States that have previously given warnings to individuals upon identifying a potential work search eligibility issue will no longer be able to do so and, instead, will be required to find that individual ineligible for UC that week. DOL’s Employment and Training Administration has proposed a rule that would establish a nationwide minimum work-search standard for individuals collecting unemployment compensation (UC). The proposal, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on November…

Gensler contended that given the legal context at the time, Congress had “no reason” to think that a definition of swap contracts included sports bets. In a new amicus brief, former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler argued that Congress never intended to preempt state gaming laws when it provided for federal oversight of event contracts in the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. The brief takes the side of New York in an appeal by the Kalshi exchange of a district court ruling declining to block state gaming…

State utility regulators next week plan to consider a resolution calling on Congress to take steps to shore up the cyber defenses of water utilities. The resolution being presented to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) at its annual meeting would ask Congress to “remedy the funding shortfall” facing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “to allow the agency to successfully fulfill its responsibilities and provide essential cybersecurity support…

The final rule creates a permanent regulatory framework for selecting high-spending drugs, negotiating maximum fair prices, guarding against reformulation strategies, and carrying negotiated prices into Part D coverage and payment. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized regulations that move the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program from time-limited guidance into a durable framework for initial price applicability year 2029 and later years. The rule implements statutory…

Treasury should extend anti-money laundering obligations across the digital asset payment chain, the banking trade group said. The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) urged the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Treasury Department to expand anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements to digital asset intermediaries, particularly in secondary-market transactions. In a letter , the group said existing reporting frameworks leave information…

Although the video streaming patents claimed abstract ideas, their allegedly unconventional caching arrangements supplied sufficient inventive concepts to withstand dismissal. Netflix, Inc. must defend claims that its streaming platform infringes three patents covering distributed video caching and partial video pre-fetching technologies, after a federal district court in Delaware rejected its challenge to patent eligibility and the sufficiency of the infringement allegations. The court…

Franchisor’s unreasonable delay constituted a material breach of the franchise agreement, relieving franchisees of liability for unpaid fees and liquidated damages. The Third Circuit affirmed judgment for Huber Hotels, LLC, and its owners, holding that the district court did not clearly err in finding that Travelodge materially breached the parties' franchise agreement by failing to integrate their Wisconsin hotel into its central reservation system within a reasonable time. Travelodge sought…

The chatbot engaged the minor in discussions involving self-harm and suicide, the complaint asserts. The parents of a 13-year-old student have sued Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. on their child’s behalf, alleging that Google’s Gemini chatbot contributed to a severe mental health crisis after the student accessed the technology through a school-issued Chromebook. The parents seek compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, and a jury trial. The case was recently removed…

After a similar proposal was withdrawn in 2021, the agency has finalized regulations requiring attorneys to use its electronic filing system in most administrative cases. The U.S. Department of Labor has finalized a rule requiring electronic filing in administrative proceedings before its Office of Administrative Law Judges, adopting a proposal first issued in 2021 despite concerns raised by practitioners about the agency's filing system. The final rule, scheduled for publication November 9,…