Legal News and Headlines
Legal News and Headlines
Johnson & Johnson’s consumer arm, now Kenvue, agreed to a $4.7 million settlement over claims that its Neutrogena Skin360 app captured and stored users' facial biometric data without proper consent, violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Plaintiffs alleged the app linked facial geometry to personal identifiers, and a federal judge rejected J&J’s argument that the service fell under a healthcare exemption. Approximately 11,000 Illinois residents who used Skin360 between December 2019 and May 2023 will share the payout. The settlement also requires image deletion and new consent and data‑retention policies.
President William Ruto signed the Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Bill 2024, mandating at least one civil registration office in each of Kenya's 290 sub‑counties. The legislation streamlines birth and death registration, targeting remote and border communities that have struggled...
Financial & Legal, a UK‑based insurer founded in 1995, provides in‑house underwritten After the Event (ATE) and Before the Event (BTE) insurance alongside assistance and ancillary cover. The firm is regulated by the PRA and FCA, fully Solvency II compliant, and...
The European Council gave final approval to the Omnibus I simplification package, dramatically scaling back the EU's corporate sustainability reporting and due‑diligence rules. The agreement retains a 1,000‑employee threshold for the CSRD but adds a €450 million revenue floor, cutting roughly...
The licences of hundreds of network operators and Internet service providers will soon expire.
The U.S. market‑structure bill’s permissibility section would formally allow banks and their holding companies to own and transact in digital assets, effectively expanding the range of activities deemed permissible under the National Bank Act. Critics argue that simply placing an...
Law firm Honigman has added Alexander Moss and Injune Park as partners to its Private Equity Practice in Chicago, marking the seventh and eighth partner hires this year, both coming from Benesch. The duo brings extensive middle‑market private‑equity experience, covering...
Al Tamimi & Company, the leading full‑service law firm in the MENA region, has deployed Xapien’s AI‑powered due diligence platform to streamline its client onboarding and compliance workflows. The solution aggregates publicly available data, enabling faster assessment of sanctions exposure,...
Kenya’s Central Bank announced a consultancy to review the Central Bank Act and the Banking Act. The overhaul targets ambiguous provisions affecting digital banking, fintech regulation, consumer protection and cybersecurity. The current legal grey zone has delayed operating licences for...
The EPA, led by Lee Zeldin, froze roughly $20 billion in green‑bank grants awarded to eight nonprofits, citing alleged misconduct despite no fraud evidence from FBI and OIG investigations. The freeze has lasted a year, forcing recipient organizations to cut staff...
The UK government is moving to bring the most popular video‑on‑demand services under Ofcom’s regulatory umbrella through secondary legislation to the Media Act 2024. Platforms with more than 500,000 UK users—including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, ITVX and Channel 4—will be classified...
Employers can lawfully terminate an employee who fails to return required FMLA certification forms if the employee was reasonably able to comply and did not follow the employer’s notice procedures. The FMLA mandates 30‑day advance notice, or “as soon as...
Three climate‑justice nonprofits have filed a Virginia Supreme Court notice to appeal the State Corporation Commission’s approval of Dominion Energy’s $1.47 billion, 944‑megawatt Chesterfield natural‑gas plant. The appeal, filed through the Southern Environmental Law Center, invokes the Virginia Environmental Justice Act...
Twenty European transport associations have issued a joint statement urging revisions to the EU Weights and Dimensions Directive (WDD) before gigaliners are widely deployed. They argue the current draft fails to address modal shift, road safety, infrastructure wear and intermodal...
UK employers are rapidly adopting hybrid work models to boost productivity and employee satisfaction, but the shift introduces complex legal obligations. Key areas of concern include data protection under GDPR, health and safety responsibilities for both remote and office settings,...
European regulators are accelerating the phase‑out of copper broadband in line with the European Commission’s Digital Networks Act (DNA) proposal. BEREC, the EU’s body for electronic communications, announced a public workshop on 17 March 2026 to discuss migration rules, competition safeguards and...
Spotify has shifted from confrontational royalty disputes to collaborative negotiations, exemplified by its 2023 royalty framework overhaul. The new model introduces a 1,000‑stream annual threshold, fraud penalties, and length requirements for non‑musical tracks, aiming to curb AI‑generated and low‑value content....
Data protection authorities from 61 countries issued a joint warning that AI content generation systems, especially those creating realistic images and videos, pose serious privacy and deep‑fake risks. The statement cites recent incidents, such as Grok’s non‑consensual “nudified” images, and...
BVNK, an enterprise stablecoin infrastructure provider, secured a Crypto‑Asset Services Provider (CASP) licence from Malta’s Financial Services Authority, aligning it with the EU’s MiCA framework. The licence allows BVNK to passport MiCA‑regulated digital‑asset services across all European Economic Area members....
House Justice Committee chair Rep. Gerville Luistro announced that impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte will commence on March 2, a process she says will influence voter sentiment ahead of the 2028 presidential election, where Duterte has already declared her...
UK ministers are consulting on amendments to the Employment Rights Act that would embed a “reasonableness test” for flexible‑working requests, making it harder for employers to refuse work‑from‑home arrangements. Under the proposals, refusals must be justified as reasonable and feasible,...
LawFairy has become the first “technology‑only” law firm authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England and Wales. The firm relies on a deterministic legal decision engine that applies pre‑validated rules rather than probabilistic AI, delivering traceable, auditable outcomes. Its...
HM Courts and Tribunals Service has finished modernising its Digital Audio Recording Transcription (DARTS) system for Crown Courts. The cloud‑based platform now delivers audio recordings in minutes, with real‑time progress tracking and enhanced search tools. Migration moved roughly 600 TB of...
The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has released a detailed roadmap for its new One IPO patents service, outlining a phased rollout of enhancements over the next twelve months. Immediate actions focus on restoring full publishing capacity, accelerating internal processing, and...
Starting March 11, 2026 Quebec will launch a province‑wide, one‑year pilot that lets most retailers stay open until 9:00 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, ending the long‑standing 5:00 PM weekend curfew. Participation is voluntary, allowing merchants to choose hours based on staffing...
Smarsh deployed an AI‑powered support agent, Archie, on Salesforce Agentforce 360 to create a unified front‑door for regulated‑industry customers. The system lets users describe needs in plain language, routing them to the right solution and reducing navigation friction. Early results...
Malaysia’s Securities Commission issued a practice note allowing licensed stockbrokers with Capital Markets Services licences to provide broking services for approved digital assets under existing securities rules. Brokers must obtain regulator concurrence, use locally registered exchanges or vetted foreign platforms,...
The Fair Work Commission found that Sleepeezee Bedding Australia’s summary dismissal of a heavy‑combination truck driver was harsh and unreasonable. The driver tested positive for a prohibited drug after a roadside test, but admitted only off‑duty cannabis use over the...
The Fair Work Commission ruled that a national sales manager at Volando Group was unfairly dismissed after using his work email to send a résumé and explore a health‑and‑wellness career. Deputy President Tony Slevin found the conduct was not “serious or...
Isaac Hayes’ estate settled its lawsuit against former President Donald Trump over the unauthorized use of the 1966 hit “Hold On, I’m Coming.” The estate had sued for $3 million, citing more than 130 instances of the song at campaign events,...
Philadelphia City Council approved legislation that prohibits third‑party platforms and individuals from selling restaurant reservations without the establishment’s consent. The measure targets marketplaces such as Appointment Trader, which handled over $5 million in reservation transactions and 15,000 sellers last year, and...
The U.S. District Court in Seattle on Jan. 23, 2026 vacated the Federal Highway Administration’s February 2025 suspension of the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program. The ruling restores the agency’s authority to obligate funds for state EV‑charging projects, effectively...
The Upper Tribunal warned lawyers after a solicitor uploaded client emails and Home Office decision letters to ChatGPT, breaching confidentiality and legal privilege. Judge Fiona Lindsley highlighted a surge in fictitious case citations that waste tribunal resources and erode public...
A civil suit filed by construction foreman Tony Saxon alleges Kanye West, now known as Ye, owes more than $1 million for unpaid wages and expenses tied to a stalled remodel of a Tadao Ando‑designed Malibu beachfront home. The 12‑day trial will...
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has placed solicitor Andrew Milne under a supervision condition after his recent stalking conviction, limiting him to practice only under an SRA‑approved supervising solicitor. Milne, who runs Andrew Milne & Co, is also under investigation...
Justice Secretary David Lammy announced a funding package that removes caps on court sitting days, aiming to clear backlogs and speed case resolution. The same plan tightens the use of jury trials, restricting them to serious criminal and complex civil...
Microsoft is embedding its AI assistant Copilot deeply into Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, positioning the feature as a core productivity tool. The FTC has opened an antitrust investigation, probing whether the bundling of AI with the operating system and...
The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation to Beacon Air Group, the fixed‑base operator at Billings‑Logan International Airport, for transmitting on the VHF aircraft band at 128.825 MHz without a license. The unauthorized signal interfered with a co‑located...
The U.S. Department of the Interior finalized a rule on Monday that slashes the time required to secure oil and gas drilling permits on federal lands. The regulation trims environmental review periods, limiting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) assessments to...
Anthropic disclosed that three Chinese AI labs—DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax—used roughly 24,000 fraudulent accounts to conduct over 16 million interactions with its Claude models, targeting reasoning, coding and tool‑use capabilities. The coordinated distillation attacks extracted large‑scale training data, effectively stealing...
Attorney Laura Sheppard argued that Charles Andy Williams, convicted for the 2001 Santana High School shooting, should be released after 25 years. A Superior Court judge vacated his 50‑to‑life sentence under California's new juvenile resentencing law, prompting an immediate appeal...
The Federal Reserve has issued a request for public comment on a proposal to codify its June decision that removes reputation risk from bank supervision. The move aims to prevent supervisors from pressuring banks to “debank” lawful customers based on...
Washington State’s House Bill 2089 seeks to restore dwindling wildfire‑prevention funding by revoking a tax deduction that currently benefits large digital mortgage lenders. The deduction, originally crafted for community banks, generated $91.6 million in savings in 2024, with 65 % captured by...
A federal judge in Connecticut dismissed a lawsuit filed by former COFINA bondholders against insurers Ambac, MBIA and related subsidiaries, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction. The ruling allows plaintiffs to refile a second‑amended complaint against MBIA Inc. by March 6,...
The IRS announced in Announcement 2026‑7 that final regulations amending RMD rules will not take effect until at least the 2026 calendar year, roughly six months after their Federal Register publication. The interim guidance requires taxpayers to rely on a good‑faith...
A Washington district court declined to issue an injunction against the State's Secure Property Credit Program (SPCP), allowing the program to continue operating. Plaintiffs argued the SPCP violated federal mortgage regulations, but the court found insufficient evidence of immediate harm....
Bank holdings of residential mortgage‑backed securities dropped in Q4, while investor appetite for GSE‑eligible non‑agency loans surged. The CFPB reported a lower share of complaints receiving relief, and fintech Better turned to stablecoins for warehouse funding. M&A activity is reshaping...
The real‑estate industry is racing to set data rules before AI triggers another wave of litigation. California has enacted a law requiring agents to disclose AI‑altered listing photos, prompting brokerages to add similar language to agreements. MLS providers are revising...
The Champion Local School District in Ohio filed a 185‑page lawsuit against Microsoft (including its Mojang subsidiary) and Roblox, alleging that their games such as Minecraft and Roblox are engineered to create addiction and mental‑health issues among students. The district...
California State Senator Scott Wiener introduced Senate Bill 875 to let San Francisco municipalize its electric distribution, aiming to break away from PG&E. The move follows repeated blackouts, rates that are roughly double those of neighboring areas, and safety failures...
