In early April, the United States approved the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) authorizing $349 billion in a small business lending program called the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). Depleted within days by the overwhelming response from businesses across the country, Congress authorized an additional $310 billion for this program on April 23. With government money, however, comes government oversight ...
State and local governments throughout the nation are struggling to address the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, enacted by Congress on March 28, 2020 appears to provide insufficient funding, and many state and local governments need more federal financial assistance ...
On May 14, 2020, San Francisco Mayor London Breed issued a second extension of the City’s commercial eviction moratorium and rent deferral program for small businesses with less than $25 Million in 2019 gross receipts. The extension grants rent relief for rent due and payable through June 16, 2020. On April 15, 2020, Mayor Breed previously extended the original order through May 17, 2020 ...
On May 18, 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-91 (“Order”) into effect, which details the requirements on employers reopening for business in Michigan. The Order reaffirms and builds upon previous directives for employers permitted to reopen business ...
Despite the restrictions on activity affecting Hong Kong since the beginning of the year, there have been several enforcement cases reported which can provide some useful lessons or reminders for intermediaries. Approvals involve due diligence A requirement for approval for a transaction indicates that the transaction is unusual or involves material risk ...
In a recent enforcement action, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a public reprimand and a HK$19.6 million fine to a licensed corporation (LC) for a range of breaches and internal control shortcomings, including failures relating to: 1. AML 2. Authorisation for transactions 3. Record keeping 4. Handling of client complaints 5. Telephone recording 6. Margin lending 7 ...
On 7 May 2020, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) jointly issued the Regulations on Funds of Securities and Futures Investment by Foreign Institutional Investors (PBOC & SAFE Announcement [2020] No. 2, the New Regulations available here in Chinese), and the Policy Q&A No.1 clarifying certain details in the New Regulations (available here in Chinese). The official implementation date for the New Regulations is 6 June 2020 ...
This is a briefing on the following issuances as of May 16, 2020 in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic: No Mandatory Testing of Returning Workers What is MECQ? New Normal? Business Allowed to Operate During MECQ Other Key Things to Remember in a MECQ Area Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Resumes On-site Operations on May 25, 2 The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) ha
This briefing takes a deeper dive into the labor and employment aspect of COVID-19 issuances. Some of the guidelines here are covered in our The Return-to-Work-Checklist for Philippine Companies. A. Operating establishments have been directed to comply with public health standards prescribed by the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) 1. The DTI issued DTI Memorandum Circular No ...
This seventh edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, sees a continuation of the trend we identified last week: shutdown challenges, workers' compensation claims, and wrongful death lawsuits have dominated the past week’s news cycle. We expect these latter two types of cases, which we consider more broadly as COVID-19 exposure cases, to pick up significantly as the country reopens over the next several weeks ...
Special Report "COVID-19 in Central America" on special measures taken in each country of our region prepared by the multidisciplinary team of Consortium Legal. The information contained in this publication is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information is constantly updated and is subject to change ...
On May 11, 2020, the California Department of Public Health ("CDPH") issued an All Facilities Letter (AFL 20-52) requiring skilled nursing facilities ("SNF") to develop and implement a facility specific COVID-19 mitigation plan (the "Plan") with six different, complicated elements. The CDPH requirement is in addition to any local requirements for COVID-19 planning and may or may not track the requirements already in place in some local jurisdictions ...
The COVID-19 pandemic hit employers hard and fast, causing employers to deal with loss of revenue, tough decisions in regard to workforce and pay issues, and new laws and other guidelines that had to be analyzed and implemented quickly, with little time for planning or preparation ...
The state of emergency in the Czech Republic was extended until May 17, 2020. What does this mean? At its meeting held on 28 April 2020, the Chamber of Deputies decided to extend the state of emergency until 17 May 2020. By Resolution No. 194 (published in the Collection of Laws under No ...
With much fanfare, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has rolled out a series of headlines detailing its enforcement efforts in the wake of COVID-19. At the end of March, the government announced a kickback case against a marketer who allegedly steered patients towards COVID-19 and genetic cancer testing ...
All banks rely upon their critical vendors, including law firms that handle sensitive, complicated, and high-risk matters. And yet vendor oversight of law firms has been awkward for all parties involved – fitting square pegs into round holes. We believe opportunities exist to ameliorate this awkwardness and enhance law firm oversight ...
If there is anything to be learned from the FAA’s distribution of the $10 billion in funds allocated to airports in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, it is that allocating billions of dollars in just a few weeks is more difficult than it sounds. On March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into law as Public Law No. 116-136 ...
On 8 April 2020, the Government announced a HK$137 billion package of anti-epidemic measures to be rolled out, including the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) with a proposed budget of HK$81 billion. The ESS aims to provide financial subsidies to employers in two tranches against their undertaking to spend all the wage subsidies on paying wages to their employees and keep them in employment during the COVID-19 epidemic ...
On May 13, 2020, the Small Business Administration ("SBA") issued FAQ # 46 dealing with its plan to review certain PPP loans (in response to COVID-19) to determine if the “necessity” certification was made in good faith by the borrower at the time of application ...
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the social partners have decided to suspend the current social election procedure and postpone the continuation of this procedure until after the summer. On 24 March 2020 the National Labour Council (NLC) issued an opinion that highlighted the implications of this postponement for companies. This NLC opinion has been transposed into a law which was voted in Parliament on 23 April 2020. This article outlines the most important consequences for employers ...
The Act to Mitigate the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Civil, Insolvency and Criminal Procedure Law (“COVID-19 Act”) provides for the option of online general meetings (“virtual general meetings”) for AGs [stock corporations], which numerous small and large stock corporations, including DAX-listed corporations, are already frequently using ...
This sixth edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19 litigation, sees us reporting on many of the same types of cases. Consumers continue to seek refunds for goods and services that have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with colleges and universities being a particular target. Consumers also have targeted retailers for alleged price-gouging behavior ...
