The International Trade Administration has announced the Commerce Department's successful culmination of its efforts to ensure extension of both non-metric and metric labeling provisions on product packaging for U.S. businesses exporting to the European Union. The ruling will allow U.S. firms to use non-metric units on packaging and extends the current dual-labeling provisions indefinitely. The rule was published on May 7, 2009 in the Official Journal of the European Union and will be fully in force in the 27 member states by January 1, 2010. (Notice, dated 05/15/09, available at http://www.trade.gov/press/press_releases/2009/EULabeling_051509.asp)
The Department of Homeland Security has recently released its fiscal year 2010 budget request for salaries and expenses, which contains specific requests for U.S. Customs and Border Protection initiatives such as international cargo screening, Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, and other international programs.
A shareholder is suing InFocus, alleging that its proposed $39 million sale to Image Holdings resulted from a “flawed process” that barred competing offers.
Mary Ellen Callahan, the new chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security, laid out an ambitious agenda for the Privacy Office in her first address to the DHS Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee Thursday. She faces high expectations, due in part to the role she played, along with Justice Department antitrust chief Christine Varney, in developing online privacy policies for the Internet industry in the late 1990s when the two were lawyers in private practice (WID Feb 20 p2). The Privacy Office has “intensified” its work to make DHS more transparent through social media, in keeping with President Barack Obama’s memo on government transparency, Callahan said. But there are “some complications” arising from government regulations.
The Commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission have directed CPSC staff to prepare a two-year enforcement stay of the lead content provisions1 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA2) for certain parts of youth bicycles and related products such as jogger strollers and bicycle trailers.
An FCC notice of inquiry about universal service high- cost support for non-rural carriers spurred old arguments for a USF overhaul, in comments at the commission last week. But the notice, which asks how the FCC should respond to a 2005 remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD April 9 p4), may address too narrow an issue to result in comprehensive reform, industry officials said. In 2005, the court called unlawful the FCC’s current non-rural rules, which address carriers like Qwest that serve high-cost areas with too many lines to be considered “rural” by the statutory definition.
Successful Internet companies must “pay attention to the rules” of antitrust the same as those in any other industry, said Christine Varney, assistant attorney general at the Antitrust Division. She spoke publicly Monday, at a Center for American Progress event in Washington, for the first time since winning Senate confirmation. Audience members pressed Varney, a former FTC commissioner and founder of one of the country’s first Internet law practices, for clues on how the department will treat Google’s growing market power in several fields.
The Justice Department said it filed suit in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on behalf of a Utah National Guardsman against Synapse Data and Telecom and owner Matthew Mossbarger. Justice alleges that Mossbarger and his company violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which bars an employer from terminating an employee if the worker’s obligation for military service helped motivate the termination, unless the employer can prove the firing would have occurred in any event. Justice claims that Jose Ortega, then a network administrator for Synapse, enlisted in the Utah National Guard in April 2008. He was ordered to report for basic training. According to the complaint, Ortega told Mossbarger he'd enlisted, presenting a copy of his orders. “Mossbarger tried to convince Ortega to rescind his military obligation, offering him benefits, a raise and management opportunities,” Justice said in a release. When Ortega balked, Mossbarger fired him, Justice said. Ortega complained to the Labor Department, which referred the case to Justice.
Mapping of middle-mile facilities used by carriers, providing backhaul between cell towers and networks is critical to a better understanding of the U.S. broadband market, speakers said at the Wireless Communications Association conference late Tuesday. The FCC is examining its mapping requirements as directed by Congress in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As part of the Recovery Act, NTIA is required to establish a grant program for state-level broadband availability mapping and other broadband related projects, to be available on its website by February 17, 2011. How much of middle mile facilities will be part of these maps remains to be seen.
BERKELEY, Calif. -- The South Korean government probably will confront Google this year in connection with the breadth of its YouTube operation’s compliance with a national law on real-name registration, a senior company lawyer said. The law requires companies that reach more than 100,000 users a day to make those that post content register under their real names and national ID numbers, said Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel at Google.