Workers Turn to Courts to Enforce COVID-19 Safety Guidelines
As citizens across the United States continue to shelter in place to slow the spread of the novel Coronavirus, workers at grocery stores, department stores, pharmacies, parcel delivery services, and other essential businesses have been forced onto the frontlines, constantly putting their health at risk. In some cases, these essential workers ...
COVID-19 Leads to Increased Disability Accommodation Claims
On May 27, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's ("EEOC") office in New York, headed by Deputy Director Judy Keenan, revealed that the most prevalent employment claims relating to the COVID-19 pandemic concern employees' rights for reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Discriminations Act ("ADA"). Foreseeably, ...
Faruqi & Faruqi Defeats Motion to Dismiss In Godiva Consumer Class Action
On May 29, 2020, Judge Alison J. Nathan of the Southern District of New York issued a ruling granting in part and denying in part Godiva's motion to dismiss plaintiff's complaint. The class action challenges Godiva's use of the "Belgium 1926" representation on the label, when certain chocolates produced by Godiva are made in the USA. The Court ...
Farmers Claim Price Fixing Is No Small Peanuts
According to a Complaint filed by a group of peanut farmers, the two leading peanut shelling companies conspired to fix prices of raw and harvested peanuts by underreporting their inventory to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to make the market appear to be oversupplied. The plaintiffs claim that Birdsong Corp. and Golden Peanut ...
Relief for New York City’s Restaurants Offers Little Comfort for the Future
On March 22, New York State's PAUSE order went into effect, shuttering non-essential businesses statewide, cancelling "non-essential gatherings," and urging individuals to limit travel and recreational activities. This order will remain in effect until at least May 28 (and likely extend further) for regions that have not yet met the initial ...
Mylan and Pfizer’s Class Certification Appeal in EpiPen Action Fails
The Tenth Circuit rejected Pfizer and Mylan's request to seek an immediate reversal of United States District Court Judge Daniel D. Crabtree's order certifying two classes of consumers and third-party payors in the EpiPen multidistrict litigation centralized in the District of Kansas. Finding that the district court had conducted a rigorous ...
Federal Courts and SEC Lean on Technology to Carry On in Face of Covid-19 Crisis
Following suit with many businesses in America, the SEC has announced that a sponsored conference will not be cancelled, but instead will be rescheduled as a virtual and interactive conference that is open to the public. The conference, titled "Spotlight on Transparency: A Discussion of Secondary Market Municipal Securities Disclosure Practices," ...
Zoom’s Lack of Security Leads to Consumer and Shareholder Class Actions
COVID-19 has restructured the way people conduct their daily activities, and perhaps most notably, the way people communicate with each other. Zoom Communications Inc. ("Zoom"), a communications company offering video-telephonic services, has been at the forefront of providing a means for society to stay connected during these hard times. ...
Indicted Generic Drug Price-Fixer Wants to Move Criminal Case to the Southern District of New York
Ara Aprahamian, a former executive of Taro Pharmaceuticals who is accused of engaging in a conspiracy to fix prices for generic prescription drugs, recently petitioned to move his criminal case from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to the Southern District of New York. See Mot. to Transfer, U.S. v. Aprahamian, 20-cr-00064-RBS (E.D. Pa.), ...
SEC Takes Action Against Company For False And Misleading COVID-19 Statements
On May 14, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") announced it was charging Turbo Global Partners, Inc. ("Turbo") and its chief executive officer, Robert W. Singerman ("Singerman") with fraud based on statements made in its press releases and suspended trading in Turbo. See SEC Litigation Release No. 24820, SEC ...
HARVARD UNIVERSITY FACES COVID-19 REFUND SUIT
A class action lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts federal court last week against Harvard University. The suit, brought on behalf of a proposed class of students, alleges that the university improperly retained tuition funds for services it is no longer providing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, the complaint alleges that ...
Democratic Lawmakers Renew Calls For A Merger Ban During the COVID-19 Pandemic
On May 13, 2020, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) signed a letter to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department asking the Fed and the Treasury to restrict large corporations that received coronavirus pandemic funds from engaging in mergers. The letter did not contain ...
The SEC Reduces Disclosure Requirements for Acquisitions
The SEC voted 3-1 to amend disclosure rules for companies acquiring or disposing of a business. According to the amended rules, companies will only have to submit the financial statements for the two most recent fiscal years for an acquired business that is considered "significant" instead of the three years that used to be required under ...
SEC Issues Investor Alert Concerning “Approved Offerings”
The Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") Office of Investor Education and Advocacy recently issued an alert warning investors about the recent uptick in promoter misrepresentations concerning SEC "approval" of securities offerings—particularly those made by promoters advertising initial coin offerings ("ICOs"). In its alert, the ...
The SEC Announces Covid-19 Steering Committee
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has been inundated with over 4,000 tips and complaints ever since the Covid-19 Pandemic began in mid-March, a 35% increase over the same period a year ago. As a result, the SEC's Division of Enforcement recently announced the creation of a Covid-19 Steering Committee mandated to "proactively identify ...
Direct Purchasers Sue Janssen and BTG International Over Sham Zytiga Patent
A proposed class action was recently filed in New Jersey federal court on behalf of direct purchasers against Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Biotech and BTG International, alleging the companies filed "sham" patent litigation to block generic competition for the blockbuster prostate cancer drug Zytiga. The lawsuit states that Janssen obtained ...
FinCEN Director Warns of Financial Crime Involving Virtual Currency During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN"), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is "keeping a close eye on financial crime involving virtual currency as the COVID-19 pandemic opens new avenues for exploitation," Law360 reports. In his remarks at the Consensus Blockchain Conference on May 13, 2020, FinCEN Director Kenneth ...
The Federal Reserve Has Adapted Its Supervisory Practices in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
On Friday, May 8, 2020, the Federal Reserve published its semi-annual Supervision and Regulation Report in tandem with its testimony before Congress. The report explained that the Fed has implemented several measures to accommodate the novel issues faced by financial institutions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, the report explains ...
EEOC Issues Guidelines on Whether Employers May Bar Workers with Underlying Medical Conditions from the Workplace
On May 7, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") updated its guidelines allowing employers to bar workers with underlying medical conditions from the workplace during the COVID-19 if, after a rigid "individualized assessment," the employer concludes the employee's condition poses a "direct threat" to his or her own ...
Court Approves a $5.4 Million Settlement for TBTA Sergeants and Lieutenants’ FLSA Overtime Claims
On May 6, 2020, the Honorable Vernon S. Broderick of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York approved a $5.4 million settlement for overtime claims raised by a collective of 169 Sergeants and Lieutenants. See Feliciano, et al. v. Metro. Transp. Auth., et al., No. 1:18-cv-00026 (VSB) (S.D.N.Y. May 6, 2020) (the ...