such as the medieval guilds, modern trade associations, and a myriad of other bodies who exist to influence, persuade and argue. Law firms too. …
Congress Repeals the OCC’s True Lender Rule
By Matthew Verdin on
On June 30, President Biden signed into law a joint resolution to repeal the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) so-called true lender rule. The rule was repealed under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to repeal new federal regulations by passing a joint resolution of disapproval that must be later signed by the president. Federal regulations repealed under the CRA are treated as if they had never gone into effect.…
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The End of CSP and PRC Requirements? — GSA’s TDR Pilot Program Faces Further Internal Criticism
By Andrew Guy, Sarah Shepson & Michael Wagner on
As GSA Multiple Award Schedule contractors know all too well, Schedule contracting involves a complex web of customer-tracking, reporting, and price-adjustment requirements. Those of us who navigate these often byzantine rules understand why many in the industry have called for the adoption of an alternative approach to verifying price reasonableness.
For the last several years, GSA has been piloting just such an alternative: the Transactional Data Reporting (“TDR”) program, through which the government collects transaction-level data on products and services purchased through the Schedule to make data-driven decisions that save taxpayer dollars. GSA has been running a TDR pilot program for several years to test the potential for a new regulatory regime, though the program sometimes has been the source of criticism and controversy. Now that controversy has heightened further: GSA’s Office of Inspector General published an audit report on June 24, 2021 that is sharply critical of the program, only to see GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (“FAS”) Commissioner publicly reject the report’s conclusions and defend TDR’s effectiveness.…
Continue Reading The End of CSP and PRC Requirements? — GSA’s TDR Pilot Program Faces Further Internal Criticism
Rescissions of Policy Statements Illustrate Continued About-Face at CFPB
By B. Graves Lee & Lucille Bartholomew on
On March 31, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) rescinded a range of policy statements issued under the leadership of former Director Kathleen L. Kraninger. These rescissions concerned one policy statement governing communications between institutions subject to CFPB supervision and their examiners, and seven policy statements issued during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide regulatory
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OCC to Reconsider June 2020 Community Reinvestment Act Final Rule
By Randy Benjenk & Andrew Ruben on
Posted in Compliance Issues, Regulatory
On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) announced that it will reconsider its June 5, 2020 final rule (“final rule”) overhauling its regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (the “CRA”). The final rule, which applies only to national banks, federal savings associations, and insured federal branches (“OCC-regulated banks”),
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Treasury Secretary Yellen to Appoint Acting Comptroller of the Currency
By Andrew Ruben on
Posted in Regulatory
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UK National Security & Investment Law is Approved by Parliament
The NS&I Law will introduce mandatory notification and pre-clearance requirements for transactions in 17 ‘core’ sectors. This long-awaited piece of legislation, has passed through Parliament substantially un-amended, except that the investment threshold for mandatory notification has been raised from the acquisition of a 15 per cent. to 25 per cent. interest in shares or voting rights in an acquisition target. The UK Government retains extensive discretion to “call-in” investments for review, both within and outside the 17 ‘core’ sectors, including (i) acquisitions of control of assets and (ii) equity investments below the 25% threshold where “material influence” is acquired, if it reasonably suspects that a transaction gives rise to national security risks.
During this period, the UK government has continued to use its existing powers to investigate transactions on national security grounds under the public interest invention regime established under the Enterprise Act 2002. Of particular interest in this regard was the decision, on 19 April 2021, by the Secretary of State for the Department for Culture Media & Sport to issue a public interest intervention notice in respect of the proposed acquisition of the UK semi-conductor company ARM Limited by Nvidia Corporation.
Scrutiny of Foreign Investment
The adoption of the NS&I Law brings the UK in line with many other countries that have enhanced their powers to scrutinise foreign investment during the past two years and particularly over the last year, influenced by COVID-19 and other global trade and supply concerns. The UK’s Five-Eyes partners all have well-established regimes for the review of foreign investment – several of which have been recently updated. The European Union began cooperating in the review of foreign direct investment (“FDI”) in October 2020 under the EU FDI Regulation and via individual Member State laws, newly adopted or recently expanded.
What is significant about the UK’s NS&I Law is that is introduces mandatory notification obligations for investments into the UK where none have existed before – contrasting with the UK’s merger control regime under which filing is voluntary and associated public interest intervention laws (each under the Enterprise Act 2002) under which the UK Government discretion to intervene in transactions where certain defined public interest considerations are raised.
Under the NS&I Law, transactions subject to mandatory filing obligations and completed without clearance will be deemed void, ushering in a suspensory review regime in the UK for qualifying transactions for the first time. This change in approach has led to concern from the UK’s business and investment and innovation communities, as well as politicians, that the NS&I law will act to deter investment in the UK. There is concern, in particular, that uncertainty for investors is presented by the absence of a definition “national security”, potentially allowing the UK Government considerable discretion in the application of the new NS&I regime.…
Continue Reading UK National Security & Investment Law is Approved by Parliament
UK National Security & Investment Law is Approved by Parliament
The NS&I Law will introduce mandatory notification and pre-clearance requirements for transactions in 17 ‘core’ sectors. This long-awaited piece of legislation, has passed through Parliament substantially un-amended, except that the investment threshold for mandatory notification has been raised from the acquisition of a 15 per cent. to 25 per cent. interest in shares or voting rights in an acquisition target. The UK Government retains extensive discretion to “call-in” investments for review, both within and outside the 17 ‘core’ sectors, including (i) acquisitions of control of assets and (ii) equity investments below the 25% threshold where “material influence” is acquired, if it reasonably suspects that a transaction gives rise to national security risks.
During this period, the UK government has continued to use its existing powers to investigate transactions on national security grounds under the public interest invention regime established under the Enterprise Act 2002. Of particular interest in this regard was the decision, on 19 April 2021, by the Secretary of State for the Department for Culture Media & Sport to issue a public interest intervention notice in respect of the proposed acquisition of the UK semi-conductor company ARM Limited by Nvidia Corporation.
Scrutiny of Foreign Investment
The adoption of the NS&I Law brings the UK in line with many other countries that have enhanced their powers to scrutinise foreign investment during the past two years and particularly over the last year, influenced by COVID-19 and other global trade and supply concerns. The UK’s Five-Eyes partners all have well-established regimes for the review of foreign investment – several of which have been recently updated. The European Union began cooperating in the review of foreign direct investment (“FDI”) in October 2020 under the EU FDI Regulation and via individual Member State laws, newly adopted or recently expanded.
What is significant about the UK’s NS&I Law is that is introduces mandatory notification obligations for investments into the UK where none have existed before – contrasting with the UK’s merger control regime under which filing is voluntary and associated public interest intervention laws (each under the Enterprise Act 2002) under which the UK Government discretion to intervene in transactions where certain defined public interest considerations are raised.
Under the NS&I Law, transactions subject to mandatory filing obligations and completed without clearance will be deemed void, ushering in a suspensory review regime in the UK for qualifying transactions for the first time. This change in approach has led to concern from the UK’s business and investment and innovation communities, as well as politicians, that the NS&I law will act to deter investment in the UK. There is concern, in particular, that uncertainty for investors is presented by the absence of a definition “national security”, potentially allowing the UK Government considerable discretion in the application of the new NS&I regime.…
Continue Reading UK National Security & Investment Law is Approved by Parliament