Partner Philip Urofsky recently appeared in The Global Anti-Bribery and Corruption Insights Series podcast, hosted by consulting and accounting firm Nexdigm. He discussed the stress created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. economy, organizations, employees, and the government, and how it has led to an increased risk of corruption. The discussion covered the risks associated with various stimulus packages announced by the government to revive the economy alongside measures taken by authorities to enforce anti-corruption measures.

On 1 July 2020, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a statement outlining a series of regulatory initiatives aimed at Google and Facebook, focussed on digital advertising. This follows the release of the CMA’s report on digital advertising and online platforms the same day.

Shearman & Sterling’s bi-annual Trends & Patterns in FCPA Enforcement report provides insightful analysis of recent enforcement trends and patterns in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere, as well as helpful guidance on emerging best practices in FCPA and global anti-corruption compliance programs.

As America’s pipeline infrastructure has grown in recent years, project developers have encountered new and significant legal challenges from environmental groups, landowners, state governments, and others.  Several recent judicial developments threaten to inject deep uncertainty in two areas of central importance to the industry:  developers’ power to condemn state-owned lands, and the practical ability to commence FERC-approved projects notwithstanding a pending rehearing challenge.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (collectively, “Agencies”) released the final version of the Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Vertical Guidelines”) on June 30, 2020. The new Vertical Guidelines, which had not been updated in more than 35 years, outline how the Agencies will evaluate whether vertical mergers violate the federal antitrust laws.

Partners Emma Maconick and Reena Agrawal Sahni hosted a webinar discussion on current developments in data privacy.

The U.K. Government has an announced intention to introduce a subsidy control regime. Having such regimes in place both in the U.K. and the EU (the State aid regime) creates the space for a compromise solution.

The CFTC has recently published final and proposed rules codifying previously issued no action relief and restoring consumer information privacy policies and procedures.

On June 25, 2020, the Federal Reserve Board (the “Fed”) released (i) the results of its supervisory stress tests for 2020; and (ii) aggregate, not bank-specific, results of a special “sensitivity analysis” conducted under a range of “plausible downside scenarios” related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sensitivity analyses included the 33 banking organizations that were subject to the 2020 supervisory tests.

Two key provisions included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”)—the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC)—are raising surprising new issues in M&A transactions. The CARES Act prohibits a company that receives a PPP loan from claiming the ERTC and treats affiliated entities as a single employer for purposes of the ERTC. It is unclear whether a company will lose previously claimed and future ERTCs when the company (or its affiliates) acquires, or is acquired by, a company that received a PPP loan.