Key Points A permitting agency's blanket designation of an entire category of permit decisions as ministerial for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) may be held to be improper if the agency has the ability to modify or deny the permit based on any concern that may be examined under CEQA review. Courts will afford a larger degree of deference to an agency’s designation of a single permit decision as ministerial on a case-by-case basis ...
For the past decade or so, the regulated community and federal courts alike grappled with the outer reaches of the Clean Water Act (CWA) point source permitting program. The core of the program—the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)—is clear enough. Under the NPDES program, discharges from point sources to navigable waters (what qualifies as “navigable waters,” i.e ...
A wastewater facility on the island of Maui, Hawaii, collects sewage, treats it, and pumps the treated water through underground wells. The water then travels half a mile, through groundwater, into the Pacific Ocean. Must the facility possess an EPA permit to do this? In April, the Supreme Court of the United States answered this question with a rather drawn-out "maybe ...
As many will know, Federal Law 18 of 1981 (the Commercial Agency Law; or CAL) regulates agency, distributorship and franchise relationships in the UAE, regardless of the nomenclature used to describe them ...
Coronavirus Digest no. 4 Patents and other intellectual property rights 1. Patents Moderna reveals that it may not hold the patent rights for the vaccine against Covid-19, because it was not the first to file the patents. This came after the US National Institute of Health claimed co-ownership of the rights to this vaccine. Read more here ...
On September 1, the California legislature sent to the Governor amendments to California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law. Once signed by the Governor, AB 2920 will allow retail hazardous waste to be shipped on a “consolidated manifest.” This simplified procedure has been available for specific types of hazardous waste such as used oil, but this is the first time it has applied a broad, general category such as “retail hazardous waste ...
The International Trade Commission (ITC) sits in a nondescript office building about a block farther south of the National Mall than tourists usually care to venture. Patent owners come from around the country to this tree-lined street in Washington, D.C., to seek a powerful remedy to protect their patented products: an exclusion order. An exclusion order directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block infringing imports at the United States border ...
Presidential Decree no. 229/20 of 8 September 2020 has been published and its aim is to reassess the measures imposed by Presidential Decree no. 142/20, considering the evolution of the epidemiological situation. The new decree renews most of the measures already in force, although it also eases some restrictions ...
Key Notes FDA announces flexible approach to enforcement of Nutrition and Supplement Facts labeling requirements for small food manufacturers and manufacturers of packaging for single-ingredient sugars, in part due to the impacts of COVID-19. The FDA adopted final rules updating the Nutrition and Supplement Facts1 labeling requirements (the “Rules”) that are effective on Jan ...
Compounding of Offences under the Malaysian Trademarks Act 2019 and RegulationsSection 136 (2) of the Trademarks Act 2019 (“Act”) grants the Controller with the power to compound offences under the Act. In essence, compounding means payment as a settlement in lieu of prosecution of an offence.Further, section 136 (1) of the Act empowers the Minister to make regulations pertaining to compounding with the approval of the Public Prosecutor ...
A case note by Sim Sook Eng ...
The Retail Industry team would like to provide you with an update on legal developments in the retail and consumer products industries as posted on the Hunton Retail Law Resource blog. If you wish to receive email alerts when new posts are published, please visit our blog and enter your email address in the subscribe field ...
On October 01, 2020, Law No. 17 ...
The new legal framework applicable to the Angolan oil sector was approved by Presidential Decree 271/20 of 20 October (the "Decree"). The Decree makes a substantial change to the rules on local Angolan content applicable in the sector and it naturally repeals Order 127/03 of 25 November.The new legal framework now extends to service providers and suppliers of goods and services to the oil sector ("Providers") and not only which oil companies (i.e ...
Key Points The FDA will exercise enforcement discretion when Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels (a) exclude allulose from Total Sugars and Added Sugars declarations, and (b) use as low as 0.4 kcal/g for allulose calorie count; but allulose must be included as a Total Carbohydrate. Allulose is a basic form of carbohydrate that is naturally occurring in a variety of sweet foods, such as raisins, maple syrup, and brown sugar ...
Most employers are familiar with the role of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in enforcing standards to ensure that the working men and women in the United States have a safe and healthy workplace. The current COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges to OSHA for reviewing how employers are protecting their employees ...
Michigan has joined the majority of jurisdictions in holding that a general liability policy may provide coverage for claims for property damage allegedly caused by the defective work of a subcontractor ...
For most of the last three decades, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama have waged a multifront water war, filing cases in federal courts across the United States. This war, and these cases, turn on apportionment of two river basins: the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin and the Alabama-Coosa- Tallapoosa (ACT) River Basin. At the heart of this legal tug of war lie competing uses—and visions—for the basins ...
This alert provides links to the latest insights and commentary on key energy and environmental issues from the Hunton Andrews Kurth team. Links to our most recent posts on the Nickel Report Blog for this month are below. Please subscribe to receive alerts when new posts are published by visiting our blog and entering your email address in the subscribe field or by following us on Twitter. For current Covid-19 related news updates please read more here ...
In the age of COVID-19, demand for surface wipes, sprays and similar products is at record levels. Retail stores have struggled to keep supplies stocked and shelves may once again be emptied when the winter flu season arrives. If schools and businesses reopen concurrently, the prospects of securing these products becomes even bleaker, which may re-fuel consumer stockpiling ...
The Retail Industry team would like to provide you with an update on legal developments in the retail and consumer products industries as posted on the Hunton Retail Law Resource blog. If you wish to receive email alerts when new posts are published, please visit our blog and enter your email address in the subscribe field ...
Introduction The rapid spread of COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in demand for medical devices (MDs) and personal protective equipment (PPE), masks for social use (textile articles) and other products destined to prevent the spread of the disease. As a result, it became clear that there was insufficient supply to meet existing needs during the state of emergency and the subsequent period ...
Shoosmiths’ digital media expert and Partner, Sherif Malak, examined the multitude of predicted developments in retail, and the legal challenges that accompany them, in an article published in the Lawyer. Here we reiterate Sherif’s published thoughts on likely trends. Introduction The COVID-19 crisis has brought a renewed focus to the role of retail technology and models, as the industry seeks to reimagine the retail landscape over the next year and beyond ...
