The authorities have been quick to publish public procurement law guidance for the Covid-19 crisis. In this article we argue that Norwegian authorities could have provided even more clear guidance on what is to be considered at the crossroad between public procurement law and the protection of life and health. The exceptional Covid-19 crisis has given contracting authorities new and unforeseen challenges ...
On March 17, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order suspending some of the notice requirements under the California WARN Act ("Cal-WARN"), the state counterpart to the Federal WARN Act. The order came in response to the sudden onslaught of workplace closings across California due to COVID-19. Under the Cal-WARN, employers with 75 or more employees must give 60-days' written notice to employees and unions before layoffs occur ...
On March 17, 2020, Governor Newson issued Executive Order N-29-20 ("Executive Order") in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This order supersedes Executive Order N-25-20, which was issued on March 12, and expressly waives all requirements in the Brown Act and Bagley-Keene Act that require a physical presence of Board members, staff or the public as a condition of holding and participating in a local agency governing body or state commission public meeting ...
Updated: April 4, 2020 On March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Director of the California Department of Public Health ordered all Californians to stay home “except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors ...
UPDATE - On March 20 in the evening, Governor Wolf issued a revised list classifying businesses as life-sustaining and non-life-sustaining. The press release, list and frequently asked questions can be found here. In addition, Governor Wolf has extended the timeframe for enforcement of the order. The Pennsylvania General Assembly recently completed the Appropriations hearings related to the FY 2020-2021 budget. The plans to resume the legislative session were altered due to COVID-19 ...
Recently, both INAPI and TDPI implemented temporary measures in terms of deadlines, procedures and legal requirements for the submission of original documents, with the aim to facilitate to applicants and users of the system to comply with legal obligations, taking into account both the difficulties in meeting these obligations and the purpose of safeguarding people's health ...
On March 18, 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued Executive Order 2020-15 which permits all public bodies in the State of Michigan, with the exception of the State Legislature, to meet during the COVID-19 state of emergency (“COVID-19 Emergency”) by electronic means until April 15, 2020 ...
In the advent of DNA testing, companies such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe have made it easy and convenient to submit DNA samples for testing from your own home. This type of genetic—also known as genomic—testing has been applied to a variety of uses, including paternity determinations and the discovery of genetic ancestors and relatives ...
As the impact of the coronavirus continues to grow and develop, government watchdogs are on high alert for fraud and scams that may arise. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblower Center sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr asking him to establish a nationwide task force to monitor and investigate fraud under the False Claims Act (FCA) ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced during a March 19, 2020 teleconference for physicians and teaching hospitals that it does not have the authority to postpone the statutory timeline for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Sunshine Act) ...
Every state has an Open Meeting Law, or Sunshine Law requiring public bodies to take official action and conduct deliberations in open meetings. Open meetings are defined as an in-person meeting open to the public with a certain number of legislators or board members physically present to establish a quorum and participate in the meeting ...
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced in a press conference on March 17, 2020 that all elective surgeries would be postponed in the State of Ohio effective at 5:00 p.m. on March 18, 2020 until further notice. The Order, issued by Director of the Ohio Department of Health Amy Acton, is available here: (https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/OHOOD/2020/03/17/file_attachments/1403950/Director%27s%20Order%20non-essential%20surgery%203-17-2020.pdf) ...
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday on Twitter that the U.S. will extend the tax filing deadline of April 15, 2020 for 2019 individual and business tax returns until July 15, 2020. Earlier this week, the Internal Revenue Service announced that the payment deadline for any 2019 individual income tax due, including 2020 first quarter estimated payments due April 15, 2020, was deferred until July 15, 2020 ...
On March 18, 2020, the State Medical Board of Ohio (“Board”) held a special meeting, which resulted in the temporary suspension of certain regulatory enforcement activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemedicine Effective immediately, the Board will suspend enforcement of any regulations requiring in-person visits between providers and patients ...
We invite you to read our news alert about the State of Catastrophe declared by the Chilean government and the economic measures announced today by the country's Ministry of Finance to face the covid-19 pandemic. A) State of Catastrophe is declared in Chile: Below, please find a summary of the main consequences of the “State of Catastrophe” decreed by H.E. the President of the Republic of Chile: I. Background. On 18 March 2020, H.E ...
In response to the severe public health emergency and the economically-damaging nationwide confinement measures triggered by the Covid-19 (“Covid-19”) outbreak in Italy, on 17 March 2020 the Italian government has adopted Law Decree #CuraItalia1 (the “Decree #CuraItalia”) ...
According to press reports, most Germans are willing to accept limitations on the extent of the protection of their personal data vis-à-vis public authorities and agencies in order to tackle the coronavirus crisis. However, that alone is not an adequate justification for measures that employers may take during a coronavirus pandemic to prevent an outbreak in their company ...
On March 4, 2020, Governor Newsom declared a State of Emergency in the State of California as a result of the threat of COVID-19 ...
As the United States and countries all over the world continue to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, the race is on for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines. There is currently no FDA-approved therapy or vaccine for Covid-19. Given the profound urgency, life sciences companies and other researchers are prioritizing research and development of potential therapies and vaccines ...
A. SHORT-TIME WORK 1. WHAT IS THE LEGAL POSITION? According to the "Act on the temporary crisis-related improvement of the regulations for short-time work compensation" ("Gesetz zur vorüberristeten krisenbedingten Verbesserung der Regelungen für das Kurzarbeitgeld") (see preliminary version of BT publication 19/17893), a company can order short-time work due to the worldwide cases of illness caused by the coronavirus and thus reduce working hours ...
With the Corona crisis, countries such as Germany, France and the Czech Republic have already announced bans on exports of protective gear to avoid shortages at their countries. But is this in conformity with the principle of free movement of goods as provided for in articles 34-36 TFEU? This principle is one of the cornerstones of the European Union's internal market which implies that national barriers to the free movement of goods within the EU need to be removed ...
In this challenging period of the Coronavirus outbreak, your organisation might currently be taking strong internal measures to protect its employees while ensuring work continuity. Such measures could have data protection implications and therefore you might be wondering how to take them in accordance with the GDPR. We have answered the most important GDPR questions below ...
Belgium is a complex country and many authorities have jurisdiction The Federal government is in charge of emergency planning. It can activate a federal stage emergency planning in which case the Federal Minister of the Interior has exceptional authority and can coordinate the emergency activities. As announced at a press conference on Thursday 12 March 2020, at about 10 pm, this federal stage has been activated ...
