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Tag: Federal Law

Visa, Mastercard settle long-running antitrust suit over swipe fees with merchants

March 26, 2024
Visa and Mastercard announced a major settlement with U.S. merchants on Tuesday, potentially ending nearly two decades of litigation over the fees charged every time a credit or debit card is used in a store or restaurant.
The deal would lower and cap the fees charged by Visa and Mastercard and allow small businesses to collectively bargain for rates with the payment processors in a similar way that the large merchants do on their own now.
Read more at ABC News

Legal action could end use of toxic sewage sludge on US crops as fertilizer

March 13, 2024

New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on US cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste.

Read more at The Guardian

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Perdue, Sanderson to settle with distributors in chicken price-fixing cases

March 1, 2024
Perdue, Sanderson and other chicken suppliers have agreed to settle claims that they conspired for years to fix poultry prices, costing food distributors millions of dollars in overcharges. Consumers, direct purchasers of chicken and commercial plaintiffs such as restaurants and grocery stores in the coordinated cases accused the defendants of conspiring for years to keep prices artificially high by curbing production and sharing nonpublic data about supply and demand.
The plaintiffs have inked more than $284 million in prior settlements with other chicken producers.
Read more at Reuters
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Fraud and scams cost consumers a record $10 billion in 2023

February 22, 2024

Michigan consumers are getting hit hard by fraud: Michigan consumers reported losing $151.7 million in 2023 to all types of fraud and scams, according to the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book. The median fraud loss was $410.

Read more at Detroit Free Press

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FTC mulls making companies liable for enabling illegal impersonations

February 20, 2024

Companies could find themselves in federal enforcement crosshairs if bad actors use their AI or payment tools, among other “means and instrumentalities,” to conduct impersonation scams. The Federal Trade Commission last week finalized a rule giving the agency authority to go after entities that impersonate a government body or a business to commit fraud. A second rule, still in a preliminary stage, would extend the authority to fraudsters who impersonate an individual.

Read more at Legal Dive

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Young hockey players hit NHL, big leagues with antitrust suit

February 16, 2024

Major junior hockey players, aged 16 to 20, claim the independent leagues colluded to limit competition among themselves for player recruitment, in violation of U.S. antitrust law. According to the players, the anticompetitive agreements span across six hockey leagues and more than 146 clubs, nearly the entire North American ice hockey industry.

Read more at Courthouse News Service

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Why foreign workers are not shielded by federal whistleblower laws

February 14, 2024

If you work overseas for a U.S. company, you might want to think twice before you step forward to report corporate wrongdoing. It’s a different story when employees are based overseas and work for a foreign subsidiary of a U.S. company, as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explained, in a Canadian man’s case against software company Oracle.

Read more at Reuters

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With ‘pig butchering’ scams on the rise, FBI moves to stop the bleeding

February 5, 2024

Enticed by the prospect of romance and riches, coaxed over LinkedIn and WhatsApp, thousands of people have sent their hard-earned money overseas, never to be seen again. The con is called pig butchering — so named because victims are likened to hogs, fattened up for slaughter.

Read more at NBC News

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TurboTax isn’t allowed to say it’s ‘free’ anymore

January 24, 2024

The Federal Trade Commission cracked down on TurboTax, issuing a final order that prohibits the company from calling its services “free” when most customers end up having to upgrade to paid services.

Read more at The Verge

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Year-End Update On The Corporate Transparency Act

January 17, 2024

Year-End Update On The Corporate Transparency Act: The Access Rule, The Criticisms And The Costs Of Implementation

The implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) as of January 1, 2024, is expected to bring about several challenges and areas of confusion for accounting and law firms that serve reporting companies.

Read more at Forbes

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