Key Takeaways: Emerging technology sectors will soon be subject to new export controls. Affected sectors include biotech, computing, artificial intelligence, positioning and navigation, data analytics, additive manufacturing, robotics, brain-machine interface, advanced materials, and surveillance. New export controls on these sectors will likely require companies to obtain a license to export products to China and other destinations, and impose restrictions on sharing information with foreign nationals. These sectors will also be added the list of industries…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Hiring Personnel in New York: Dos and Don’ts – Part 2

By Karl Buhler* & Lindsay Colvin Stone on November 5, 2018

Part II: Offer Letters and Background Checks In a previous article, we addressed certain pitfalls for numerous foreign employers seeking to hire personnel in New York State (see Part 1 regarding advertising and interviewing for a job). This article is the second and last in a two-part series, which will now discuss sensitive New York laws concerning (1) offer letters and (2) background checks. Drafting an Offer Letter Once an employer has decided to extend…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Dramatic Increase in French Privacy Complaints Since GDPR

By Sheppard Mullin on October 19, 2018

The French data protection authority CNIL has received 3,767 data protection complaints since EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on May 25, 2018. According to CNIL this is a 64 percent increase compared to the same four-month period last year. CNIL also reported that it has received 600 data breach notifications during the same period. CNIL is in the process of developing new French regulatory tools under GDPR. It has already developed…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

France Imposes Fine for Unauthorized Use of Fingerprint Timeclocks

By Sheppard Mullin on October 18, 2018

French data protection authority CNIL has issued a fine against company Assistance Centre d’Appel related to the use of biometric technology in the workplace. During an audit at the end of 2016, CNIL found that the company was using fingerprint timeclocks to track employee hours without prior authorization from CNIL as required by the French Data Protection Act. In France, an employer may not use biometric data to monitor employees’ hours absent prior approval from…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

FIRRMA Takes Form as CFIUS Enacts a New Pilot Program Targeting “Critical Technologies”

By Reid Whitten, Brian Weimer, Drew Svor & Enumale Agada on October 15, 2018

On October 10, 2018, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States put into effect the first mandatory filing requirement ever imposed by CFIUS. The Department of Treasury’s summary of the Pilot Program is available here. Effective November 10, 2018, CFIUS will require reviews of critical technology investments – including certain non-controlling investments – from any country. A failure to file notice or a new short form declaration to CFIUS may result in…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Hiring Personnel in New York: Dos and Don’ts – Part 1

By Karl Buhler* & Lindsay Colvin Stone on September 27, 2018

Part I: Advertising and Interviewing Foreign companies expanding their operations to the U.S. through New York usually handle their U.S. hiring process like the way they do back in their home country. They should not. While many states place restrictions on the hiring process, New York offers extensive and singular protection to prospective employees whose content and scope is not necessarily in the mind of all U.S. employers; foreign-based ones should, therefore, be even more careful. From…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

“Que Je T’Aime”: L’affaire d’heritage de Johnny Hallyday

By Adam Streisand on August 20, 2018

As a battle rages on in Nanterre, west of Paris, over the estate of Johnny Hallyday, who is best known as the “French Elvis”, and spills out across the pages of the tabloid press in France, we offer a view from Hallyday’s adopted home, Los Angeles, California. It is, after all, the central question of this affair whether a will and trust executed in California under California law, which was intended to dispose of assets…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Stuck in the Middle With You: EU Blocking Statutes, Iran Sanctions, and the Thousands of Businesses Caught In Between

By Reid Whitten on August 14, 2018

Imagine telling your company’s Board of Directors that the company will have to knowingly violate the law. Further, you might note, the American Law Institute’s Principles of Corporate Governance state that, with very limited exceptions, a director who knowingly causes the corporation to disobey the law violates his duty of care. The protections of the Business Judgement Rule may not be available to a board member who, charged with navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Life in the Fast Lane: CFIUS-Free Investments, if You’re From the Right Country

By Reid Whitten on August 14, 2018

All this past week, you have been hearing about FIRRMA, the new legislation that will increase the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that is expected to be signed into law in the coming weeks. As we predicted here and here on our Global Trade Law Blog, FIRRMA will authorize CFIUS to review non-controlling investments by foreign companies, to enhance restrictions on investment in certain “critical technology,” to target…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Reform of Foreign Investment in the U.S.: France and Other Allied Countries Might be Exempt

By Robert Magielnicki, Reid Whitten & Malika Levarlet on July 13, 2018

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday, July 10, expanding and increasing the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The bill is called the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA). The 400-2 passage in the House shows an overwhelming bipartisan momentum behind FIRRMA and signals that the bill is likely to be on the President’s desk for signature as soon as the House and Senate reconcile…

U.S. Legal Insights for French Businesses

Legal Updates for French Companies Doing Business in the United States

Blog Authors

The Little Regulation That Will Make a Big Change in How You Do Business: Department of Commerce to Establish New Export Controls on Emerging Technologies

Hiring Personnel in New York: Dos and Don’ts – Part 2

Dramatic Increase in French Privacy Complaints Since GDPR

France Imposes Fine for Unauthorized Use of Fingerprint Timeclocks

FIRRMA Takes Form as CFIUS Enacts a New Pilot Program Targeting “Critical Technologies”

Hiring Personnel in New York: Dos and Don’ts – Part 1

“Que Je T’Aime”: L’affaire d’heritage de Johnny Hallyday

Stuck in the Middle With You: EU Blocking Statutes, Iran Sanctions, and the Thousands of Businesses Caught In Between

Life in the Fast Lane: CFIUS-Free Investments, if You’re From the Right Country

Reform of Foreign Investment in the U.S.: France and Other Allied Countries Might be Exempt

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