Insights < BACK TO ALL INSIGHTS
The SEC Signs on to Arbitration
FEATURED
September 29, 2025
The SEC Signs on to Arbitration
By: George Calhoun
Early last week, on September 17, 2025, the SEC announced that it will no longer consider the presence of a mandatory arbitration provision in a company’s charter or bylaws when deciding whether to accelerate the effectiveness of a registration statement. This policy shift will permit companies to include arbitration clauses in their governing documents to require securities litigants (including class action plaintiffs) to pursue their claims in arbitration proceedings rather than court cases. The decision leaves open how arbitration provisions might apply in direct actions versus derivative actions. Nonetheless, this could result in a significant reduction in private securities litigation. The SEC focused its decision on the recent trend in U.S. Supreme Court precedent concerning the Federal Arbitration Act and…
What are you looking for?
Cal. High Court Softens Draconian Arbitration Fee Rule
August 19, 2025
Cal. High Court Softens Draconian Arbitration Fee Rule
By: Robert Ward
California law has often tested just how much room the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) leaves for states to regulate consumer arbitration agreements. Last week, in Hohenshelt v. Superior Court,[1] the California Supreme Court determined that at least one claimant-favoring provision of the California Arbitration Act (CAA), California Code of Civil Procedure § 1281.98 comes close to, but does not cross, that line. At the same…
Ready, Set, Go: More States Adopt Privacy Laws
July 30, 2025
Ready, Set, Go: More States Adopt Privacy Laws
By: Nicole Kardell
Note the below chart was updated on July 24, 2025 to reflect recent developments. The number of U.S. states that have adopted privacy laws grows regularly. Fortunately, there seems to be quite a bit of crossover, at least when it comes to thresholds that companies must meet in order to trigger compliance requirements. We provide below a chart that summarizes these thresholds by state, including…
Don’t Believe Me Just Watch: Choose Profits over Privacy and the FTC may Funk You Up
March 14, 2019
Don’t Believe Me Just Watch: Choose Profits over Privacy and the FTC may Funk You Up
By: Nicole Kardell
An app for children–wee ones even–to publicize videos of themselves jamming to their favorite tunes. An app that, by default, allows its users to communicate directly with any other users, including wee ones. An app that provides its users a list of other users within a 50-mile radius who they can follow or contact directly (feature removed in 2016). What could pervert-ibly go wrong? It…
UPDATE – NOT SO FAST INDEED: DISTRICT COURT BALKS AT SEC’S BLANKET CHARACTERIZATION OF TOKENS AS SECURITIES BUT THEN RECONSIDERS RULING
February 15, 2019
UPDATE – NOT SO FAST INDEED: DISTRICT COURT BALKS AT SEC’S BLANKET CHARACTERIZATION OF TOKENS AS SECURITIES BUT THEN RECONSIDERS RULING
By: George Calhoun
An issue of major importance to cryptocurrency and digital token markets has been whether tokens were all to be considered securities under U.S. law. The SEC’s frequent admonishments that it would consider ICOs to be securities offerings has caused a dramatic slowdown in the US ICO market. In one of the first cases to test the SEC’s broad definition, the United States District Court for…
Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill: America’s Amber Waves of Grain Turn Green. What Does It Mean For CBD Oil Products and Advertising?
December 21, 2018
Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill: America’s Amber Waves of Grain Turn Green. What Does It Mean For CBD Oil Products and Advertising?
By: Nicole Kardell
Much excitement surrounds the 2018 Farm Bill – the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 – which President Trump recently signed into law. The hubbub is all about hemp. The new law removes hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and opens markets across the fifty states to hemp and its many derivatives. Farmers and product manufactures are no longer hogtied by an antiquated prohibition from the…
Not So Fast: District Court Balks at SEC’s Blanket Characterization of Tokens as Securities
November 28, 2018
Not So Fast: District Court Balks at SEC’s Blanket Characterization of Tokens as Securities
By: George Calhoun
An issue of major importance to cryptocurrency and digital token markets has been whether tokens were all to be considered securities under U.S. law. The SEC’s frequent admonishments that it would consider ICOs to be securities offerings has caused a dramatic slowdown in the U.S. ICO market. In one of the first cases to test the SEC’s broad definition, the United States District Court for…
No More Bait and Switch: Subscription-Based Businesses Need to Refine Their Pitch Under California Law
July 13, 2018
No More Bait and Switch: Subscription-Based Businesses Need to Refine Their Pitch Under California Law
By: Nicole Kardell
Effective July 1, companies that offer free gift or trial periods for their products or services can no longer bill California consumers automatically at the expiration of the gift or trial period. Companies will be required to provide a “clear and conspicuous” explanation of the price that will be charged—or how the pricing will change—at the end of the trial. And companies cannot charge a…
