A recent Ninth Circuit decision illustrates how defendants can use evidence on an individualized defense to potentially defeat class certification.
In Van v. LLR, Inc., — F.4th –, 2023 WL 2469909 (9th Cir. Mar. 13, 2023), the defendant allegedly charged sales tax that was not owed by Alaska purchasers on online purchases. While the…
Last week the Second Circuit issued a new decision affirming, with one exception, the approval of a $5.6 billion revised class action settlement in the long-running Visa/Mastercard antitrust litigation. (See my blog post on the Second Circuit’s reversal of a prior settlement in 2016.) The opinion and two concurrences in Fikes Wholesale, Inc. v. HSBC…
While the pandemic may be behind us, many employees in manufacturing workplaces who worked on the front lines during the last few years, may be having difficulty remaining engaged at work and satisfied with their job. Whether it is called the “employee experience,” “employee satisfaction,” or “employee engagement” – this concept generally means the amount…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet) providing guidance on the impact of the end of the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on certain regulatory waivers, legislative changes, and flexibilities that have been established during the PHE. The government previously announced that the PHE will expire at the end of the day on May 11, 2023. CMS is providing this guidance as part of efforts to ease the transition for health care providers, patients, and other industry stakeholders away from pandemic-era policies and practices tied to PHE authorities. CMS emphasizes that many of the waivers and flexibilities are or will become permanent or extended, and others are intended to end on or soon following May 11, 2023.
Below please find a summary of key guidance provided by CMS in the Fact Sheet and in related CMS PHE guidance documents issued recently:…
This week’s post was co-authored with Edward Heath and Kevin Daly. Attorneys Heath and Daly are members of Robinson+Cole’s Manufacturing Industry Team and regularly counsel clients on trade compliance, anti-corruption compliance, and other corporate compliance issues.
On the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has announced a series of additional…
A typical prevailing party contract provision allows the prevailing party in litigation or arbitration to recover their attorney’s fees from the other party. It is an attractive provision when negotiating a construction contract and its existence often weighs on the decision to pursue litigation or arbitration. However, which party “prevails” is not always easy to…
Chinese company ByteDance faces growing concerns from governments and regulators that its user data from its popular short video-sharing app TikTok could be handed over to the Chinese government. The concern is based on China’s national security laws which give its government the power to compel Chinese-based companies to hand over any user data. More than…
On February 24, 2023, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a pair of proposed rules to make permanent certain “telemedicine flexibilities” related to the prescribing of controlled substances via telehealth that have been relied upon by prescribers and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed rules respectively address (1) telemedicine prescribing of certain controlled substances without an in-person medical examination (Tele-Prescribing Rule), and (2) expansion of buprenorphine prescribing via telemedicine encounters (Buprenorphine Rule). Below please find a high-level summary of the Tele-Prescribing Rule. A separate post will follow addressing the Buprenorphine Rule in detail.…
At the end of March, a new OSHA policy will go into effect expanding penalties for instance-by-instance (IBI) citations. The move signals OSHA’s stated commitment to increased enforcement in 2023 and beyond.
IBI citations are those for which OSHA could issue multiple citations, with corresponding penalties, for each instance of alleged non-compliance—separate penalties for each…
Proposed legislation from the New York State Executive Budget for 2024 includes significant changes to the state’s regulatory approach and authority over healthcare transactions. New York is following a trend on the state level regarding concern over the consolidation of the healthcare marketplace and investor-backed practices and how such transactions should be reviewed. Such proposal follows states like California, Oregon, and Washington. The proposal creates a new statutory article to review “material transactions” and has made changes to the certificate of need process for new and existing entities. …
