Tag:Journal of Regulatory Compliance
Illinois Law Makers Seeking to Curb E-Cigarette Use Among Teens and Children
In the wake of rising e-cigarette use among teens and children, Illinois lawmakers seek a legal solution to protect Illinois youths from smoking-related illnesses and pre-mature death. Illinois’s Congress introduced Tobacco 21, a bill designed to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products like e-cigarettes to 21 years of age. Despite a lack of support from Governor Bruce Rauner, Illinois politicians continue to fight to save the bill, and with good reason. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced its Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan, which addresses the rising e-cigarette use among adolescents. The FDA’s plan is two-fold: (1) crack down on the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes and (2) educate teens and children about the dangers of using e-cigarettes. Tobacco 21 provides support for the FDA’s Plan.
Amazon Go versus the GDPR
New data privacy regulations entail questioning both current and future technologies. Recently, Amazon has introduced a store concept that eliminates everyone’s least favorite things about shopping, long lines and small talk. Amazon Go is the grocery store of the future and these stores allow consumers to walk in, pick up the items that they need, and then walk right back out. That’s it. No long lines, no cashiers, no shopping carts. However, as great as this concept seems, there are still concerns from a data privacy standpoint as Amazon needs to collect personal data from its consumers in order to be able to lawfully execute these checkout-less stores.
Accessible UI/UX Design: Making Websites ADA Compliant
The World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”) is a collaborative community that develops standards for the Internet. One of W3C’s goals is to make the web accessible to everyone, regardless of an individual’s accessibility needs. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that the electronic and information technology of federal agencies are accessible to people with disabilities, whether they are employees or members of the public. W3C publishes the Web Content Accessibility Guide (WCAG), which addresses how to create accessible websites. The WCAG was used by the U.S. Access Board to create standards for Section 508. Recent cases like Gorecki v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. reveal the need to not only comply with these laws and regulations, but to adopt a culture that goes above and beyond the minimum.
Compliance Spotlight: Joseph Adamczyk, OCC
Joseph Adamczyk, ’01 is the Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at OCC (Options Clearing Corporation). OCC is the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, and works to promote stability and financial integrity in the marketplace. Mr. Adamczyk holds a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a B.S. in Business Administration from DePaul University.
New York Federal Court Rules in Favor of CFTC in its First Ever Anti-Fraud Enforcement Action Involving Bitcoin
Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered an Order for Final Judgment and Consent Order for Final Judgment (“the Orders”) early this month, resolving charges of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) Complaint against a New York Corporation, Gelfman Blueprint Inc. (“GBI”) and its Chief Executive Officer, Nicholas Gelfman. The CFTC’s complaint, filed in January of 2017, marked the first anti-fraud enforcement action involving Bitcoin filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Orders found that from approximately January of 2014-January 2016 Defendants Gelfman and GBI, through its officers and agents and employees, operated a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme in which they fraudulently solicited more than $600,000 from at least 80 customers.
States Fail At Mental Health
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“the Parity Act”) is a federal civil rights and consumer protection law. The Parity Act prohibits most public and private insurance plans from imposing more restrictive standards on mental health (“MH”) and substance use disorder (“SUD”) benefits than they impose on similar medical/surgical benefits. However, ten years since its passage, states have failed to appropriately enforce the Parity Act.
Stemming the Tide of Medical Information Data Breaches
Protected Health Information is seeing a surge of breaches on the cyber security front due to contractor error. It’s also impacting the most consumers in comparison to other data breaches and, in some cases, has the power to cause chaos in national infrastructure. Advances in technology and compliance measures can stem the tide and protect the most valuable information in consumers lives.
Climate Change: A Compliance Crisis
In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations issued a special report on the impact of global warming. The report shared extensive research about our changing atmosphere and issued a grave warning: we must act immediately. The harrowing news came just over one year after President Trump ordered the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in June 2017. This begs the question: how will changes be made when the world’s most powerful and impactful hegemon refuses to cooperate?
SCOTUS Overturns Stay, “Dark Money” Donors Will Be Partially Disclosed
On September 18, 2018, the United States Supreme Court overturned a stay blocking a District Court ruling requiring non-profits to disclose identity of all contributors who give more than $200 a year. Prior to the ruling, IRS designated 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) organizations such as business leagues and boards of trade, who do not register as political committees with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), were required to disclose donors only when they contributed for specific political advertisements. While the ruling requires the FEC to give guidance, newly issued FEC rules limit the scope of the court’s intention. It is likely that the new ruling will allow some donors to remain undisclosed while requiring partial disclosure of donors who contribute towards certain, but not all, expenditures.
Proposed Changes to the NIH Guidelines for Human Gene Transfer Experiments
The National Institute of Health (NIH) has submitted a proposal to amend the NIH Guidelinesfor research involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules. The proposed amendmentseeks to streamline the oversight for human gene transfer clinical research protocols and reduce duplicative reporting requirements already captured within existing regulatory framework. The amendment specifically seeks to delete the NIH protocol registration submission and reporting requirements under Appendix M of the NIH Guidelines, and modify the roles and responsibilities of entities involved in human gene transfer or the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee(RAC).