by Elliot Greenfield, Matthew E. Kaplan, Maeve O’Connor, Benjamin R. Pedersen, Jonathan R. Tuttle, Anna Moody, Brandon Fetzer, and Mark D. Flinn Top left to right: Elliot Greenfield, Matthew E. Kaplan, Maeve O’Connor, and Benjamin R. Pedersen. Bottom left to right: Jonathan R. Tuttle, Anna Moody, Brandon Fetzer, and Mark D. Flinn. (Photos courtesy of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP). On April 12, 2024, in a highly anticipated decision, the Supreme Court held in Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P.[1] that pure omi ..read more

by Lisa Sotto, Marshall Mattera, and Amanda Pervine Lisa Sotto and Marshall Mattera (photos courtesy of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP) Update: On April 4, 2024, Governor Andy Beshear signed H.B. 15 into law, making Kentucky the 16th state to enact a comprehensive data privacy law. On March 27, 2024, the Kentucky legislature passed a comprehensive data privacy bill (“H.B. 15”), which was delivered to the Governor for signature.  If H.B. 15 is enacted, Kentucky will join the growing list of states with comprehensive data privacy laws.   Applicability H.B. 15 applies to persons t ..read more

by John F. Savarese, Wayne M. Carlin, and David B. Anders From left to right: John F. Savarese, Wayne M. Carlin, and David B. Anders (photos courtesy of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz). Last week, a jury in San Francisco returned a verdict in SEC v. Panuwat, finding that a corporate executive engaged in insider trading when he learned about an impending acquisition of his employer and then traded in the securities of an unrelated company in the same industry. The case has widely been described as “novel” but, in bringing this case, the SEC did not seek to extend existing law. P ..read more

by Michael Atleson Federal Trade Commission In the 2014 movie Ex Machina, a robot manipulates someone into freeing it from its confines, resulting in the person being confined instead. The robot was designed to manipulate that person’s emotions, and, oops, that’s what it did. While the scenario is pure speculative fiction, companies are always looking for new ways – such as the use of generative AI tools – to better persuade people and change their behavior. When that conduct is commercial in nature, we’re in FTC territory, a canny valley where businesses should know to avoid practices ..read more

by Dr. Martin Braun, Anne Vallery, and Itsiq Benizri From left to right: Dr. Martin Braun, Anne Vallery and Itsiq Benizri. (Photos courtesy of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP). Article 5 of the AI Act essentially prohibits AI practices that materially distort peoples’ behavior or that raise serious concerns in democratic societies. As explained in our previous blog post, this is part of the overall risk-based approach taken by the AI Act, which means that different requirements apply in accordance with the level of risk. In total, there are four levels of risk: unacceptable, in whi ..read more

The NYU School of Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) is delighted to announce that Stephanie Avakian, a highly-experienced white collar defense attorney and former director of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has joined PCCE’s Board of Advisors. Photo courtesy of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP As the former Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Stephanie Avakian is well positioned to help clients address the enforcement, governance, and compliance issues presented by today’s markets. With decades of experience in governm ..read more

by Staff at the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Technology The FTC’s Tech Summit on AI[1] highlighted three panels that reflect different layers of the AI tech stack – hardware and infrastructure, data and models, and front-end user applications. Here, we publish the first in a three-part series of “Quote Books” summarizing each of the three panels. This first quote book is focused on hardware and infrastructure, including semiconductor chips and cloud computing.   The voices of everyday Americans can sometimes be lost in discussions involving dense technical, policy, or legal ..read more

by Michael A. Asaro, James Joseph Benjamin Jr., Ezra Zahabi, and Joe Hewton From left to right: Michael A. Asaro, James Joseph Benjamin Jr., Ezra Zahabi, and Joe Hewton. (Photos courtesy of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP). Last month, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it is considering new procedures under which it would publicly identify firms that are under investigation as soon as the investigation has been opened.[1] The consultation period closes on April 30, 2024. (See our recent client alert here). The proposed new approach—which, if ..read more

by Jamillia Ferris, Vinita Kailasanath, Christine Lyon, Jan Rybnicek, and David Sewell Left to right: Jamillia Ferris, Vinita Kailasanath, Christine Lyon, Jan Rybnicek, and David Sewell (photos courtesy of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP) Freshfields recently hosted a U.S. Fintech Hot Topics Webinar to highlight on-the-ground insights from our Antitrust and Competition, Data Privacy and Security, Financial Services Regulatory, and Transactional teams. The fintech sector has recently seen a return to explosive growth and is expected to continue growing rapidly notwithstanding regulatory an ..read more

by Stephen M. Kohn, Alyce Petit, Kate Reeves, and Geoff Schweller Left to Right: Stephen M. Kohn, Alyce Petit, Kate Reeves and Geoff Schweller (photos courtesy of authors) Corporate whistleblowers who report through internal compliance channels face higher rates of retaliation than those who report externally to the government, according to research published in a working paper on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). An analysis of 8-years worth of Dodd-Frank Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) whistleblower retaliation cases found that over 90% of the cases involved internal whistleblow ..read more