Hunton Retail Law Resource

The supply of a medicinal product without a marketing authorisation under national provisional permissions of use does not generally prevent an SPC.

The scope of protection of an SPC for a virus may be broader than the specific virus strain mentioned in the marketing authorization.

Today, the EFTA Court ruled on two important SPC issues that were raised in the Intervet case (E – 16/14). The case concerns, on the one hand, the supply of a veterinary vaccine without a marketing authorisation (‘MA’) under successive national provisional permissions of use in order to fight a ...

As reported on the Privacy & Information Security Law blog, the Federal Communications Commission announced a $25 million settlement with AT&T Services, Inc. (“AT&T”) stemming from allegations that AT&T failed to protect the confidentiality of consumers’ personal information, resulting in data breaches at AT&T call centers in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines. The breaches, which took place over 168 days from November 2013 to April 2014, involved unauthorized access to customers’ names, full or partial Social Security numbers and certain protected ...

As reported in the Hunton Employment & Labor Law Perspectives blog, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently enacted two ordinances – which are being called the “Retail Workers Bill of Rights” – that provide extensive new protections to employees of “formula retail establishments” in San Francisco.  The new ordinances regulate how covered employers manage their workers’ schedules and impose additional financial and administrative burdens on those employers.

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On Friday, January 30, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its opinion in POM Wonderful, LLC, et al. v. Federal Trade Commission, affirming the Federal Trade Commission's ruling in 2013 that a series of advertisements for POM’s pomegranate juice and supplements were deceptive and thus violated the FTC Act. However, the court provided some limited, yet important, relief to POM Wonderful and the other petitioners. The D.C. Circuit’s decision provides important guidance to companies advertising consumer products.

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As reported in the Privacy & Information Security Law blog, various technology companies, academics and trade associations filed amicus briefs in support of Microsoft’s attempts to resist a U.S. government search warrant seeking to compel it to disclose the contents of customer emails that are stored on servers in Ireland. On December 23, 2014, the Irish government also filed an amicus brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

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As reported in the Privacy & Information Security Law blog, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement of at least $90 million with mobile phone carrier T-Mobile USA, Inc. (“T-Mobile”) stemming from allegations related to mobile cramming. This settlement amount will primarily be used to provide refunds to affected customers who were charged by T-Mobile for unauthorized third party charges. As part of the settlement, T-Mobile also will pay $18 million in fines and penalties to the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and $4.5 million to the ...

As reported in the Privacy & Information Security Law blog, rent-to-own retailer Aaron’s, Inc. (“Aaron’s”) entered into a $28.4 million settlement with the California Office of the California Attorney General related to charges that the company permitted its franchised stores to unlawfully monitor their customers’ leased laptops.

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The chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, Edith Ramirez, has announced that the FTC is significantly increasing scrutiny and enforcement of mainstream advertising by reputable companies. Chairwoman Ramirez recently said that the FTC is increasing enforcement against not only “outright fraud,” but also national advertising campaigns. The FTC’s recent approach of vigorous false advertising enforcement is intended to support the goal that, as the chairwoman stated, “advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a liability insurer’s attempt to overturn a Superior Court decision holding that insurers must defend product liability claims. See Indalex v. National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., No. 126 WAL 2014 (Pa. Sept. 18, 2014). The decision confirms that loss arising from a defective product may constitute an “occurrence” triggering general liability insurance coverage under Pennsylvania law.

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As reported in the Privacy & Information Security Law blog, a recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinforces the importance of obtaining affirmative user consent to website Terms of Use for website owners seeking to enforce those terms against consumers. In Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that Barnes & Noble’s website Terms of Use (“Terms”) were not enforceable against a consumer because the website failed to provide sufficient notice of the Terms, despite having placed conspicuous hyperlinks to the Terms ...