Tag:Journal of Regulatory Compliance
International Student-Athletes Lose Out in NIL Era
The NCAA’s interim Name, Image, and Likeness (“NIL”) policy has made it possible for student-athletes to receive compensation, however, equitable shortcomings are evident. The most significant issue is faced by international student-athletes, who are substantively barred from capitalizing on the NIL opportunities afforded to their American counterparts.
Concert Venues Crowd Control Regulations
On November 5, 2021, Travis Scott performed a concert at the Astroworld Festival in Austin to a crowd of fifty thousand people. In the hour that he performed, eight people were killed in a deadly crowd crush (another concert goer losing their life days after), and hundreds were injured. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Travis Scott himself, as well as the production companies that organized the show in response to the tragedy. In the wake of the devastating event, regulations concerning crowd control and management must also be considered, as well as whether these regulations were complied with by the organizers of Astroworld.
Nuclear Energy: Safety and Viability
The United States currently stands ready to make energy decisions that will impact every U.S. citizen alive today and generations moving forward. President Joe Biden committed to fighting climate change in his campaign for President and has continued in this vein by making goals to halve U.S. carbon emissions by 2030 and further, to create a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. The key to this plan is the not-so-simple issue of electricity generation.
Robinhood Can’t Seem to Keep User Data Safe: Data Breach Exposes the Personal Data of Millions of Users
On November 3, 2021, Robinhood Markets Inc., a popular online stock trading app, reported that an intruder gained access to its systems, obtaining the personal information of millions of its users. With its sudden rise to popularity and contempt following the GameStop stock volatility, and an ongoing class action lawsuit concerning a previous breach, Robinhood is in hot water with both customers and regulatory agencies alike.
Industries Deserve Consistent Apprenticeship Rules and Regulations
November 15, 2021, marked the beginning of the seventh annual National Apprenticeship week. That same day, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) published a proposal to rescind its regulation and recently established framework regarding Standards Recognition Entities (SREs) of Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). To succeed, industries offering apprenticeships need consistent rules and regulations that do not change at the whim of the executive branch. Passing the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021 (Act) is one way that Congress can support established registered apprenticeship programs.
A Progressive Move for New York’s Office of Cannabis Management
Earlier this month Tremaine Wright, the woman in charge of New York’s cannabis regulation revealed a plan to promote social equity through conscientious licensing and tax revenue policies. New York legalized cannabis recently, so its regulations for it are still in a fledgling stage. As a result, the policies being made now will shape the cannabis industry for years to come.
The Free Britney Movement and the Call for Conservatorship Reform
Britney Spears: global pop superstar, Grammy award winner, songwriter, dancer, and … the face of the conservatorship reform movement? Ms. Spears can add a new line onto her prolific resume, as legal issues stemming from her decade-plus long conservatorship have shed a light on conservatorship abuse. Britney has subsequently fueled the push to reform conservatorship regulations that affect over an estimated 1.3 million adults in the United States.
Treasury’s Proposal Aimed at Limiting Tax Evasion by The Wealthy, May End Up Harming Everyone Else
In May of 2021, the United States Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) introduced its revenue proposals for the 2022 fiscal year. One of the proposals that garnered significant attention was the Comprehensive Financial Account Reporting to Improve Tax Compliance; under this proposal, financial institutions will be required to report to the Treasury the total amount of inflow and outflow on bank, loan, and investment accounts for accounts that hold at least $600 a year. Since its introduction and after serious political push-back, this amount has since been increased to accounts that hold at least $10,000 a year.
If the reporting requirement is implemented, the Biden Administration proposes to raise the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) funding by $80 billion to finance the cost of additional auditors and equipment. However, the Biden Administration, with the proposal’s implementation, expects a payoff of $460 billion over ten years in additional revenue. Although this proposal is intended at limiting wealth tax evasion, this proposal misses the mark. Specifically, it does not adequately address businesses that are able to cheat tax codes by stretching the current law, and instead scrutinizes small businesses and individuals while it exponentially increases the personal data held by the Treasury.
The DOJ Challenges Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Simon & Schuster
In the United States, “The Big Five” denote the largest five publishing houses. These publishing empires print everything from medical textbooks to children’s books and together control over eighty percent of the publishing market. The Big Five includes Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. In November of 2020, Viacom announced the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion. A year later on November 2, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit challenging the acquisition to ensure “fair competition in the U.S. publishing industry.”
Compliance Spotlight: William Hanning, CISSP, CISO
William Hanning is a Chief Information Security Officer with Groups360 and close to twenty years of Information Security experience. Mr. Hanning has built and managed security programs in multiple industries in organizations of varying sizes, as well as within Fortune 100 companies. Here, he gives insight about the separation between data privacy and cybersecurity, the role of information security teams, and how cybersecurity relates to and supports the work of legal and compliance departments.