With the new year comes the 1 January 2024 effective date of the Corporate Transparency Act, which will require approximately 32.6 million US entities to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). On 28 September 2023, FinCEN published proposed regulations modifying the BOI Reporting Requirements, which are found in the CTA’s implementing regulations.
On 20 October 2023, the IRS issued a press release announcing a new initiative to send compliance alerts to roughly 150 US subsidiaries of large foreign corporations that distribute goods in the United States to challenge transfer pricing practices that it alleges resulted in improper losses and exceedingly low margins year after year. Further, in 2024 the IRS will expand the Large Corporate Compliance program to include audits of an additional 60 corporate taxpayers selected using artificial intelligence and input from subject matter experts.
Employee handbooks have recently come to the forefront of employers’ key priorities. Why? The NLRB’s recent decision in Stericycle adopted a retroactive “employee friendly” standard for workplace rules, including those often included in handbooks. In addition, the new year often rings in new laws requiring changes to workplace policies likely to be included in handbooks. And the US Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in higher education has led employers to take a closer look at their inclusion, diversity and equity related policies and statements in employee handbooks.
In a notable turn of events, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would abandon its in-house post-consummation challenge of the 2018 acquisition by Axon Enterprise, Inc. of VieVu, LLC. The FTC’s decision follows a recent adverse ruling from the Supreme Court, which held that parties are entitled to assert constitutional challenges against the FTC before being required to participate in its administrative proceedings. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the FTC is likely to confront more challenges when pursuing enforcement actions—including, in particular, merger challenges—through its in-house administrative proceedings.
In first-of-its-kind legislation, under SB 54, California will require venture capital companies to collect and report diversity data from portfolio company founders as soon as 1 March 2025. The new Fair Investment Practices by Investment Advisers law intends to increase transparency regarding the diversity of founding teams receiving venture funds from covered entities in California.
On 8 November 2023, join thought leaders from government, the judiciary, academia, and private practice for this timely gathering on the Georgetown Law campus in Washington, DC. Laws and policy surrounding the protection of trade secrets are changing as technology evolves. In this first-of-its-kind event at Georgetown, intellectual property experts will discuss the following topics: How generative AI is transforming the trade secret landscape, the role of non-competes, protecting against leaks of confidential information, the impact of China’s emerging trade secret protection landscape on global commerce, and the future of trade secrets in the US and abroad.
On 8 October 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law amending the California Consumer Privacy Act. AB 947 classifies citizenship and immigration status as “sensitive personal information” subject to special protections under the CCPA, while AB 1194 strengthens reproductive privacy rights. Both bills carried the unanimous endorsement of the California Privacy Protection Agency. Details for each bill are described below followed by actionable guidance businesses can take to prepare now before these laws go into effect on 1 January 2024.
On 24 May 2023, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (DPA), the authority responsible for enforcing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in Belgium, issued a major decision (“Decision”) concerning information exchanges pursuant to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The Decision declares the information reporting required of the Belgian tax authority and Belgian financial institutions under FATCA to be unlawful because it violates the privacy rights and protections afforded to Belgian residents under the GDPR, as well as the rights to a private life and protections of personal information guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
In United States v. Payward Ventures, Inc., the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sought enforcement of a John Doe summons served upon Payward Ventures and its subsidiaries (referred to collectively as “Kraken”), which the court had previously preliminarily approved. Following Kraken’s refusal to comply with the summons, the IRS sought to enforce the summons. The dispute between Kraken and the IRS focused on whether the information sought by the IRS was relevant and imposed an undue burden of compliance upon Kraken.
If you are a data broker or a business that relies on data brokers for targeted advertising, you should be aware that the California Data Broker Law will be significantly changed under the California Delete Act, which was signed into law by California Governor Newsom on 10 October 2023. Under the act, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) is required to set up, by 1 January 2026, an accessible deletion mechanism where consumers can request deletion via the CPPA that all data brokers then have to honor.