Jay L. Halpern, Amal U. Dave, Emily B. Lewis, Lynn R. Fiorentino, Angela M. Santos, Berin S. Romagnolo, Dan Jasnow, Robert G. Edwards, Ph.D., Cody C. Boender, Maria Ortega Castro
2025 will be a transformational year for the beverage and food industry, which has already been dramatically impacted by shifting market trends and profound policy changes. Here are the top five topics influencing the strategies and growth plans of beverage and food companies.
During the London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR) transition, and post LIBOR’s end date of June 30, 2023, the goal for all should be that (1) the effective interest rates be generally economically equivalent as a result of the transition and (2) interest rate expectations be met of the parties to the financial instruments, such as borrowers and lenders, swap counterparties, and bond issuers, trustees and holders.
D. Jacques Smith, Michael F. Dearington, Nadia Patel, Hillary M. Stemple, Laura Zell, Shoshana Golden, Meghan F. Hart
Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the authority to search electronic devices — including phones, laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices — of anyone entering the United States, including US citizens and non-citizens. These searches can happen at US land crossings, airports, seaports, and even at CBP preclearance locations abroad, such as Dublin, Ireland, or Toronto, Canada. These searches can occur without a warrant or suspicion.
In the last year, state activism in healthcare consumer protection has surged, with new laws that heighten oversight of for-profit investors’ engagement with healthcare marketplaces and scrutinize pharmaceutical pricing practices. As part of this activism, several state legislatures have enacted laws regulating use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare delivery.
A federal court recently rejected arguments by MultiPlan, Inc. and Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company that they had no obligation to ensure payments at the contractually negotiated, in-network rate to Anatomic and Clinical Laboratory Associates, P.C. (ACLA).
The fashion and textile industries have seen a marked uptick in customs enforcement, riding a “roller coaster of trade policy” that is likely to get more chaotic under the Trump Administration.
On March 19, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released two technical assistance documents focused on educating the public about “unlawful discrimination” related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace.
Earlier this month, California Governor Gavin Newsom directed the state’s recycling agency, CalRecycle, to restart the process of issuing regulations for California’s landmark plastic and packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) law.
On March 12, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), via a No Action Letter, issued interpretive guidance clarifying what constitutes “reasonable steps” issuers can take to verify purchasers’ accredited investor status, as required under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act) (Rule 506(c)).
On March 5, Do No Harm filed a lawsuit against the American Chemical Society (ACS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, challenging a scholarship program for undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups in the chemical sciences.
On March 10, US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York issued a decision in United States v. Tavberidze, holding that section 3E1.1(b) of the US Sentencing Guidelines, which provides a one-point reduction in offense level to defendants who promptly plead guilty, is an “unconstitutional penalty” that punishes defendants for exercising their constitutional right to a trial.
AFS Automotive’s Kevin Timson and Charles Gallaer chatted with the Eastern New York Coalition of Automotive Retailers on their latest stop of the “2025 Buy-Sell Hot Topics” tour!
On March 10, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that newly confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed acting US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Sara Brenner to “take steps to explore potential rulemaking to revise its Substances Generally Recognized as Safe [GRAS] Final Rule and related guidance to eliminate the self-affirmed GRAS pathway.”
On the litigation front, a federal judge denied an attempt by the Cookware Sustainability Alliance (CSA) to halt Minnesota’s current ban on intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cookware. However, the industry group continues to advocate for cookware exemptions with a track record of success across the nation.
Join AFS Life Sciences Partner Stephanie Trunk and Darshan Kulkarni, Life Sciences regulatory and compliance attorney, as they explore the major shifts occurring in the pharmaceutical industry under the Trump Administration.
On Thursday, September 12, 2024, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule updating the agency’s policies on voluntary self-disclosures and the Guidance on Charging and Penalty Determinations in Settlement of Administrative Enforcement Cases (BIS Penalty Guidelines).
On December 5, 2024, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) promulgated an interim final rule (the December IFR) expanding its authority to restrict the dissemination of advanced chip technology and semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) through controls on new items including high bandwidth memory (HBM) commodities, two new foreign direct product rules (FDPRs), expanded end-use and US person restrictions, and clarifying the export control status of software keys.
On September 6, 2024, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) introduced an interim final rule that imposed worldwide export controls on slew of advanced technologies to align with the Implemented Export Controls (IEC) of international partners.
Kay C. Georgi, Christopher H. Skinner, Derek Ha, Terry M. Frederic, Denny Peixoto, Maya S. Cohen, Jodi Tai, Sylvia G. Costelloe, James Kim*, William G. Stroupe II
President Trump’s first months in office have been busy, but, in the export control world, we have been grateful for a brief respite from the mind-bending, hundreds-of-pages-long, industry-changing rules that the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued during the last stretch of President Biden’s term — sometimes more than one per day!
This January 16 interim final rule by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposes a broader license requirement on two types of parties: “front-end fabricators” and Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies.
On October 23, 2024, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the US State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) issued a tranche of new rules to overhaul and modernize US export controls on space-related items.
The full scope of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory efforts in the environmental space was recently made clear with a series of announcements from US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Final order requires company to pay over $630,000 in fines and change its business practices.
D. Jacques Smith, Michael F. Dearington, Nadia Patel, Hillary M. Stemple, Laura Zell, Meghan F. Hart, Elizabeth Satarov
Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries