On February 22, 2023, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the importance of long-standing U.S. Department of Labor salary pay regulations. In Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. et al. v. Michael J. Hewitt, (Case No. 21-984), the Court, in a 6-2-1 opinion, held that high-earning professionals can only be overtime-exempt if they are paid on salary basis. The case involved Michael Hewitt, a former offshore oil rig worker for Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc ...
From television commercials to naming rights for arenas, the topic of cryptocurrency has been hard to avoid. While cryptocurrency may be virtual, its creation or ’mining’ occurs in the real world. This mining poses a credit risk for utility companies, given the incredible amount of electricity required to operate a “mining” facility. For example, crypto mining company Core Scientific, Inc ...
U.S. businesses should take note of the enhanced benefits now available to companies that self-disclose misconduct or otherwise cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under the DOJ Criminal Division’s new Corporate Enforcement Policy.[1] The policy, as revised, governs not only the DOJ’s handling of matters under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),[2] but also the DOJ’s handling of matters under other federal criminal statutes as well ...
Construction continues to be one of the deadliest industries in the United States, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) is heavily targeting construction workplaces. In 2022, OSHA inspected construction workplaces more than any other industry, and OSHA’s focus on construction employers is expected to continue this year ...
If the draft EU regulation on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) titled ‘Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence’ (the “draft EU AI Act”) becomes law, investment funds could have an additional risk which would need consideration, namely, the AI risk ...
Introduction Recent years have seen the UAE making regular updates to its laws in order to guarantee a legal regime that is forward-looking, and consistent with international standards and principles. The leaders of the UAE have been particularly cognizant of the need to have a robust criminal law regime to encourage legitimacy in business, and dissuade any unscrupulous activities that could reflect negatively on the UAE as a determined and fast-developing economy ...
In the latest report published in December 2022 by the Fraud Advisory Panel in conjunction with BDO LLP, 100 UK based charities were surveyed. 69% said that they had experienced financial loss due to fraud. 58% said they believed that the risk of fraud will increase over the next 12 months ...
Employer Checking Service (ECS) checks are a vital step in the right to work check process. Positive Verification Notice (PVN) from the ECS can ensure that an employer maintains a statutory excuse against liability for a civil penalty for illegal working in situations where an employee’s visa expires during the course of their employment. ECS checks are required in situations where an employee is on a time limited visa that expires during employment ...
The non-fungible token (NFT) boom among luxury fashion brands recently made headlines again with a highly publicised trial involving the French fashion brand Hermès and its iconic Birkin handbags in New York. The case involved a prominent figure in the world of NFTs, digital artist Mason Rothschild. NFTs are digital assets that are unique, verified, and securely stored on a blockchain (a type of decentralised public digital database) ...
This article discusses the recent Insight Paper on Web3 (“Paper”) which was published by the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (“DRCF”) on 3 February 2023. It explores the regulatory perspective on the future vision of the internet and what the next steps are for the regulators and interested stakeholders ...
In the past week, there were several important updates made to the Federal Acquisition Regulations by the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ...
In the past week, there were several important updates made to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) by the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ...
In recent years, there has been a surge in new union organizing efforts and tactics to unionize and organize employers around the country. From Amazon workers in Jacksonville to Starbucks employees in 280 stores and counting, unions are imploring workers to turn to unions to help address issues like low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions. Unionizing has become more heavily publicized, even romanticized, in the media and many employees have bought in to the movement ...
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) – which is underpinned by competition law - allows access to third parties to data previously held only by ‘Gatekeepers’, namely, large digital platforms, such as Google or Facebook ...
The Law on Competition (2018) (“Law”) is effective, but it is not fully implemented due to the lack of appointed regulatory authority. Hence only the Law’s merger provisions have been enforced through the regulator under the now repealed Law on Competition 2004, the Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority, under the authority of Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MOIT”) ...
In recent years, there has been a surge in new union organizing efforts and tactics to unionize and organize employers in the state of Florida. From Amazon workers in Jacksonville to farmworkers in Immokalee, unions are imploring Floridian workers to turn to unions to help address issues like low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions. Unionizing has become more heavily publicized, even romanticized, in the media and many employees have bought in to the movement ...
This has been driven by a rise in flexible working arrangements and the so-called 'gig economy' as well as by employers seeking creative ways to reduce costs in a restrained economic environment. With this in mind, the Employment Act 2000 was amended in 2021 to allow the Ministry of Economy and Labour to publish guidance to assist in determining whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor ...
Below, we will seek to explain the basic features of the technology underlying Bitcoin and other crypto tokens and clarify what crypto assets actually are. Blockchain basics Blockchains can be defined as shared, immutable ledger databases that are stored as «blocks» of data. In these blocks of data, assets and transactions in a business network can be tracked. All of the participants in a blockchain will have access to the last and updated «block» of data at all times ...
It's the final countdown to the new Consumer Duty. After what feels like a lifetime of consultations, responses and commentary on the FCAs new Consumer Duty, the final countdown is upon us. With just over 5 months to go before the Consumer Duty comes into force, the big question is.. ...
17 February, 2023, marks the deadline for providers of online platforms to publish information on the average monthly active recipients of their services in the European Union (EU), as required by the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) (DSA). The DSA defines online platforms as providers of hosting services that publicly disseminate users’ information ...
On the 14th of February 2023, the General Department of Taxation (“GDT”) issued Notification 5367 (“Notification 5367”), which provides the 2022 market interest rates for Employee Loans in accordance with Article 15 of Prakas 543 on Tax on Salary and Instruction No. 7015 GDT dated 13 March 2020. The market interest rates for 2022, based on the average of eleven (11) commercial Cambodian banks, are as follows: USD – 8.35% per annum Khmer Riel – 8 ...
In addition to the draft EU regulation on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) titled ‘Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence’ (the “draft EU AI Act”), the EU Commission is also proposing a separate draft directive on non-contractual liability relating to AI titled ‘Proposal for a Directive on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence’ (the “draft AI Li
The refinancing policies for listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges will be revised as a part of the full implementation of the registration-based stock issuance system reform, in addition to the reform of the IPO-related rules ...
When terminating employees and senior executives, including in case of a conflict, the main focus should be on negotiating separation terms and concluding a mutual termination agreement (“MTA”). However, protecting the company’s interests and ensuring that any related processes are legally compliant and unhindered, entails a much wider range of issues and actions that need to be considered prior to and once the agreement with an employee has been reached ...
Below is an excerpt: The new ChatGPT platform, developed and operated by OpenAI LLC, has taken the world by storm. It has an impressive ability to take direction and, in turn, produce prose in almost any context — including those that could be used in a litigation practice. While ChatGPT certainly presents unique opportunities to litigators for streamlining certain areas of practice, they should be cautious of potential pitfalls with handing over the reins ...