DROPLETS
Treasury's Office of Investment Security published an NPRM on October 22, 2026 to implement Subtitle C of the COINS Act, signalling an expansion of the U.S. outbound investment security program.
White & Case reports that on 22 October 2026 the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Investment Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement Subtitle C of the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act, referred to in the report as the COINS Act, the statutory basis for the outbound investment security program.
The development matters because the program conditions certain transactions by U.S. persons involving foreign entities engaged in covered national-security activities, and the reported proposal indicates an expansion of that regime. Counsel advising U.S. and non-U.S. clients on cross-border capital deployment into sensitive technology and adjacent industries should read the NPRM closely for changes to covered sectors and technologies, covered transaction types, notification versus prohibition treatment, and any compliance or filing mechanics. Because the source material reviewed here does not itemise the proposal's provisions, the precise scope of the expansion, the comment-period deadline, and the expected final-rule timetable are unconfirmed
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A Steptoe alert says the OCC has finalized rules implementing the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins, setting a compliance path for issuers and for the banks that hold their reserves.
The OCC has finalized implementing rules under the GENIUS Act governing payment stablecoins, according to a Steptoe client alert, with obligations aimed at both stablecoin issuers and the banks that hold or service the associated reserves. The alert signals that the statutory regime for stablecoin issuance is moving from proposal to final rule, a step that reshapes product design and client mandates rather than a narrow technical fix.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: stablecoin issuance now sits under a defined federal prudential framework, so banks, fintechs, and corporate treasurers face a concrete compliance calendar. Reserve, custody, disclosure, and activity-restriction requirements, along with the treatment of permitted issuer affiliates, affect whether a client can launch, distribute, or hold digital dollars and how existing treasury arrangements and vendor contracts need to be renegotiated.
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A Belgian Data Protection Authority decision dated October 9, 2026 reportedly holds that use of EU Standard Contractual Clauses is invalid where the exporter never carried out a Transfer Impact Assessment.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD) issued a decision on October 9, 2026, published in French, finding that a data exporter's failure to conduct a Transfer Impact Assessment (TIA) rendered its EU Standard Contractual Clauses invalid. On the available reporting, the failure is a missing TIA rather than a defect in the clauses themselves, so the decision reads as a process ruling: paper SCCs do not cure an unassessed transfer.
The cross-client significance is immediate. TIA obligations have sat inside the "appropriate safeguards" analysis since Schrems II, and DPAs have already signalled enforcement interest in transfers to jurisdictions with surveillance-law exposure. A national authority going further and treating the absence of a documented TIA as defeating the legal basis of the clauses gives privacy teams and deal teams a reason to audit whether every live SCC set, including intra-group and legacy vendor arrangements, is backed by a signed and current assessment.
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Treasury's October 22, 2026 NPRM would extend notification and prohibition regimes to certain foreign investments in critical technologies, putting deal diligence and structuring on notice for U.S. investors.
On October 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, building out the first U.S. outbound investment screening program. As described in Orrick's client alert, the proposal would make certain covered transactions — identified by reference to critical technology areas and countries of concern — subject to either mandatory notification to Treasury or outright prohibition, with reach to private equity funds, corporate strategic investors and other covered U.S. persons. Because this is a proposal, the operative details that matter most in practice remain unsettled: which sectors and jurisdictions are on the covered list, filing and ownership thresholds, treatment of pending and grandfathered deals, the civil penalty structure, and the effective date. The summary reviewed here does not confirm the NPRM's specific sector or country designations, so those should be verified against the published text.
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FDA's final PDURS guidance sets out when software functions become a prescription drug, while signaling how the agency will defend that position against First Amendment challenges.
On October 21, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published final guidance titled "Regulatory Considerations for Prescription Drug Use-Related Software" (PDURS Guidance). According to the account circulated by Ropes & Gray, the agency finalized the document while defending its authority to regulate certain software functions, a posture suggesting it expects litigation to test its position under the First Amendment.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: the boundary between a regulated device or drug function and unregulated software practice is the central commercial question for digital health companies, software platforms, and pharma and biotech partners building companion or dosing applications. Guidance that both explains the framework and stakes out a constitutional defense has implications for product design, premarket regulatory strategy, and the willingness of venture-backed issuers to pursue software-centric models in the prescription space. It also offers a foreseeable focal point for industry challenge to the agency's asserted jurisdiction.
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Treasury's October 22, 2026 notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the COINS Act would materially widen US national-security screening of outbound investment, reshaping diligence for cross-border deals in sensitive technology.
On October 22, 2026, the US Treasury issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act of 2025 (COINS Act), enacted December 18, 2025. The proposal is Treasury's first rulemaking-level signal on the outbound investment program; the source report does not detail covered sectors or transaction types, so counsel should read the NPRM itself before relying on summaries.
Why it matters: outbound investment review adds a pre-closing regulatory gate to deals firms often diligence only for antitrust, foreign investment and export-control reasons. If the proposal widens covered sectors or transaction types, private equity funds, strategic acquirers and sovereign investors face longer timetables, notice obligations and penalty exposure for non-compliance, and counterparties and lenders will demand representations on US outbound investment coverage well before closing.
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A new Southern District of New York complaint against Ubiquiti converts alleged export-control and sanctions-compliance failures into state-law tort claims, testing whether a tech supplier can be liable for products that worked as intended.
Ukrainian civilians have sued networking-equipment maker Ubiquiti in the Southern District of New York, alleging its airMAX radio bridges formed part of the communications infrastructure Russian forces used to identify and strike civilians in Kherson, Chernihiv and elsewhere. The complaint asserts negligent entrustment, public nuisance, strict products liability on a design-defect theory, negligent design, negligent infliction of emotional distress and aiding-and-abetting torts, unusual because it does not allege the devices malfunctioned, only that they worked as intended and enabled sanctioned military end users.
Two features make the case worth tracking. First, plaintiffs convert alleged export-control and sanctions-compliance failures into state-law tort duty, invoking post-sale telemetry, firmware updates and distributor authority to argue a duty to geofence, whitelist or deactivate devices. Second, liability is asserted at the network level rather than the device level, sidestepping the causation problem that defeated recent semiconductor war-crimes claims.
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Treasury's draft outbound investment regulations would extend prohibitions to certain U.S. investments in China's biotechnology sector, pulling fund commitments, joint ventures and licensing deals into scope ahead of a final rule.
Jones Day reports that the U.S. Treasury Department has issued draft regulations that would prohibit certain U.S. investments into China's biotechnology sector, extending the outbound investment security program into an additional technology field. The regime's existing covered sectors — semiconductors, quantum information and artificial intelligence, among others — would gain biotechnology, and with it new prohibitions or restrictions on covered transactions by covered U.S. persons, which in practice reaches private equity, venture capital and corporate investment activity rather than only strategic deals.
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A 20-state coalition plus the District of Columbia filed suit in Oregon challenging FinCEN's exemptions for domestic companies and U.S. persons and seeking to block deletion of previously reported ownership data.
On October 27, a coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon against the Department of the Treasury, FinCEN and four federal officials. According to the complaint as reported, the states seek to vacate FinCEN's rules exempting domestic companies and U.S. persons from beneficial ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act and to block the deletion of data already reported. Sophisticated counsel should see two distinct fronts of exposure. First, the exemptions and the data-deletion decision are the operative relief for clients who concluded their filing obligations had ended; an adverse ruling would revive reporting duties for a large population of domestic entities and with them penalty exposure, the need to re-collect ownership information, and recalibration of bank and corporate-services onboarding workflows. Second, the case tests how far state enforcement authority reaches over federal AML administration, and an appeal is likely whatever the district court decides on the merits, prolonging uncert
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Lenders must now report cyber incidents within 36 hours and fold AI-risk oversight into their compliance regimes under Fannie Mae's updated supplement.
Fannie Mae's latest Information Security and Business Resiliency Supplement, effective January 18, 2027, expands the government-sponsored enterprise's cybersecurity framework to include a new "Super Intelligence" governance section, a term that in practice refers to emerging AI and advanced analytics technologies that can influence mortgage-service workflows. The update also introduces a 36-hour cyber-incident notice requirement, obliging mortgage originators, servicers, and related lenders to notify Fannie Mae of any incident that potentially compromises borrower data, system integrity, or the availability of pledged collateral. For firms advising banking and mortgage-servicing clients, the change means revisiting internal risk-management policies, tightening governance around AI tools, and ensuring incident-reporting procedures can meet the tightened disclosure threshold. The exact scope of "Super Intelligence" remains limited in available reporting, but the move signals a broader regulatory push toward embedding AI risk within core cybersecurity compliance. Clients should assess A
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Executive Order 14431 makes layoff history a factor in H-1B and PERM adjudication, and DOL has already stopped processing green card certifications for eight major employers.
Executive Order 14431, signed September 18, 2026 and published at 91 FR 60501, directs DOS, DOL and DHS to consider whether an employer "directly or indirectly engaged in layoffs within the previous year or plans future layoffs" affecting similarly situated US workers when reviewing LCAs, H-1B petitions, visa applications and admission. DOL's Wage and Hour Division must review previously filed LCAs within 30 days for enforcement under INA 212(n)(2)(G), and rulemaking authority is delegated to four agencies, so implementing guidance is likely to arrive in waves.
Separately, at an October 8, 2026 White House press conference, Labor Secretary Sonderling said DOL would stop accepting or processing PERM labor certifications for eight employers — six for certification volume and two under active federal investigations. The firms were not named, and DOL published no Federal Register notice or identified regulatory basis, making legal challenge plausible under 20 CFR 656.31, whose suspensions can run 180 days and, if fraud is found, support denial and debarment.
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The OCC has given Ripple final approval to form the Ripple National Trust Bank, converting a conditional charter granted in December 2025 into an operating national trust bank for a major digital-asset issuer.
MoFo's Financial Markets & Innovation roundup reports that on October 26 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Ripple final approval to establish the Ripple National Trust Bank, following an application filed July 2, 2025 and a conditional charter granted December 12, 2025. The material development is the conversion of a conditional approval into an operative national trust bank charter, which brings a prominent digital-asset issuer inside the federal banking supervisor's perimeter and gives it a federally supervised balance-sheet vehicle that may displace reliance on state money-transmission or other arrangements.
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A Section 232 proclamation dated October 28, 2026, following a Commerce Department investigation, subjects robotics and industrial machinery imports to new presidential trade restrictions; rates, scope and dates await detail.
On October 28, 2026, President Trump issued a proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, following a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation into the effects of imports of robotics and industrial machinery. Section 232 actions of this kind typically authorize tariffs or quotas on an identified class of imports and can be modified or terminated by later presidential action, with implementation carried out through customs rules and agency guidance.
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Genentech's Delaware complaint alleging nine patents against Kashiv and Amneal over proposed omalizumab biosimilar ADL-018 is reported as the first BPCIA suit on this product, an early read on the § 262 pathway.
On October 16, 2026, Genentech filed BPCIA Litigation No. 1:26-cv-01343 in the District of Delaware against Kashiv and Amneal, alleging that their proposed Xolair (omalizumab) biosimilar, ADL-018, infringes nine patents. Venable describes the filing as the first litigation brought against this biosimilar; the precise scope of that "first" — first against ADL-018 rather than first of any kind — is not fully specified in the available reporting.
Why sophisticated counsel care: BPCIA litigation under 35 U.S.C. § 262 is the principal channel biologics developers use to test challengers' patent positions before launch, and omalizumab is a high-revenue immunology product where biosimilar entry is a material commercial variable for both innovator and filer clients. A nine-patent assertion shows how an innovator will package its biologic patent estate in the § 262 setting, and how quickly a challenger will respond.
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DOJ's NFED criminal channel and a six-month civil FCA self-disclosure pilot, open until 22 April 2027, give health care clients defined reporting routes but narrow eligibility and releases leaving state and exclusion exposure open.
In October 2026 DOJ and HHS opened two coordinated routes for healthcare companies to self-report misconduct involving federally funded healthcare programs. The NFED Healthcare Self-Disclosure Program (announced 15 October) routes potentially criminal conduct to DOJ's Health Care Fraud Section, which will forward the submission to HHS-OIG; a qualifying DOJ disclosure satisfies HHS-OIG's Self-Disclosure Protocol without a separate filing, and disclosure to HHS-OIG alone will not qualify for a DOJ declination. The FCA Self-Disclosure Pilot Program (announced 22 October) creates a six-month civil channel to DOJ's Civil Division, open only until 22 April 2027, requiring a complete account, supporting documents, remediation and repayment at a 1.25-1.6 multiplier rather than up to triple damages, in return for a coordinated federal FCA and HHS administrative release that does not resolve state Medicaid, licensing or exclusion exposure. Both build on DOJ's March 2026 uniform corporate enforcement and voluntary self-disclosure policy. Sophisticated clients should triage criminal versus civil
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Delaware's Court of Chancery enjoined Cloudflare's founder-control recapitalization, finding a reasonable probability the special committee lacked good faith under DGCL Section 144's 2025 safe harbor.
In re Cloudflare, Inc. Stockholder Litigation (Del. Ch., V.C. Laster) preliminarily enjoined the founders' multi-step recapitalization — Class B exchanged into one-vote Class A plus nine-vote preferred, with a new non-voting Class C — designed to preserve founder control while unlocking liquidity the plaintiffs' expert valued above $4 billion. Defendants won every statutory argument: Section 144(d)(6)'s injunction exclusion reaches only Unocal/Revlon/Blasius-style deal protections, not conflicted controller transactions; the board's disinterestedness determinations survive gross-negligence review; and the heightened disinterest presumption for listed companies applies beyond the pleadings, requiring clear and convincing evidence to rebut. But the court found a reasonable probability that the committee lacked good faith, citing a controlled mindset, a pre-set narrative, backchannels to the founder, and Signal messages set to auto-delete; the gross-negligence claim failed, and defendants were offered a roughly 90-day bifurcated mini-trial on good faith alone. Counsel should expect the
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HHS says it does not intend to enforce against pharmacies, federal facilities and physicians compounding six named peptides when ten conditions are met, while FDA rulemaking on compounding stays pending.
HHS announced on October 28, 2026 a draft policy under which it does not intend to take enforcement action against state-licensed pharmacies, federal facilities or licensed physicians that compound a drug using six peptide bulk drug substances — BPC-157, epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, semax and TB-500 — provided 10 conditions are met, while FDA rulemaking on compounding remains pending.
The step matters because it places an enforcement-discretion backstop between a still-unfinished FDA rulemaking record and businesses compounding peptides, a category frequently sold direct-to-consumer through telehealth and wellness channels. Because the discretion is expressly tied to pending rulemaking, the agency's position could shift once that rule is finalized; the available advisory does not describe the 10 conditions themselves, so the actual scope of protection cannot be assessed from this source alone and should be read in the draft text.
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Treasury's proposed rule to implement the COINS Act would build out notification and filing duties for certain U.S. outbound investments into countries of concern, adding a federal overlay on export controls and sanctions.
On October 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, enacted as part of FY 2026 national defense authorization legislation. The proposal is the first step in building out a mandatory notification and filing regime for certain U.S. outbound investments into countries of concern.
For major-firm clients, COINS is becoming a new federal overlay on cross-border capital flows, sitting alongside export controls, sanctions and CFIUS-style review. Because the statute, the covered technology and covered country lists, the filing mechanics and any penalty exposure all still depend on the final rule, companies and private equity funds with existing or contemplated ties to semiconductor, quantum and other critical-technology counterparties in China and other covered jurisdictions are best served modeling notification triggers now rather than after adoption. The NPRM comment period and the content of the final rule are the immediate next developments to watch, along with any in
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A new federal rule obliges pharmacy benefit managers to disclose fees to large self-insured health plans, adding a compliance layer in a contested area for employer benefits counsel, PBMs and plan intermediaries.
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a final rule requiring pharmacy benefit managers to disclose fees to large self-insured health plans, according to a Mayer Brown client alert published 2 November 2026. The development lands in an already crowded PBM transparency landscape that has drawn state legislative attention, congressional proposals and federal agency scrutiny, so sponsors and intermediaries are absorbing a new federal disclosure regime on top of existing state and contractual obligations.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: self-insured plans covering large workforces sit at the front line of PBM fee pass-through disputes, and a federal disclosure mandate is likely to reshape what administrative-services contracts, disclosure schedules, audit rights and vendor-negotiation data must contain. Large employers should expect fresh PBM fee data requests routed through their own intermediaries, while PBMs face standardized disclosure duties that could surface in litigation, regulatory inquiries or negotiations with clients.
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Two SEC proposals would let registered funds deliver private-market exposure more freely, while shifting liquidity, valuation and board-oversight burdens onto fund-level judgments and leaving key terms open to comment.
The SEC has put forward two proposals that would make registered fund structures more attractive to sponsors offering investors access to private markets. As described in the client alert, the pair could broaden the routes by which private-market exposure is delivered through registered vehicles, and in exchange would rely more heavily on fund-specific judgments about liquidity and valuation and on board oversight rather than a single uniform framework. Both proposals are in the public comment stage; the alert does not state the comment deadline, and neither proposal is final, so terms could shift before adoption. Counsel and clients should care because the design points — how liquidity is classified, how valuations are struck, and what boards must do — determine how sponsors package flagship private-market products, how advisers are paid, and where illiquidity and stale-pricing risk sit. Watch for the comment deadline, the substance of comment letters from private-markets trade groups, and any final rules that follow.
NERC's October 21 petition asks FERC to bring large data centers into federal bulk-power reliability registration, putting hyperscaler load growth into a new compliance and cost-allocation docket.
On October 21, 2026, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a petition seeking approval of new registration requirements designed to bring large data centers into the federal reliability framework, on the theory that their computational load raises grid concerns. The available material confirms the filing and its date; registration thresholds, cost-allocation mechanics, comment deadlines and any implementation schedule are not reported in the source snippet and should be verified against the petition text.
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HHS says it will not enforce against 503A compounding of six peptides including BPC-157 if a detailed set of conditions is met, but the substances still are not on FDA's bulks list and the policy is open for comment.
On October 28, 2026, HHS issued an "Enforcement Discretion Policy Regarding 503A Compounding Using Certain Peptide Bulk Drug Substances," according to a Foley & Lardner alert; comments close two weeks after Federal Register publication, which the firm lists as November 13, 2026. The policy states HHS does not intend to enforce against state-licensed pharmacies, federal facilities, or licensed physicians compounding from six bulk substances — BPC-157, Epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, Semax and TB-500 — provided roughly ten conditions are met, including sourcing from an FDA-registered facility with a certificate of analysis, CGMP-compliant manufacturing, MedWatch adverse event reporting, single-ingredient products, bioavailability documentation for oral formulations and 510(k)-cleared syringes.
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The OCC's October 21, 2026 final rule implementing key GENIUS Act provisions reshapes the perimeter for banks and stablecoin issuers, and clients need a read on obligations, chartering options, and transition timing.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a final rule on October 21, 2026 implementing key provisions of the GENIUS Act, the federal payment stablecoin framework. DLA Piper's client alert frames the rule as relevant to banks and stablecoin issuers alike and is best treated as a roadmap rather than a substitute for the rule text: which activities banks and regulated issuers may conduct, what supervision and reserve-related expectations attach, and how issuance, custody, and distribution relationships are structured. Because the OCC framework operates alongside other GENIUS Act implementation work, counsel should confirm which obligations are OCC-administered, which belong to other agencies, and what transition periods and effective dates apply before advising clients. For major-firm clients the immediate questions are practical: whether an existing payments, banking, or fintech platform should pursue or adjust a regulated issuance model, and how marketing, disclosures, and operational controls change. Watch for staggered effective dates, further agency proposals, and litig
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A September 30, 2026 War Department memorandum creates FORTRESS America, a department-wide program to secure the energy, industrial capacity, resources and infrastructure underpinning the U.S. military.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman reports that on September 30, 2026, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum establishing FORTRESS America, described as a new department-wide program intended to secure the energy, industrial capacity, resources and infrastructure that support the U.S. military. The firm's alert frames the program as carrying implications for energy, nuclear and defense companies. The operative details of the memorandum — funding authorities, implementing contracts, procurement preferences, facility or resource designations — are not set out in the material reviewed here, and corroborating coverage from other firms has not been confirmed.
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Great Britain's Employment Rights Act 2025 further increases the duty on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment from Oct. 30, 2026, prompting policy, training and documentation reviews.
From 30 October 2026, the Employment Rights Act 2025 further increases the burden on employers in Great Britain to prevent workplace sexual harassment, according to a McGuireWoods alert. The alert frames the change as added pressure on employers without setting out the operative detail, so the precise scope of the duty, the standard of prevention it demands, and the enforcement route remain unconfirmed in the source material and should be verified against the statutory text and any published guidance.
The practical significance is that a statutory prevention duty shifts the focus from post-complaint response to what preventive steps an employer can evidence in advance. That bears on policy design, training, investigation records and the record available if a harassment claim or regulatory inquiry follows, and it affects both defence posture and internal compliance review.
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The commission withdrew its guidance on how employers may consider arrest and conviction records in hiring, leaving record-based exclusion criteria to be defended against disparate-impact and statutory challenges on their own terms.
According to a law-firm alert, on October 29 the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rescinded its 2012 enforcement guidance addressing employers' consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions. That guidance had been the Commission's principal interpretive statement on whether criminal-record screening criteria can raise disparate-impact exposure under Title VII, and it shaped how employers and in-house counsel structured record-based exclusions and job postings.
Sophisticated employers should not read the rescission as permission. It withdraws guidance, not statutory obligations: Title VII's disparate-impact framework, the Fair Credit Reporting Act's accuracy and adverse-action requirements, and state fair-chance and "ban the box" statutes operate independently of federal EEOC guidance. The practical effect of removing the guidance is greater uncertainty about how far the agency and plaintiffs' bar will push criminal-record exclusions, particularly in sectors where record prevalence correlates with race, national origin, or sex.
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Mayer Brown reports the SEC has proposed modernizing registered adviser and fund custody rules, including a crypto custody framework; the proposal text, release number and comment deadline are not in the available evidence.
The cluster contains a single Mayer Brown alert, dated 2 November 2026, reporting that the SEC has proposed modernizing the custody rules applicable to registered investment advisers and funds, with the package including a crypto custody framework. No other source in the cluster corroborates the proposal, and the alert material available for review is limited to its title, so the specific rule text, release numbers, comment deadlines, and any safe-harbor or verification mechanics for digital-asset custody cannot be verified from this evidence.
Why it matters: custody rules sit at the intersection of adviser fiduciary obligations, fund governance and — if a crypto framework is included — how advisers or funds hold client digital assets. A modernization that clarifies permissible custody and third-party arrangements, or reworks verification and disclosure obligations, could change how alternative managers, crypto funds and their counterparties structure operations, contracts and disclosures, and it may ripple into state-level and non-US regimes that mirror the US framework.
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FERC's proposed first-ever blanket authorization program for LNG plants, together with a new air modeling policy, could shorten permitting timelines for natural gas infrastructure developers.
On October 15, 2026, FERC took two steps intended to expedite review of natural gas infrastructure: it proposed the first blanket authorization program for liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, and it took a second action on an air modeling policy, whose terms the source summary does not set out. Counsel should treat the first item as a proposal, not a final program; scope, eligible facilities, and the treatment of contested proceedings would be settled through notice and comment.
Schedule certainty, rather than engineering design, drives the economics, financing, and offtake commitments of LNG projects, and FERC review with its environmental analysis is the usual pacing item. A blanket authorization route could compress the front end of that review, while an air modeling policy could standardize how air quality effects are analyzed inside FERC proceedings. Both steps foreground the seam between FERC's exclusive jurisdiction over interstate gas siting and the separate state and federal air regimes that often drive real-world timelines.
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A second October 30 revision to the roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods facing 50% duties or outright import bans under Section 338 came with a request for comment on the ITC's role.
On October 30, the administration made a second set of modifications to the list of approximately $20 billion in Canadian goods currently subject to 50% tariffs or outright import bans imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1338), and in the same action requested comment on the role of the International Trade Commission. Section 338 is a rarely invoked presidential authority, so the cadence of these revisions, paired with a docket on the Commission's procedural role, suggests an active and evolving regime rather than a one-off measure. Trade, customs and supply-chain counsel should treat the list as a moving target: product classifications previously exempt, modified or newly covered may change again, and the comment process could shape how future actions are administered. Canada-facing manufacturers, importers and distributors should re-map HTS classifications and landing costs against the revised treatment of affected lines, and consider alternate sourcing or tariff engineering where exposure is concentrated. The next developments to watch are the comment
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Treasury's Office of Investment Security published an NPRM on October 22, 2026 to implement Subtitle C of the COINS Act, signalling an expansion of the U.S. outbound investment security program.
White & Case reports that on 22 October 2026 the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Investment Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement Subtitle C of the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act, referred to in the report as the COINS Act, the statutory basis for the outbound investment security program.
The development matters because the program conditions certain transactions by U.S. persons involving foreign entities engaged in covered national-security activities, and the reported proposal indicates an expansion of that regime. Counsel advising U.S. and non-U.S. clients on cross-border capital deployment into sensitive technology and adjacent industries should read the NPRM closely for changes to covered sectors and technologies, covered transaction types, notification versus prohibition treatment, and any compliance or filing mechanics. Because the source material reviewed here does not itemise the proposal's provisions, the precise scope of the expansion, the comment-period deadline, and the expected final-rule timetable are unconfirmed
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Delaware's Court of Chancery enjoined Cloudflare's founder-control recapitalization, finding a reasonable probability the special committee lacked good faith under DGCL Section 144's 2025 safe harbor.
In re Cloudflare, Inc. Stockholder Litigation (Del. Ch., V.C. Laster) preliminarily enjoined the founders' multi-step recapitalization — Class B exchanged into one-vote Class A plus nine-vote preferred, with a new non-voting Class C — designed to preserve founder control while unlocking liquidity the plaintiffs' expert valued above $4 billion. Defendants won every statutory argument: Section 144(d)(6)'s injunction exclusion reaches only Unocal/Revlon/Blasius-style deal protections, not conflicted controller transactions; the board's disinterestedness determinations survive gross-negligence review; and the heightened disinterest presumption for listed companies applies beyond the pleadings, requiring clear and convincing evidence to rebut. But the court found a reasonable probability that the committee lacked good faith, citing a controlled mindset, a pre-set narrative, backchannels to the founder, and Signal messages set to auto-delete; the gross-negligence claim failed, and defendants were offered a roughly 90-day bifurcated mini-trial on good faith alone. Counsel should expect the
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Lenders must now report cyber incidents within 36 hours and fold AI-risk oversight into their compliance regimes under Fannie Mae's updated supplement.
Fannie Mae's latest Information Security and Business Resiliency Supplement, effective January 18, 2027, expands the government-sponsored enterprise's cybersecurity framework to include a new "Super Intelligence" governance section, a term that in practice refers to emerging AI and advanced analytics technologies that can influence mortgage-service workflows. The update also introduces a 36-hour cyber-incident notice requirement, obliging mortgage originators, servicers, and related lenders to notify Fannie Mae of any incident that potentially compromises borrower data, system integrity, or the availability of pledged collateral. For firms advising banking and mortgage-servicing clients, the change means revisiting internal risk-management policies, tightening governance around AI tools, and ensuring incident-reporting procedures can meet the tightened disclosure threshold. The exact scope of "Super Intelligence" remains limited in available reporting, but the move signals a broader regulatory push toward embedding AI risk within core cybersecurity compliance. Clients should assess A
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Great Britain's Employment Rights Act 2025 further increases the duty on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment from Oct. 30, 2026, prompting policy, training and documentation reviews.
From 30 October 2026, the Employment Rights Act 2025 further increases the burden on employers in Great Britain to prevent workplace sexual harassment, according to a McGuireWoods alert. The alert frames the change as added pressure on employers without setting out the operative detail, so the precise scope of the duty, the standard of prevention it demands, and the enforcement route remain unconfirmed in the source material and should be verified against the statutory text and any published guidance.
The practical significance is that a statutory prevention duty shifts the focus from post-complaint response to what preventive steps an employer can evidence in advance. That bears on policy design, training, investigation records and the record available if a harassment claim or regulatory inquiry follows, and it affects both defence posture and internal compliance review.
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The commission withdrew its guidance on how employers may consider arrest and conviction records in hiring, leaving record-based exclusion criteria to be defended against disparate-impact and statutory challenges on their own terms.
According to a law-firm alert, on October 29 the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rescinded its 2012 enforcement guidance addressing employers' consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions. That guidance had been the Commission's principal interpretive statement on whether criminal-record screening criteria can raise disparate-impact exposure under Title VII, and it shaped how employers and in-house counsel structured record-based exclusions and job postings.
Sophisticated employers should not read the rescission as permission. It withdraws guidance, not statutory obligations: Title VII's disparate-impact framework, the Fair Credit Reporting Act's accuracy and adverse-action requirements, and state fair-chance and "ban the box" statutes operate independently of federal EEOC guidance. The practical effect of removing the guidance is greater uncertainty about how far the agency and plaintiffs' bar will push criminal-record exclusions, particularly in sectors where record prevalence correlates with race, national origin, or sex.
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NERC's October 21 petition asks FERC to bring large data centers into federal bulk-power reliability registration, putting hyperscaler load growth into a new compliance and cost-allocation docket.
On October 21, 2026, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a petition seeking approval of new registration requirements designed to bring large data centers into the federal reliability framework, on the theory that their computational load raises grid concerns. The available material confirms the filing and its date; registration thresholds, cost-allocation mechanics, comment deadlines and any implementation schedule are not reported in the source snippet and should be verified against the petition text.
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FDA's final PDURS guidance sets out when software functions become a prescription drug, while signaling how the agency will defend that position against First Amendment challenges.
On October 21, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published final guidance titled "Regulatory Considerations for Prescription Drug Use-Related Software" (PDURS Guidance). According to the account circulated by Ropes & Gray, the agency finalized the document while defending its authority to regulate certain software functions, a posture suggesting it expects litigation to test its position under the First Amendment.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: the boundary between a regulated device or drug function and unregulated software practice is the central commercial question for digital health companies, software platforms, and pharma and biotech partners building companion or dosing applications. Guidance that both explains the framework and stakes out a constitutional defense has implications for product design, premarket regulatory strategy, and the willingness of venture-backed issuers to pursue software-centric models in the prescription space. It also offers a foreseeable focal point for industry challenge to the agency's asserted jurisdiction.
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HHS says it does not intend to enforce against pharmacies, federal facilities and physicians compounding six named peptides when ten conditions are met, while FDA rulemaking on compounding stays pending.
HHS announced on October 28, 2026 a draft policy under which it does not intend to take enforcement action against state-licensed pharmacies, federal facilities or licensed physicians that compound a drug using six peptide bulk drug substances — BPC-157, epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, semax and TB-500 — provided 10 conditions are met, while FDA rulemaking on compounding remains pending.
The step matters because it places an enforcement-discretion backstop between a still-unfinished FDA rulemaking record and businesses compounding peptides, a category frequently sold direct-to-consumer through telehealth and wellness channels. Because the discretion is expressly tied to pending rulemaking, the agency's position could shift once that rule is finalized; the available advisory does not describe the 10 conditions themselves, so the actual scope of protection cannot be assessed from this source alone and should be read in the draft text.
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HHS says it will not enforce against 503A compounding of six peptides including BPC-157 if a detailed set of conditions is met, but the substances still are not on FDA's bulks list and the policy is open for comment.
On October 28, 2026, HHS issued an "Enforcement Discretion Policy Regarding 503A Compounding Using Certain Peptide Bulk Drug Substances," according to a Foley & Lardner alert; comments close two weeks after Federal Register publication, which the firm lists as November 13, 2026. The policy states HHS does not intend to enforce against state-licensed pharmacies, federal facilities, or licensed physicians compounding from six bulk substances — BPC-157, Epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, Semax and TB-500 — provided roughly ten conditions are met, including sourcing from an FDA-registered facility with a certificate of analysis, CGMP-compliant manufacturing, MedWatch adverse event reporting, single-ingredient products, bioavailability documentation for oral formulations and 510(k)-cleared syringes.
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A 20-state coalition plus the District of Columbia filed suit in Oregon challenging FinCEN's exemptions for domestic companies and U.S. persons and seeking to block deletion of previously reported ownership data.
On October 27, a coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon against the Department of the Treasury, FinCEN and four federal officials. According to the complaint as reported, the states seek to vacate FinCEN's rules exempting domestic companies and U.S. persons from beneficial ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act and to block the deletion of data already reported. Sophisticated counsel should see two distinct fronts of exposure. First, the exemptions and the data-deletion decision are the operative relief for clients who concluded their filing obligations had ended; an adverse ruling would revive reporting duties for a large population of domestic entities and with them penalty exposure, the need to re-collect ownership information, and recalibration of bank and corporate-services onboarding workflows. Second, the case tests how far state enforcement authority reaches over federal AML administration, and an appeal is likely whatever the district court decides on the merits, prolonging uncert
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Mayer Brown reports the SEC has proposed modernizing registered adviser and fund custody rules, including a crypto custody framework; the proposal text, release number and comment deadline are not in the available evidence.
The cluster contains a single Mayer Brown alert, dated 2 November 2026, reporting that the SEC has proposed modernizing the custody rules applicable to registered investment advisers and funds, with the package including a crypto custody framework. No other source in the cluster corroborates the proposal, and the alert material available for review is limited to its title, so the specific rule text, release numbers, comment deadlines, and any safe-harbor or verification mechanics for digital-asset custody cannot be verified from this evidence.
Why it matters: custody rules sit at the intersection of adviser fiduciary obligations, fund governance and — if a crypto framework is included — how advisers or funds hold client digital assets. A modernization that clarifies permissible custody and third-party arrangements, or reworks verification and disclosure obligations, could change how alternative managers, crypto funds and their counterparties structure operations, contracts and disclosures, and it may ripple into state-level and non-US regimes that mirror the US framework.
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A Steptoe alert says the OCC has finalized rules implementing the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins, setting a compliance path for issuers and for the banks that hold their reserves.
The OCC has finalized implementing rules under the GENIUS Act governing payment stablecoins, according to a Steptoe client alert, with obligations aimed at both stablecoin issuers and the banks that hold or service the associated reserves. The alert signals that the statutory regime for stablecoin issuance is moving from proposal to final rule, a step that reshapes product design and client mandates rather than a narrow technical fix.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: stablecoin issuance now sits under a defined federal prudential framework, so banks, fintechs, and corporate treasurers face a concrete compliance calendar. Reserve, custody, disclosure, and activity-restriction requirements, along with the treatment of permitted issuer affiliates, affect whether a client can launch, distribute, or hold digital dollars and how existing treasury arrangements and vendor contracts need to be renegotiated.
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The OCC has given Ripple final approval to form the Ripple National Trust Bank, converting a conditional charter granted in December 2025 into an operating national trust bank for a major digital-asset issuer.
MoFo's Financial Markets & Innovation roundup reports that on October 26 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Ripple final approval to establish the Ripple National Trust Bank, following an application filed July 2, 2025 and a conditional charter granted December 12, 2025. The material development is the conversion of a conditional approval into an operative national trust bank charter, which brings a prominent digital-asset issuer inside the federal banking supervisor's perimeter and gives it a federally supervised balance-sheet vehicle that may displace reliance on state money-transmission or other arrangements.
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The OCC's October 21, 2026 final rule implementing key GENIUS Act provisions reshapes the perimeter for banks and stablecoin issuers, and clients need a read on obligations, chartering options, and transition timing.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a final rule on October 21, 2026 implementing key provisions of the GENIUS Act, the federal payment stablecoin framework. DLA Piper's client alert frames the rule as relevant to banks and stablecoin issuers alike and is best treated as a roadmap rather than a substitute for the rule text: which activities banks and regulated issuers may conduct, what supervision and reserve-related expectations attach, and how issuance, custody, and distribution relationships are structured. Because the OCC framework operates alongside other GENIUS Act implementation work, counsel should confirm which obligations are OCC-administered, which belong to other agencies, and what transition periods and effective dates apply before advising clients. For major-firm clients the immediate questions are practical: whether an existing payments, banking, or fintech platform should pursue or adjust a regulated issuance model, and how marketing, disclosures, and operational controls change. Watch for staggered effective dates, further agency proposals, and litig
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A September 30, 2026 War Department memorandum creates FORTRESS America, a department-wide program to secure the energy, industrial capacity, resources and infrastructure underpinning the U.S. military.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman reports that on September 30, 2026, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum establishing FORTRESS America, described as a new department-wide program intended to secure the energy, industrial capacity, resources and infrastructure that support the U.S. military. The firm's alert frames the program as carrying implications for energy, nuclear and defense companies. The operative details of the memorandum — funding authorities, implementing contracts, procurement preferences, facility or resource designations — are not set out in the material reviewed here, and corroborating coverage from other firms has not been confirmed.
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DOJ's NFED criminal channel and a six-month civil FCA self-disclosure pilot, open until 22 April 2027, give health care clients defined reporting routes but narrow eligibility and releases leaving state and exclusion exposure open.
In October 2026 DOJ and HHS opened two coordinated routes for healthcare companies to self-report misconduct involving federally funded healthcare programs. The NFED Healthcare Self-Disclosure Program (announced 15 October) routes potentially criminal conduct to DOJ's Health Care Fraud Section, which will forward the submission to HHS-OIG; a qualifying DOJ disclosure satisfies HHS-OIG's Self-Disclosure Protocol without a separate filing, and disclosure to HHS-OIG alone will not qualify for a DOJ declination. The FCA Self-Disclosure Pilot Program (announced 22 October) creates a six-month civil channel to DOJ's Civil Division, open only until 22 April 2027, requiring a complete account, supporting documents, remediation and repayment at a 1.25-1.6 multiplier rather than up to triple damages, in return for a coordinated federal FCA and HHS administrative release that does not resolve state Medicaid, licensing or exclusion exposure. Both build on DOJ's March 2026 uniform corporate enforcement and voluntary self-disclosure policy. Sophisticated clients should triage criminal versus civil
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A new federal rule obliges pharmacy benefit managers to disclose fees to large self-insured health plans, adding a compliance layer in a contested area for employer benefits counsel, PBMs and plan intermediaries.
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a final rule requiring pharmacy benefit managers to disclose fees to large self-insured health plans, according to a Mayer Brown client alert published 2 November 2026. The development lands in an already crowded PBM transparency landscape that has drawn state legislative attention, congressional proposals and federal agency scrutiny, so sponsors and intermediaries are absorbing a new federal disclosure regime on top of existing state and contractual obligations.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: self-insured plans covering large workforces sit at the front line of PBM fee pass-through disputes, and a federal disclosure mandate is likely to reshape what administrative-services contracts, disclosure schedules, audit rights and vendor-negotiation data must contain. Large employers should expect fresh PBM fee data requests routed through their own intermediaries, while PBMs face standardized disclosure duties that could surface in litigation, regulatory inquiries or negotiations with clients.
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Executive Order 14431 makes layoff history a factor in H-1B and PERM adjudication, and DOL has already stopped processing green card certifications for eight major employers.
Executive Order 14431, signed September 18, 2026 and published at 91 FR 60501, directs DOS, DOL and DHS to consider whether an employer "directly or indirectly engaged in layoffs within the previous year or plans future layoffs" affecting similarly situated US workers when reviewing LCAs, H-1B petitions, visa applications and admission. DOL's Wage and Hour Division must review previously filed LCAs within 30 days for enforcement under INA 212(n)(2)(G), and rulemaking authority is delegated to four agencies, so implementing guidance is likely to arrive in waves.
Separately, at an October 8, 2026 White House press conference, Labor Secretary Sonderling said DOL would stop accepting or processing PERM labor certifications for eight employers — six for certification volume and two under active federal investigations. The firms were not named, and DOL published no Federal Register notice or identified regulatory basis, making legal challenge plausible under 20 CFR 656.31, whose suspensions can run 180 days and, if fraud is found, support denial and debarment.
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A Section 232 proclamation dated October 28, 2026, following a Commerce Department investigation, subjects robotics and industrial machinery imports to new presidential trade restrictions; rates, scope and dates await detail.
On October 28, 2026, President Trump issued a proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, following a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation into the effects of imports of robotics and industrial machinery. Section 232 actions of this kind typically authorize tariffs or quotas on an identified class of imports and can be modified or terminated by later presidential action, with implementation carried out through customs rules and agency guidance.
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A second October 30 revision to the roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods facing 50% duties or outright import bans under Section 338 came with a request for comment on the ITC's role.
On October 30, the administration made a second set of modifications to the list of approximately $20 billion in Canadian goods currently subject to 50% tariffs or outright import bans imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1338), and in the same action requested comment on the role of the International Trade Commission. Section 338 is a rarely invoked presidential authority, so the cadence of these revisions, paired with a docket on the Commission's procedural role, suggests an active and evolving regime rather than a one-off measure. Trade, customs and supply-chain counsel should treat the list as a moving target: product classifications previously exempt, modified or newly covered may change again, and the comment process could shape how future actions are administered. Canada-facing manufacturers, importers and distributors should re-map HTS classifications and landing costs against the revised treatment of affected lines, and consider alternate sourcing or tariff engineering where exposure is concentrated. The next developments to watch are the comment
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Genentech's Delaware complaint alleging nine patents against Kashiv and Amneal over proposed omalizumab biosimilar ADL-018 is reported as the first BPCIA suit on this product, an early read on the § 262 pathway.
On October 16, 2026, Genentech filed BPCIA Litigation No. 1:26-cv-01343 in the District of Delaware against Kashiv and Amneal, alleging that their proposed Xolair (omalizumab) biosimilar, ADL-018, infringes nine patents. Venable describes the filing as the first litigation brought against this biosimilar; the precise scope of that "first" — first against ADL-018 rather than first of any kind — is not fully specified in the available reporting.
Why sophisticated counsel care: BPCIA litigation under 35 U.S.C. § 262 is the principal channel biologics developers use to test challengers' patent positions before launch, and omalizumab is a high-revenue immunology product where biosimilar entry is a material commercial variable for both innovator and filer clients. A nine-patent assertion shows how an innovator will package its biologic patent estate in the § 262 setting, and how quickly a challenger will respond.
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FERC's proposed first-ever blanket authorization program for LNG plants, together with a new air modeling policy, could shorten permitting timelines for natural gas infrastructure developers.
On October 15, 2026, FERC took two steps intended to expedite review of natural gas infrastructure: it proposed the first blanket authorization program for liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, and it took a second action on an air modeling policy, whose terms the source summary does not set out. Counsel should treat the first item as a proposal, not a final program; scope, eligible facilities, and the treatment of contested proceedings would be settled through notice and comment.
Schedule certainty, rather than engineering design, drives the economics, financing, and offtake commitments of LNG projects, and FERC review with its environmental analysis is the usual pacing item. A blanket authorization route could compress the front end of that review, while an air modeling policy could standardize how air quality effects are analyzed inside FERC proceedings. Both steps foreground the seam between FERC's exclusive jurisdiction over interstate gas siting and the separate state and federal air regimes that often drive real-world timelines.
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A Belgian Data Protection Authority decision dated October 9, 2026 reportedly holds that use of EU Standard Contractual Clauses is invalid where the exporter never carried out a Transfer Impact Assessment.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD) issued a decision on October 9, 2026, published in French, finding that a data exporter's failure to conduct a Transfer Impact Assessment (TIA) rendered its EU Standard Contractual Clauses invalid. On the available reporting, the failure is a missing TIA rather than a defect in the clauses themselves, so the decision reads as a process ruling: paper SCCs do not cure an unassessed transfer.
The cross-client significance is immediate. TIA obligations have sat inside the "appropriate safeguards" analysis since Schrems II, and DPAs have already signalled enforcement interest in transfers to jurisdictions with surveillance-law exposure. A national authority going further and treating the absence of a documented TIA as defeating the legal basis of the clauses gives privacy teams and deal teams a reason to audit whether every live SCC set, including intra-group and legacy vendor arrangements, is backed by a signed and current assessment.
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Treasury's Office of Investment Security published an NPRM on October 22, 2026 to implement Subtitle C of the COINS Act, signalling an expansion of the U.S. outbound investment security program.
White & Case reports that on 22 October 2026 the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Investment Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement Subtitle C of the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act, referred to in the report as the COINS Act, the statutory basis for the outbound investment security program.
The development matters because the program conditions certain transactions by U.S. persons involving foreign entities engaged in covered national-security activities, and the reported proposal indicates an expansion of that regime. Counsel advising U.S. and non-U.S. clients on cross-border capital deployment into sensitive technology and adjacent industries should read the NPRM closely for changes to covered sectors and technologies, covered transaction types, notification versus prohibition treatment, and any compliance or filing mechanics. Because the source material reviewed here does not itemise the proposal's provisions, the precise scope of the expansion, the comment-period deadline, and the expected final-rule timetable are unconfirmed
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Treasury's October 22, 2026 NPRM would extend notification and prohibition regimes to certain foreign investments in critical technologies, putting deal diligence and structuring on notice for U.S. investors.
On October 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, building out the first U.S. outbound investment screening program. As described in Orrick's client alert, the proposal would make certain covered transactions — identified by reference to critical technology areas and countries of concern — subject to either mandatory notification to Treasury or outright prohibition, with reach to private equity funds, corporate strategic investors and other covered U.S. persons. Because this is a proposal, the operative details that matter most in practice remain unsettled: which sectors and jurisdictions are on the covered list, filing and ownership thresholds, treatment of pending and grandfathered deals, the civil penalty structure, and the effective date. The summary reviewed here does not confirm the NPRM's specific sector or country designations, so those should be verified against the published text.
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Treasury's October 22, 2026 notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the COINS Act would materially widen US national-security screening of outbound investment, reshaping diligence for cross-border deals in sensitive technology.
On October 22, 2026, the US Treasury issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act of 2025 (COINS Act), enacted December 18, 2025. The proposal is Treasury's first rulemaking-level signal on the outbound investment program; the source report does not detail covered sectors or transaction types, so counsel should read the NPRM itself before relying on summaries.
Why it matters: outbound investment review adds a pre-closing regulatory gate to deals firms often diligence only for antitrust, foreign investment and export-control reasons. If the proposal widens covered sectors or transaction types, private equity funds, strategic acquirers and sovereign investors face longer timetables, notice obligations and penalty exposure for non-compliance, and counterparties and lenders will demand representations on US outbound investment coverage well before closing.
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A new Southern District of New York complaint against Ubiquiti converts alleged export-control and sanctions-compliance failures into state-law tort claims, testing whether a tech supplier can be liable for products that worked as intended.
Ukrainian civilians have sued networking-equipment maker Ubiquiti in the Southern District of New York, alleging its airMAX radio bridges formed part of the communications infrastructure Russian forces used to identify and strike civilians in Kherson, Chernihiv and elsewhere. The complaint asserts negligent entrustment, public nuisance, strict products liability on a design-defect theory, negligent design, negligent infliction of emotional distress and aiding-and-abetting torts, unusual because it does not allege the devices malfunctioned, only that they worked as intended and enabled sanctioned military end users.
Two features make the case worth tracking. First, plaintiffs convert alleged export-control and sanctions-compliance failures into state-law tort duty, invoking post-sale telemetry, firmware updates and distributor authority to argue a duty to geofence, whitelist or deactivate devices. Second, liability is asserted at the network level rather than the device level, sidestepping the causation problem that defeated recent semiconductor war-crimes claims.
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Treasury's draft outbound investment regulations would extend prohibitions to certain U.S. investments in China's biotechnology sector, pulling fund commitments, joint ventures and licensing deals into scope ahead of a final rule.
Jones Day reports that the U.S. Treasury Department has issued draft regulations that would prohibit certain U.S. investments into China's biotechnology sector, extending the outbound investment security program into an additional technology field. The regime's existing covered sectors — semiconductors, quantum information and artificial intelligence, among others — would gain biotechnology, and with it new prohibitions or restrictions on covered transactions by covered U.S. persons, which in practice reaches private equity, venture capital and corporate investment activity rather than only strategic deals.
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Treasury's proposed rule to implement the COINS Act would build out notification and filing duties for certain U.S. outbound investments into countries of concern, adding a federal overlay on export controls and sanctions.
On October 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, enacted as part of FY 2026 national defense authorization legislation. The proposal is the first step in building out a mandatory notification and filing regime for certain U.S. outbound investments into countries of concern.
For major-firm clients, COINS is becoming a new federal overlay on cross-border capital flows, sitting alongside export controls, sanctions and CFIUS-style review. Because the statute, the covered technology and covered country lists, the filing mechanics and any penalty exposure all still depend on the final rule, companies and private equity funds with existing or contemplated ties to semiconductor, quantum and other critical-technology counterparties in China and other covered jurisdictions are best served modeling notification triggers now rather than after adoption. The NPRM comment period and the content of the final rule are the immediate next developments to watch, along with any in
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Two SEC proposals would let registered funds deliver private-market exposure more freely, while shifting liquidity, valuation and board-oversight burdens onto fund-level judgments and leaving key terms open to comment.
The SEC has put forward two proposals that would make registered fund structures more attractive to sponsors offering investors access to private markets. As described in the client alert, the pair could broaden the routes by which private-market exposure is delivered through registered vehicles, and in exchange would rely more heavily on fund-specific judgments about liquidity and valuation and on board oversight rather than a single uniform framework. Both proposals are in the public comment stage; the alert does not state the comment deadline, and neither proposal is final, so terms could shift before adoption. Counsel and clients should care because the design points — how liquidity is classified, how valuations are struck, and what boards must do — determine how sponsors package flagship private-market products, how advisers are paid, and where illiquidity and stale-pricing risk sit. Watch for the comment deadline, the substance of comment letters from private-markets trade groups, and any final rules that follow.
Grade 3 — worth a glance, not the full analysis.
- Rule 702 General Causation Order Ends 250+ Baby Food MDL Cases
A single general-causation ruling under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 produced summary judgment in more than 250 cases in the In re Baby Food MDL, showing how one threshold science ruling can clear a mass-tort docket.
- Texas Gas Operators Face December 1 Winter Readiness Attestation Deadline
Covered Texas natural gas facilities must weatherize critical components and file a signed Weather Emergency Readiness Attestation with the Railroad Commission by December 1, with penalties up to $1 million per violation.
- EEOC Rescinds 2012 Criminal-Record Guidance
The agency withdrew its 2012 criminal-history guidance without changing Title VII itself, leaving state and local fair-chance statutes and disparate-impact exposure in place.
- Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrong file native title claim over Melbourne
The claim (VID1466/2025), filed 30 October 2025, targets Melbourne and surrounds, adding a new capital-city native title case with implications for land ownership, zoning and development.
- UK Budget Sets 3% Defense Goal, Multilateral Procurement Bank
The October proposal sets a 3% of GDP defense target by 2030, creates a Multilateral Defence Mechanism for joint procurement, and speeds contracting for drones and AI, but defers an estimated £20bn gap to a 2027 review.
- Nevada Court Rejects Claim Reserve as Proof of Insurer Bad Faith
A Nevada federal court dismissed uninsured motorist bad-faith claims, holding that the insurer's $375,000 reserve on the underlying claim did not concede the claim's true value.
- SEC Proposes Overhauling Custody Rules for Advisers, Funds and Crypto
Goodwin Procter reports the SEC has proposed modernizing custody rules for registered funds and investment advisers, including how advisers and funds must safeguard crypto assets.
- Delaware Chancery Denies Former Officer's Advancement Claim on Unclean Hands
A Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery accepted an "unclean hands" defense to reject a former officer's request for advancement of legal fees in litigation arising from his own prior misconduct.
- $54m cultural-loss award in McArthur River native title claim
Perkins Coie reports a $54 million outcome on cultural loss in a native title compensation claim over the Northern Territory's McArthur River mine, a valuation reference point for Australian mining operators.
- UK securitisation reforms pitched as a "Goldilocks" fix
Hogan Lovells says a new package of UK securitisation reforms closes gaps left by the 2024 reforms and targets structural constraints that have held back market growth.
- FCC Overhauls International Section 214 Rules
Adopted on October 29, 2026, the FCC's revised international Section 214 rules expand ownership disclosure, cybersecurity and continuing reporting obligations for applicants and existing authorization holders.
- UK Consultation Proposes Overhaul of Worker Status Three-Tier System
The Government's 14 October 2026 "Make Work Pay" consultation sets out options for reform of the employee, limb (b) worker and self-employed classifications, with a response window now open.
- DOJ Charges 15 in $1.8B Los Angeles Healthcare Fraud Case
DOJ's October 22, 2026 announcement targets 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, over alleged fraudulent healthcare claims spanning addiction treatment in Los Angeles.
- France's first arbitration reform decree enters into force 1 January 2027
Decree No. 2026-741 of 6 August 2026, the first tranche of France's arbitration law reform, amends the Code of Civil Procedure and takes effect 1 January 2027, reshaping the Paris arbitration framework.
- McGuireWoods maps five 2026 privacy and cyber developments
McGuireWoods' 2026 roundup flags new state privacy laws, historic enforcement, fresh AI rules and legislative relief on website-tracking consent banners as the year's standout compliance exposures.
- Court Postpones DHS Four-Year Cap on F-1 Student Visas
A court has postponed DHS's four-year cap on F-1 student visas, delaying a rule that would have limited degree-programme duration for international students and reshaped US university recruitment and compliance planning.
- Seven House Bills Would Reshape US Digital Asset Taxation
A package of seven bills introduced in the US House in May and June 2026 proposes changes to the taxation of cryptocurrency and digital assets, though the proposals' path to enactment is uncertain.
- Foley maps prediction market regulation, litigation and Supreme Court path
Foley & Lardner's overview traces how prediction markets went from academic curiosity to a sports-driven boom now defined by regulatory scrutiny, litigation exposure and a possible Supreme Court test of their legality.
- UK Autumn Budget Cuts Sponsor Salary Thresholds From Spring 2027
The Autumn Budget confirms Skilled Worker going rates drop from median to 25th percentile wages in Spring 2027, with a single £33,400 new-entrant baseline and the PhD salary discount scrapped.
- Saudi SDAIA Drafts PDPL Rule Changes Including Data Localization
SDAIA's 6 October 2026 consultation draft would require in-Kingdom data storage, 72-hour breach notifications without a harm threshold, expanded DPIA and DPO duties, and controller registration; comments close 5 November 2026.
- Judge Denies Dismissal on Whether Geopolitical Event Contracts Are Swaps
A U.S. judge denied dismissal in a dispute over geopolitical event contracts, leaving open whether they are CFTC-regulated swaps — an issue that matters to prediction markets and event-contract trading.
- SEC Issues CFIs on Equity Award Registration and Section 16 Deadlines
Goodwin Procter reports the SEC has issued new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations on registering equity compensation awards and on Section 16 reporting deadlines.
- UK Regulators Consult on Phase 2 SMCR Reforms
Latham & Watkins reports UK regulators have opened consultation on Phase 2 SMCR reforms that would make certain small and medium firms notified-only and remove the Certification Regime entirely.
- FCC's New TCPA Consent-Revocation Rules Take Effect Nov. 25, 2026
Steptoe reports that the FCC's revised TCPA consent-revocation rules take effect Nov. 25, 2026, a hard compliance date for parties relying on prior consumer consent for calls or texts.
- Victoria Becomes First Australian State to Sign Statewide Treaty
Victoria signed a Statewide Treaty with First Peoples on 13 November 2025, the first such instrument in Australia, and a Perkins Coie alert surveys the treaty alongside comparable developments in other jurisdictions.
- UK Budget 2026 consultation on taxing foreign sovereign investors
HM Treasury's 28 October 2026 Budget included a consultation on modernising UK taxation of foreign sovereign investors, signalling potential changes for sovereign wealth and sovereign pension funds holding UK assets.
- Mexico Court Precedents: Generic Contracts Insufficient for Intercompany Tax Effect
Recent Mexican court rulings (criterios judiciales) reportedly hold that boilerplate contracts alone will not give tax effect to intercompany invoicing before the SAT, pushing cross-border teams to paper transactions in detail.
- NYC POWER Act Proposes Private Right of Action for Unfair Business Practices
Mayor Zohran Mamdani introduced the POWER Act (Intro. No. 1105 of 2026) on October 8, 2026, proposing a New York City private right of action for unfair, deceptive or abusive business practices.
- NYC POWER Act Proposal Would Add Private Claims Under NY Unfair Competition Law
Hogan Lovells flags Mayor Zohran Mamdani's proposed POWER Act (Int. No. 1105), which would let individuals and businesses sue for unfair competition and deceptive practices under New York law.
- VC terms shift as AI and hard-tech rounds borrow project-finance logic
A Foley partner's summit notes argue that milestone tranching, layered cap tables, side letters and undefined agent-payment liability are now the defining terms of AI, fusion and robotics financings.
- UAE Pillar Two top-up tax registration deadline approaches
UAE in-scope entities face a fast-approaching Pillar Two registration deadline on the EmaraTax portal as the domestic top-up tax regime moves into full swing.
- Blockchain roundup: Ripple OCC trust charter, DTCC tokenization, OFAC crypto listings
BakerHostetler's weekly digest flags Ripple's final OCC national trust bank approval, DTCC's live tokenization service, SoFi and HSBC stablecoin launches, OFAC's DPRK-related crypto address listings, and a $6M New York AG recovery.
- Mexico Customs Law Decree Cuts Seizure Thresholds for Hydrocarbon Violations
A decree published October 23, 2026 in Mexico's Official Gazette amends the Customs Law, lowering seizure thresholds and raising penalties for hydrocarbon-related customs violations as part of the 2027 Economic Package.
- Spain's RDL 29/2026 Adds Rules on Mortgage Loan Sales and REO Deals
Spain's Royal Decree-Law 29/2026 of 6 October on urgent housing measures introduces rules on the sale and purchase of mortgage loans, affecting secured NPL portfolio trades and repossessed asset deals.
- EAT: HR Role in Dismissals Does Not Automatically Make Them Unfair
UK's Employment Appeal Tribunal held in Shing v University of the Arts London that HR decision-maker involvement does not per se render a dismissal unfair, treating the fairness inquiry as fact-specific.
- FCA Sets Out Findings on Early-Stage and High-Growth Firms
The FCA's Early and High Growth Oversight pilot findings spell out supervisory expectations for fast-scaling asset, wealth and payments firms, with read-across for founders and their investors.
- UK 2026 Autumn Budget: Tax Points for Founders and Tech Companies
Orrick's summary of the UK's Autumn Budget 2026 reports no increase to Capital Gains Tax rates but several new tax policies touching founder and tech-company equity planning.
- FY2027 CR Blocks OMB Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Faegre Drinker's Q3 2026 government contracts review flags that the FY2027 continuing resolution signed September 2, 2026 bars OMB from finalizing its proposed Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance through the fiscal year.
- Native Title Extinguishment and Tenure Validity Still Being Litigated in 2026
A Perkins Coie alert on Australian native title litigation says courts continue to assess whether native title was extinguished by the history of land dealings under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth).
- California Joins New York on AI Performer Ad Disclosure Duties
California has joined New York in requiring advertisers to disclose when a commercial performance is synthetic AI, creating a new compliance front for brands and agencies deploying AI models or digital actors.
- FDA Final Rule Permits Salt Substitutes in Standardized Foods
FDA's October 13, 2026 final rule amends standards of identity so manufacturers may replace some or all added salt with safe and suitable salt substitutes, prompting label and formulation review ahead of compliance work.
- PTAB Estoppel Pressure Rises as USPTO Weighs Anonymous EPR Filings
Patent litigators face a shifting estoppel landscape as the USPTO considers rule changes on anonymous ex parte reexamination filings, on top of post-grant changes since March 2025.
- Federal Court judgment adds precedent on native title compensation
A Federal Court ruling in the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation's Native Title Act compensation claim adds new precedent on how the effects of acts on native title land are compensated.
- California's New Employment Laws Set 2027 Employer Duties
Newly signed 2026 California statutes expand employer duties — a statutory definition of sex discrimination, immigration-related retaliation protections and added harassment training content — with many obligations geared to 2027.
- California Enacts First-of-Kind Forced Labor Supply Chain Disclosure Law
AB 2599, signed by Governor Newsom on September 30, requires large companies doing business in California to run records searches for specified entities and disclose forced-labor supply chain risks.
- FDA Finalizes Guidance on New Dietary Ingredient Notification Content
FDA's final guidance, issued October 19, 2026 and reported by Morrison & Foerster, specifies the identity and safety information dietary supplement makers and distributors must include in new dietary ingredient notifications (NDINs).
- REGENXBIO, Sarepta Settle Elevidys AAV Patent Disputes in Delaware
A Delaware federal court granted the parties' joint stipulations of dismissal on October 7, 2026, ending two patent cases over the Elevidys AAV gene therapy platform; settlement terms are not disclosed in the reporting.
- FCA Publishes AI Guidance for Firms on Applying Existing Rules
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has issued guidance for regulated firms on their use of AI, pairing good- and poor-practice examples with the existing regulatory framework rather than creating new requirements.
- New York Wage Payment Integrity Act Still Awaiting Governor's Signature
S. 2236-A passed both New York legislative chambers in March 2026 but as of November 2 had not been delivered to Governor Hochul, leaving employers with a potential expansion of "wages" and new notice duties on year-end watch.
- Genentech Dismisses BPCIA Suit Over Perjeta Biosimilar Pebrilzo
Genentech voluntarily dismissed its BPCIA patent litigation against Biocon concerning the proposed Perjeta (pertuzumab) biosimilar Pebrilzo on October 14, 2026, though the source does not disclose whether a settlement was reached.
- California appellate court permits headless PAGA claims under 2024 statute
The Fifth District Court of Appeal held a plaintiff may enforce Labor Code violations suffered by other employees in a "headless" PAGA action under PAGA's post-July 1, 2024 version.
- WilmerHale guide to foreign-adversary risk in US data center security
A practitioner guide for US data center developers on how facility siting, equipment provenance and ownership intersect with national-security review and supply-chain exposure.
- Weekly sanctions roundup: OFAC settlement, China draft, congressional warnings
Steptoe's November 2 sanctions update flags OFAC's $1.53M Extreme Networks settlement, congressional warnings on Russian diesel despite a general license, and China's draft trade-secret countermeasures open for comment until November 24.
- OIG audit: CFPB information security program not effective, eight recommendations
A federal inspector general's 2026 FISMA audit concluded the CFPB's information security program is not effective and issued eight recommendations, a signal for vendors and regulated firms tracking bureau oversight expectations.
- UK Autumn Budget 2026: Broad Tax Rises, Little Investment-Competitiveness Focus
Skadden's analysis of the UK Autumn Budget 2026 reports sweeping tax increases on companies, investors and individuals with minimal fiscal measures aimed at boosting the UK's attractiveness for investment and business.
- Treasury Proposes Modest Expansion of Outbound Investment Rules
A single-source report says Treasury's October 22, 2026 proposed rule implementing the COINS Act modestly extends U.S. outbound investment restrictions on national-security-sensitive technology.
- Executive order targets mortgage insurance and refinance title costs
An October 22 White House executive order directs federal action to lower mortgage and refinance costs, including mortgage insurance and refinance title-search requirements, per the firm's summary; implementing steps are unspecified.
- Pa. Supreme Court blocks standalone WPCL liquidated damages after wages paid
In Aita v. NCB Management Services, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that wages paid before suit are not "unpaid" under the Wage Payment and Collection Law, so an employee cannot maintain a WPCL claim for liquidated damages alone.
- Budget 2026: Ropes & Gray maps impact on UK venture capital
Ropes & Gray's analysis of UK Budget 2026 sets out what the Chancellor's package means for UK venture capital investors, founders and the wider venture ecosystem, and who is likely to benefit.
- UK Civil Justice Council trims AI proposals for court documents
The Civil Justice Council has published final recommendations on lawyers' use of AI in preparing court documents, narrowing earlier proposals but leaving practical questions open.
- SEC Staff Statement Spotlights Private Asset Valuation and Disclosure
A joint SEC staff statement on fair value measurement and disclosure for private assets puts valuation and reporting practices in focus for private credit advisers and fund counsel.