Recent FTC Actions To Stem Virulent Schemes
The COVID-19 pandemic has yielded no shortage of fraudulent schemes to fool consumers into wasting their money. Charlatans have unleashed a flurry of unsubstantiated coronavirus treatment and prevention claims to promote dubious products and services, preying on consumers’ hopes and fears. Last week alone, the FTC staff sent 21 more warning letters to companies making a variety of questionable representations for high doses of vitamins, intravenous treatments, ozone, and purported stem cell therapies. This is what the scams in the ...
On March 23, 2020, the Department of Justice and the IRS issued important reminders to taxpayers on how scammers are using tax filings and economic impact payments from the federal government related to COVID-19. As we previously reported, bad actors are engaging in schemes to steal personal information and money, particularly from vulnerable persons. The federal government wants to prevent taxpayers from falling victim to criminals using the recently approved economic impact payments as an opportunity to commit a crime.
The federal government began depositing automatic ...
For many decades, Delaware has enjoyed a favored position as the first choice for incorporation. Many U.S. companies incorporate in Delaware to benefit from its favorable tax and legal corporate environment. And other states look to specialized Delaware courts for guidance, particularly the Delaware Court of Chancery, with its expertise and deep precedent in corporate and shareholder dispute resolution. Delaware’s developed jurisprudence, with a perceived orientation to corporate interests, is unmatched in any other state and offers more guidance and certainty.
Now, the ...
In 2020, the Missouri General Assembly continued its efforts toward tort reform related to asbestos trust claim transparency related to civil litigation. As explained below, S.B. 575 sought to make clear from the beginning of a lawsuit the scope and extent of asbestos trust fund (“Trust”) claims available to a plaintiff and to allow evidence related to such claims to be admissible at trial.
S.B. 575, sponsored by Senator Bill Eigel (St. Charles County), would have imposed substantive and procedural requirements for lawsuits filed for damages related to asbestos exposure. The ...
Summary of County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al.
No. 18-260, Argued 1/6/2019, Decided 4/23/2020)
Petitioner, County of Maui (“Maui”), operates a wastewater reclamation facility that partially treats water from the surrounding area, then releases roughly 4 million gallons of treated water into the ground through four wells. The effluent travels through ground water for one-half mile to the Pacific Ocean.
In 2012, environmental groups sued under the citizen suit provisions of the Clean Water Act (“Act”), alleging that Maui was “discharge[ing]” a ...
The shelter-in-place orders and essential business guidelines and directives that have been issued by the federal government and the states of Illinois and Missouri have raised questions about the feasibility of compliance with environmental requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. As outlined below, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”), Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“IEPA”) and Missouri Department of Natural Resources (“MDNR”) have issued separate policies addressing enforcement discretion for environmental ...
Not long after governors and mayors issued orders shutting down non-essential businesses as a safeguard against the spread of COVID-19, we read countless emails and blog posts about how those entities’ business interruption coverages might apply to businesses shut down by the pandemic. Most writers conclude the ISO forms almost certainly will not indemnify the insured for those costs, and while there undoubtedly will be exceptions, I won’t muck about trying to add to that consensus here.
Instead, I’m curious about what happens next, when the owner of a restaurant or plastics ...
The global pandemic impacts virtually every aspect of life—including our physical and financial conditions and our relationships with others—in profound ways. Since time immemorial, criminals have used uncertain and disruptive events to prey on people. But we should be safer from security intrusions while social distancing in this stay-at-home, work-from-home era, right? Wrong. Today’s online criminals are no exception. The frequency, intensity, and sophistication of cyber threats is increasing, and the focus is changing to individual attacks as well.