Antitrust Law Source

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen companies collaborating on some great ideas. Companies should keep in mind, however, that the antitrust laws still apply and those who don’t follow them may pay dearly later.

In the first of a three-part series about antitrust and consumer protection during COVID-19, host Jay Levine talks to Porter Wright attorney Allen Carter about how companies can collaborate during the current crisis, what business owners should do to protect themselves and how the government is helping and what it is watching out for.

The next podcast in this series will discuss price gouging and hoarding, how federal and state governments protect consumers and what companies need to know to protect their business.

What happens if your personally identifiable information is stolen, but no harm has come to you…yet? Do the eyes of the court feel that simply the fear of harm warrants relief? Jay and Ryan Graham discuss the differing decisions to date and how things may evolve in the future.

Data breaches in health care can be the most devastating, both to the consumers whose personally identifiable information was exposed, but also to the institutions that possessed this sensitive data. In this podcast Jay and Christina Hultsch review the various issues surrounding such data breaches, including when to review data security policies, how to prepare for a potential breach and how to deal with third-party vendor access.

So what did the Third Circuit hold in FTC vs. Wyndham and what does the decision really mean? Jay and Ryan continue their discussion of the Third Circuit’s decision and give you some key takeaways on what this means for companies that collect personally identifiable information.

In part one of this two part series, Jay is joined by Ryan Graham, a colleague at Porter Wright and former FBI analyst, to discuss the Third Circuit’s decision in FTC vs. Wyndham. Ryan and Jay discuss generally the various agencies who have authority over data security and the challenges facing companies who have experienced a data breach. They also outline the issues involved in the Wyndham case.

A campaign to require licensure in the personal training industry by the U.S. Registry of Exercise Professionals has left some scratching their heads. Six states have considered licensure laws that, through criminal liability, would forbid providing personal training services without a license. In 2013, Washington, D.C. passed legislation authorizing the D.C. Board of Physical Therapy to enact regulations for licensure of personal trainers, though it now appears that this law will be repealed.

In this podcast, Brodie Butland and I discuss the implications of the various proposals to require licensure for personal trainers, including the remarkable over breadth of the proposed laws, their anti-consumer establishment of an oligopoly exclusively benefitting only a part of the personal training profession, and their stifling creativity and innovation in the fitness industry by requiring personal trainers and consumers into a one-size-fits-all paradigm. Tune in to find out more.

How can retailers and product designers minimize their liability exposure to “Made in the USA” false-labeling claims without sacrificing the valuable label itself? In part two of the “Made in the USA” podcast series, Jay Levine, Jared Klaus and Bob Tannous discuss how mitigating risk from such claims requires a holistic approach, including such strategies as negotiating indemnity agreements and reps and warranties with upstream suppliers and manufacturers, structuring insurance arrangements, conducting internal audits and monitoring for warning signs on social media and court filings.

A slew of recent class actions brought in California are claiming that retailers and product designers acted deceptively by marketing their products as "Made in the USA." But, as discussed in this podcast, the issue is far from black and white. For instance, can a pair of jeans assembled in the USA from domestically produced denim be labeled "Made in the USA" if the zipper on those jeans was imported from a foreign country? According to the FTC, the answer is yes, but California law says no. Find out how this strict California law is wrecking havoc on the apparel industry, and hear how to avoid becoming the next target for this wave of litigation.