Availability of Class Action Complaints at the FMC -
Federal Maritime Commission
The Federal Maritime
Commission issued a policy statement today making clear it is an
appropriate venue where private parties may bring class actions to
resolve disputes covered by the statutes the agency administers.
The guidance yields
important benefits to parties that might otherwise be hesitant to
initiate legal actions at the FMC for fear of retaliation or
because the amount of money in dispute may be less than the cost of
litigation for an individual claimant. The availability of the
class action mechanism will help create a more level playing field
for private parties seeking protection from potentially unlawful
conduct.
Today’s announcement is
a continuation of efforts by the Commission in recent years to
reduce barriers for private party litigants seeking redress of
potential Shipping Act violations. The Commission issued a policy
statement in December 2021 making clear that shippers’ associations
and trade associations can file complaints on behalf of others
alleging violations of the law. The Commission successfully
implemented a process for Charge Complaints, as set out in the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA
2022), which provide individuals with a simplified and expedited
way to challenge some invoices. More than $3.5 million in fees have
been voluntarily waived or refunded by common carriers through the
Commission-administered Charge Complaint process since June 2022.
Further, the Commission is ensuring the timely adjudication of the
record number of pending proceedings that have been filed at the
Commission in recent years by adding resources to the Office of the
Administrative Law Judges.
Other recent policy statements of the Commission can
be found here.
Petition Filed Requesting the Imposition of
Antidumping and Countervailing Duties on Imports of Slag Pots from
the People’s Republic of China - Grunfeld,
Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP
On December 31, 2024,
WHEMCO-Steel Castings, Inc. filed a petition for the imposition of
antidumping and countervailing duties on the imports of Slag Pots
from the People’s Republic of China. The petition alleges dumping
margins of 319.25% from China. The petition identifies certain
foreign producers/exporters and U.S. importers of the investigated
products.
The products within
the scope of this investigation are slag pots with a nominal
capacity of 65 cubic feet to 1200 cubic feet regardless of shape,
form, or finish. Slag pots are load bearing devices typically
formed as a curved shell designed to collect molten or solid slag
generated during metallurgical or chemical processes. Slag pots are
metallurgical goods typically produced either using a casting
process or a fabrication process and may include a ceramic
refractory coating, heat treatment or various finishes in order to
handle high temperature slag. Please see the petition for a more
detailed description of the covered merchandise and exclusions.
The projected date of
the International Trade Commission’s Preliminary Conference is
January 22, 2025. The earliest theoretical date for retroactive
suspension of liquidation for AD is March 12, 2025; CVD is January
21, 2025.
Please feel free to
contact one of our attorneys for further information, including a
complete scope description; complete projected schedule for the AD
and CVD investigations; the volume and value of imports; and list
of identified foreign exporters and U.S. importers.
Federal Register Notices:
- Antidumping
or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews:
Certain Steel Nails From the United Arab Emirates: Final
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023
- Notice of
Scope Ruling Applications Filed in Antidumping and
Countervailing Duty Proceedings
- Agreement
Suspending the Antidumping Duty Investigation on Fresh
Tomatoes From Mexico: Final Results of the 2021-2022
Administrative Review
- Certain Steel
Nails From the Sultanate of Oman: Final Results of Antidumping
Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023
- Crystalline
Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into
Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Notice of Court
Decision Not in Harmony with the Results of Countervailing
Duty Administrative Review; Notice of Amended Final Results
- Silicomanganese
From India: Final Results and Partial Rescission of
Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023
- Polyethylene
Terephthalate Film, Sheet, and Strip From India: Final Results
of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2022
- Sales at
Less Than Fair Value; Determinations, Investigations, etc.:
Certain Glass Wine Bottles From Chile: Termination of
Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation
- Disposable
Aluminum Containers, Pans, Trays, and Lids From the People's
Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of
Sales at Less Than Fair Value, and Preliminary Affirmative
Determination of Critical Circumstances
- Antidumping
or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews:
Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not
Assembled Into Modules, From Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and
Vietnam; Institution of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty
Investigations and Scheduling of Preliminary Phase
Investigations
- Investigations;
Determinations, Modifications, and Rulings, etc.: Certain
Dermatological Treatment Devices and Components Thereof;
Notice of Request for Submissions on the Public Interest
- Antidumping
or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews:
Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished and
Unfinished, From the People's Republic of China: Notice of
Court Decision Not in Harmony With the Results of Antidumping
Duty Administrative Review; Notice of Amended Final Results
- Circular
Welded Carbon-Quality Steel Pipe From the People's Republic of
China: Continuation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty
Orders
- Investigations;
Determinations, Modifications, and Rulings, etc.: Steel
Propane Cylinders From China and Thailand; Scheduling of Full
Five-Year Reviews
- Diffusion-Annealed,
Nickel-Plated Flat-Rolled Steel Products From Japan;
Scheduling of an Expedited Five-Year Review
- Antidumping
or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews:
Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, Finding, or
Suspended Investigation; Opportunity To Request Administrative
Review and Join Annual Inquiry Service List
- Finished
Carbon Steel Flanges From India: Final Results of Antidumping
Duty Administrative Review; 2022-2023
- Certain
Corrosion Inhibitors From the People's Republic of China:
Preliminary Results and Partial Rescission of the Antidumping
Duty Administrative Review; 2023-2024
- Overhead
Door Counterbalance Torsion Springs From India and the
People's Republic of China: Postponement of Preliminary
Determinations in the Countervailing Duty Investigations
- Sales at
Less Than Fair Value; Determinations, Investigations, etc.:
Certain Glass Wine Bottles From the People's Republic of
China: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than
Fair Value and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical
Circumstances, in Part
- Antidumping
or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews:
Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, Finding, or
Suspended Investigation; Advance Notification of Sunset Review
- Antidumping
or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews:
Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, Finding, or
Suspended Investigation; Advance Notification of Sunset Review
- Welded Large
Diameter Line Pipe From Japan: Final Results of the Expedited
Fourth Sunset Review of the Antidumping Duty Order
- Certain
Circular Welded Carbon-Quality Steel Line Pipe From the
People's Republic of China: Final Results of the Expedited
Third Sunset Review of the Antidumping Duty Order
- Forged
Steel Fluid End Blocks From Germany: Notice of Court Decision
Not in Harmony With the Final Determination of Countervailing
Duty Investigation; Notice of Amended Final Determination and
Amended Countervailing Duty Order
CPSC Secures Agreement with Apple for Enhanced
Warnings to Protect Children from Hazards of Battery Ingestion;
Apple Takes Action to Address Labeling Violations on AirTags - U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
Today the Office of Compliance and Field Operations of the
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a Notice of
Violation to Apple, Inc. concerning Apple AirTags, alleging
violations of the warning label requirements of Reese’s Law. Reese’s
Law and CPSC regulations that implement it establish performance
and warning label requirements for consumer products with button
cell or coin batteries, to protect children from life threatening
ingestion.
Apple’s AirTag, a
popular tracking device, met the performance requirements for
securing the AirTag’s lithium coin cell battery; however, the units
imported after the March 19, 2024, effective date of Reese’s Law
did not have the required on-product and on-box warnings concerning
the severe risk of injury from battery ingestion if these small
batteries are not kept out of reach of children.
Apple has now
included a warning symbol inside the battery compartment and
changed its box to include required warning statements and symbols.
Because a number of violative units have been sold to consumers,
and to assist consumers in the future, Apple has updated the
instructions that appear in the Find My app each time a user is
prompted to change the AirTag battery to now include a warning
about the hazards of button and coin cell batteries.
CPSC reminds all
manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers that failure
to comply with Reese’s Law could result in enforcement action.
Section 15(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act requires
manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of consumer
products or any other products or substances over which the
Commission has jurisdiction to report immediately to the CPSC when
they obtain information which reasonably supports the conclusion
that such products distributed in commerce fail to comply with an
applicable consumer product safety rule or any other rule,
regulation, standard or ban enforced by the Commission.
Manufacturers can find more information on
compliance in Button Cell and Coin Battery Business Guidance |
CPSC.gov.
Justice Department Issues Final Rule Addressing Threat
Posed by Foreign Adversaries’ Access to Americans’ Sensitive
Personal Data - Department of
Justice
Final Rule Implements
Executive Order to Prevent Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive
Personal Data and U.S. Government-Related Data by Russia, Iran,
China and Other Countries of Concern
Note: View the fact sheet here.
WASHINGTON –
Today, the Justice Department issued a comprehensive final rule
carrying out Executive Order (E.O.) 14117 “Preventing Access to
Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States
Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern.” The E.O. charged
the Justice Department with establishing and implementing a new
regulatory program to address the urgent and extraordinary national
security threat posed by the continuing efforts of countries of
concern (and covered persons that they can leverage) to access and
exploit Americans’ bulk sensitive personal data and certain U.S.
Government-related data. The Final Rule will take effect 90 days
from the date of the Final Rule’s publication, with certain
affirmative due diligence, reporting, and auditing requirements
taking effect 270 days after publication.
“This final rule is a
crucial step forward in addressing the extraordinary national
security threat posed of our adversaries exploiting Americans' most
sensitive personal data,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew
G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“This powerful new national-security program is designed to ensure
that Americans' personal data is no longer permitted to be sold to
hostile foreign powers, whether through outright purchase or other
means of commercial access.”
The Final Rule
implements the E.O. by promulgating generally applicable rules for
certain categories of data transactions that pose an unacceptable
risk to the national security of the United States. As described in
the E.O., countries of concern and covered persons can use their
access to this data to engage in malicious cyber-enabled activities
and malign foreign influence activities, bolster their military
capabilities, and track and build profiles on U.S. persons
(including members of the military and U.S. Intelligence Community,
as well as other Federal employees and contractors) for illicit
purposes such as blackmail, coercion, and espionage, and to bolster
their military capabilities. Countries of concern and covered
persons can also exploit this data to collect information on
activists, academics, journalists, dissidents, political opponents,
or members of nongovernmental organizations or marginalized
communities to intimidate them; curb political opposition; limit
freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, or association; or
enable other forms of suppression of civil liberties.
The Final Rule
reflects the risk highlighted in the E.O. that the vulnerability of
Americans’ bulk sensitive data is exacerbated because countries of
concern are increasingly using bulk sensitive personal data to
develop and enhance artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and
algorithms that, in turn, enable the use of large datasets in
increasingly sophisticated and effective ways to the detriment of
U.S. national security. Countries of concern can use AI in
conjunction with multiple unrelated data sets, for example, to
identify U.S. persons whose links to the federal government would
be otherwise obscured in a single dataset and who can then be
targeted for espionage or blackmail.
Among other things,
the Final Rule identifies countries of concern and covered persons
to whom the Final Rule applies, and designates classes of
prohibited, restricted, and exempt transactions. The Final Rule
establishes bulk thresholds for certain sensitive personal data,
including human ‘omic data, biometric identifiers, precise
geolocation data, personal health data, personal financial data,
and certain covered personal identifiers. The Final Rule also
prescribes processes to obtain licenses authorizing otherwise
prohibited or restricted transactions; protocols for the
designation of covered persons; and provides advisory opinions, and
recordkeeping, reporting, and other due diligence obligations for
covered transactions.
The Final Rule is
consistent with the United States’ commitment to promoting an open,
global, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet; protecting
human rights online and offline; supporting a vibrant, global
economy by promoting cross-border data flows that are required to
enable international commerce and trade; and facilitating open
investment. Notably, the Final Rule does not impose generalized
data localization requirements regarding the physical or electronic
storage of Americans’ bulk sensitive personal data or U.S.
Government-related data, nor does it require locating computing
facilities within the United States to process such data. The Final
Rule does not prohibit U.S. persons from conducting medical,
scientific, or other research in countries of concern, or from
partnering or collaborating with covered persons to share data to
conduct researching, if that activity does not involve the exchange
of payment or other consideration as part of a covered data
transaction. The Final Rule also does not broadly prohibit U.S.
persons from engaging in commercial transactions, including
exchanging financial and other data as part of the sale of
commercial goods and services with countries of concern or covered
persons, or impose measures aimed at a broader decoupling of the
substantial consumer, economic, scientific, and trade relationships
that the United States has with other countries.
The Final Rule
further exempts several classes of data transactions from the scope
of its prohibitions and restrictions, including personal
communications and certain financial services transactions,
corporate group transactions, transactions authorized by Federal
law and international agreements, investment agreements subject to
a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
action, telecommunication services, biological product and medical
device authorizations, clinical investigations, and others.
The Final Rule’s
prohibitions and restrictions are consistent with other access
restrictions on sensitive personal data that have been imposed in
other contexts, including transactions reviewed by the CFIUS and
the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the
U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector (Team Telecom).
Lastly, under the
Final Rule, parties engaging in vendor agreements, employment
agreements, and investment agreements involving access by countries
of concern or covered persons to bulk U.S. sensitive personal data
or U.S. Government-related data would be restricted transactions
that must comply with the separate security requirements that have
been developed by the Department of Homeland Security’s
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in
coordination with the Justice Department. These security
requirements include organizational and system-level requirements
(such as ensuring that basic organizational cybersecurity policies,
practices, and controls are in place), and data-level requirements
(such as data minimization and masking, encryption, and
privacy-enhancing techniques). These critical requirements will be
published separately by CISA through the Federal Register and on
CISA’s website.
In connection with
the Final Rule, the Justice Department will publish compliance,
enforcement, and other guidance, which will be located at www.justice.gov/nsd/data-security.
The Department will also continue to engage with industry and other
stakeholders to determine whether any wind-down licenses are
appropriate as this program goes into effect. The Department also
anticipates publishing information regarding the application
process to seek an advisory opinion or a license for an otherwise
prohibited or restricted transaction, as described generally in the
Final Rule at Subpart H.
USDOT Fines Lufthansa and Swiss for Operating Flights
Carrying a U.S. Carrier’s Code in Prohibited Airspace - Department of
Transportation
WASHINGTON –
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today fined Deutsche
Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa) $220,000 and Swiss International Air Lines
AG (Swiss) $200,000 for operating flights carrying United Airlines’
designator code in regions in which a Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) flight prohibition was in effect for U.S.
operators. The airlines were ordered to cease and desist from
future similar violations.
An investigation by
the Department’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP)
revealed that between March 2022 and April 2024, Lufthansa operated
multiple flights carrying the United Airlines code in airspace
prohibited by the FAA to U.S. operators. By operating these flights
in this manner, Lufthansa violated the conditions of its authority
to operate and engaged in air transportation without the proper DOT
authority.
A separate OACP
investigation revealed that between February 2022 and March 2024,
Swiss operated multiple flights carrying the United Airlines code
in airspace prohibited by the FAA to U.S. operators. By operating
these flights in this manner, Swiss violated the conditions of its
authority to operate and engaged in air transportation without the
proper DOT authority.
The consent orders
are available at www.regulations.gov, docket number
DOT-OST-2024-0001.
For information about
airline passenger rights, as well as DOT’s rules, guidance, and
orders, the Department’s aviation consumer website can be found at
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer.
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