Skip to content

Trending on LXBN: Sequestration, HTC settles with FTC and U.S. Steel Corp involved in two interesting cases

February 28, 2013

Sequestration negotiations have, of course, been big in the national news as of late and it’s no different on the LexBlog Network. In our other two trending topics we have the usual FTC privacy settlement with a technology company and the U.S. Steel Corporation being involved in two peculiar but interesting cases.

  • Sequestration Negotiations have dominated U.S. news this week and it’s been a big topic on The LexBlog Network as well. Adding to our section on the issue, I’m actually interviewing John W. Chierichella on its impact on government contractors immediately following putting together this post. That also happened to be the subject of this week’s LXBN Roundtable.
  • It’s impossible to do one of these posts without having at least one story from the privacy lawyers on LXBN. This week’s it’s FTC’s Settlement with HTC, the first enforcement action taken by the Federal Trade Commission against a mobile manufacturer. In the case, the FTC alleges “that the company had engaged in unfair practices and falsely or misleadingly represented whether third-party and HTC applications could access users’ personal information”, per Hogan Lovells’ Harriet Pearson and Mark Brennan.
  • And lastly, we have two cases involving United States Steel Corporation generating buzz on LXBN: Sandifer v. U.S. Steel and EEOC v. U.S. Steel. In the former, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine the definition of “clothes” in wage and hour law but, as noted in an episode of LXBN TV, it could have a bigger impact on the judiciary’s level of deference to the Department of Labor. And in the latter, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that the company had the right under the Americans with Disabilities Act to conduct random alcohol tests on probationary employees.
Posted in: