In a decision issued in July 2021, the Dubai Court of Appeal held that an arbitration clause should be construed narrowly, and emphasized that everything that may be waived or prevents its [i.e., the arbitration clause’s] application must be sought. This judgment, which rejected a challenge to the jurisdiction of the Dubai Courts based on the existence of a purported arbitration agreement, was discussed in our inBrief dated 12 September 2021 ...
On Oct. 29, 2021, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) released its final rule regarding “dual jobs” for tipped employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The final rule, which becomes effective on Dec. 28, 2021, withdraws a prior final rule from 2020 regarding dual jobs and amends regulations to distinguish between tipped occupations and non-tipped occupations ...
Questions abound as to whether HIPAA comes into play when COVID-19 vaccination information is provided to employers. Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued clarifying guidance on the applicability of the HIPAA Privacy Rule in the context of COVID-19 vaccination information provided to employers ...
Key Points Mandatory vaccination programs may be permissible at federal level without Title VII religious exemption. The equivalent state religious exemption is still viable in California. Social, political, or personal preference objections about the possible effects of the COVID-19 vaccine do not qualify as “religious beliefs” under the Title VII religious exemption. DOES V. MILLS On October 29, 2021, in a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court in Does v ...
Key Points In addition to five key victories for housing advocates discussed in an earlier alert, the California Senate passed many additional housing bills not included in their “Building Opportunities for All” Housing Package. Bills from the Housing Package that would have approved an affordable housing bond (SB 5), residential housing on certain commercial sites (SB 6), and local housing data reporting requirements (SB 477) all failed to win approval ...
In her speech to the Principles for Responsible Investment and the London Stock Exchange Group, SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee made it clear that a climate change disclosure proposal is no longer a question of if, but when and provided some hints about what the proposal will look like. After remarking that “[c]limate change is . . ...
Last week, in the culmination of a process that began in 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a Final Rule to update the Safeguards Rule promulgated under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ...
This initiative is a significant departure from the current position where an application for the appointment of a 'light touch' provisional liquidator, for the purpose of restructuring, must be made as part of the winding up process. Under the changes, a restructuring officer can be appointed by a company acting by its directors without a resolution of its members or an express power in its articles of association ...
In IT service contracts, it is common to find non-liability clauses protecting companies that provide software and professional IT system implementation or integration services. Issue In Dispute Is such a contractual non-liability clause valid under Quebec civil law where a fundamental obligation is breached? In 6362222 Canada inc. v. Prelco inc ...
The use of drones in the world is increasing very rapidly and plays an important role in optimizing processes across a various range of industries: agriculture, delivery services, infrastructure, mapping, military and so on. These machines are very efficient, effective, and safe tools for quality, safety and savings ...
Due to massive inspections and new sanitary requirements, ALRUD’s experts from Labour and Employment practice have prepared this material for HR directors, compliance officers and heads of legal departments, on the preparation of the company, for inspection of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor): Checklist: Preparing the company for inspection of Rospotrebnadzor in Russia ...
Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends,The increased reliance on cloud computing has recently seen regulatory responses from the authorities. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission on 15 October 2021 released an Advisory Notice on the upcoming licensing of cloud service providers from 1 January 2022, to address the regulatory loopholes brought about by the rise of cloud services and particularly the integrity of data stored on cloud ...
On 27 August 2021, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”), a group of private-market participants convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2014 to lead the LIBOR transition in the United States, issued FAQs and Best Practice Recommendations on, among other things, the use of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) and its term rates (“Term SOFR”), following the ARRC’s formal recommendatio
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) released a technical whitepaper on CBDC on 4th October 2021 “e-HKD: A technical perspective” (“Whitepaper”). The HKMA announced its “Fintech 2025” strategy in June this year, one part of which is to strengthen research work into CBDC with a view to future-proofing Hong Kong in terms of CBDC readiness ...
The European Commission adopted a new set of Standard Contractual Clauses (“New SCCs”), effective 27 June 2021, for the transfer of personal data to non-EU regions. From 27 September 2021 onwards, data exporters and data importers can only conclude contracts which incorporate the New SCCs for the transfer of personal data out of the European Union ...
