Insights

July/August 2020, Corporate Taxation

July 10, 2020, Covington Alert

On 6 July 2020, the UK Government announced the creation of a new UK human rights sanctions regime, which is the first independent UK sanctions regime to be established under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (“SAMLA 2018”).

July 9, 2020, Covington Alert

On July 3, 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) of China published a second draft amendment to the Patent Law (the “Draft”) for public comment. The Draft is the first legislative development in China’s patent law since the conclusion of  Economic and Trade Agreement between the United States and China on January 15, 2020 (“Phase ...

July 9, 2020, Covington Alert

The second quarter of 2020 is the first period in which most U.S. public companies were fully confronted with challenges presented by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The SEC and its staff (the “Staff”) have recently issued a number of statements regarding disclosure considerations and updates to reporting relief that will affect various aspects of companies’ ...

July 9, 2020, Covington Alert

China has published a near-final draft of a new Export Control Law that, if enacted as drafted, would build upon China’s existing export control regulations, which are scattered across multiple laws, administrative regulations, and implementation rules, with the goal of creating a unified export control system to promote China’s commitment to nonproliferation ...

July 8, 2020, Covington Alert

In recent years and with increased vigor in recent months, stakeholders and governments, including the United States, have focused on labor-related and other human rights issues concerning the treatment of Uyghur and other minority Muslim groups in the Xinjiang region of China. In this post, we provide an overview of some of these developments and considerations ...

July 7, 2020, Covington Alert

There were several notable developments in the second quarter of 2020 affecting class actions. The Judicial Panel of Multidistrict Litigation will hold a hearing at the end of July on several requests to consolidate lawsuits related to the COVID-19 pandemic on an industry-wide basis. Courts issued important decisions addressing Article III standing and the ...

July 7, 2020, Covington Alert

On July 2, 2020, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (“AMS”) published final guidance documents and FAQs to assist companies in complying with the National Bioengineered (“BE”) Food Disclosure Standard (“NBFDS”). Under the NBFDS, a responsible party need not make a BE disclosure for a BE food if the party can show (1) the food is sourced from a non-BE crop or ...

July 6, 2020, Covington Alert

            On June 29, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) released guidance regarding financial institutions’ Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) and anti-money laundering (“AML”) risk considerations with respect to hemp-related businesses.[1] The guidance is intended to enhance the access of lawful hemp-related businesses to financial services and ...