Highest French Administrative Court Freezes Ban on CBD Flowers and Leaves

The regulation of CBD/Hemp products has been a very hot topic in France these past months since the “Kanavape” ruling. In Kanavape, the CJEU asked France to review its very strict CBD regulations, more specifically its Regulation (arrêté) of 22 August 1990 (CJEU, 19 November 2020, C-663/18) in light of the free movement of goods principle. In the European Union, France has one of the toughest laws against cannabis but the highest rate of cannabis use.

After the … Read the rest

A Letter From A Concerned NCL Crew Member on the Norwegian Sky in Dry Dock in Brest, France

From time to time, I receive letters and emails from crew members on cruise ships around the world. I typically don’t publish them. But after communicating back and forth with this ship employee, I promised to bring awareness to her situation and that of other employees on the ship. The crew member sent me photos of typical plates of food served to crew members in quarantine. But she was afraid to take a photo of her interior cabin out of … Read the rest

FTC Releases New Health Breach Notification Rule Guidance, Targets Health Apps and Connected Devices

In a new post on the Covington Digital Health blog, our colleagues discuss recently announced Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) guidance meant to help companies determine their obligations under the Health Breach Notification Rule (the “Rule”).  The guidance follows the FTC’s September 2021 Policy Statement, which expanded the Rule’s application to the developers of health apps, connected devices, and similar products, and similarly emphasize the FTC’s continued scrutiny of health technology.  The post walks through the new guidance documents, which, notably, … Read the rest

Fintech and Financial Privacy: Regulatory Developments on the Use of Financial Data

So you’re a fintech startup, buying a fintech company, or expanding the technical capabilities of your financial business. Or you’re a tech company that is getting into the payments space. Where do you start when it comes to figuring out what consumer protection laws apply to you? You should be aware that, for the past several years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been actively enforcing consumer protection laws in the fintech space. … Read the rest

COURT OF APPEAL SUMMARIES (JANUARY 17-21, 2022)

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Good evening.

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Ontario Court of Appeal for the week of January 17, 2022.

In Walters v. Walters, a wills and estates case, the Court provided a helpful summary of the jurisprudence regarding the requirement of trustees to give effect to a testator’s intentions as ascertained from the language of the will and the surrounding circumstances, including … Read the rest

At-Home COVID-19 Testing Options and Alternatives

In fulfillment of President Biden’s promise to make at-home COVID tests more available for all of us, two significant action steps have now occurred:

  1. Every U.S. household has access to free at-home COVID-19 tests. As of January 18, 2022, any individual with a residence in the United States may request up to four (4) at-home COVID test kits.  There is no cost to register or for the kits themselves.
  1. At-home COVID-19 testing is available at no cost without a prescription
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Earnings season is here

 From CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html

Tech stocks have been plunging as Wall Street obsesses over the Federal Reserve’s next moves and how aggressively it will hike borrowing costs over the next 12 months to rein in inflation.

But attention could soon shift elsewhere as corporate earnings season arrives, delivering a distraction from the economy and the unknowns that lie ahead.
What’s happening: S&P 500 earnings are expected to have increased by 22.4% compared to the previous year during the final three months of 2021,
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Supreme Court Halts Implementation of OSHA Vaccine-or-Test Rule (US)

In a per curiam majority decision issued on January 13, 2022, the United States Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) that would have obligated employers with 100 or more U.S. employees to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing, plus imposed face covering and other mitigation strategies. Last month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted another federal appellate court’s earlier stay of the ETS, leaving … Read the rest