DS-Concept USA provides $3,500,000 non-recourse factoring facility to a niche manufacturer of officially licensed consumer products in the gaming industry. Rather than injecting more equity to support their portfolio company’s growth, the PE group is using DS-Concept to free up an additional $3,500,000 in working capital by financing the company’s domestic and foreign AR. In addition to increasing  the company’s working capital, DS-Concept’s global footprint strengthens the company’s credit and collections capabilities overseas, ultimately allowing them to be more aggressive in foreign...

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Auto manufacturers are increasingly equipping vehicles with rapidly advancing technologies, raising concerns regarding how the public will be affected by these changes. Manufacturers are beginning to implement automated driving and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capabilities into their cars, extending potential cybersecurity threats and associated safety issues to road users. As consumers, we already see cybersecurity threats and breaches in many areas of our day-to-day lives. With the spike of auto-driven and connected cars across the auto industry, these same threats and...

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On Friday, March 3, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that effective April 3, 2017, it will temporarily suspend premium processing for H-1B petitions.  This suspension may last for up to six months. The temporary suspension will apply to all H-1B applications filed on or after April 3, 2017. Therefore, because the current cap-subject H-1B petitions will not be filed before April 3, 2017, the suspension applies to all regular-cap and master's-advanced-degree-cap petitions.  The cap filings...

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The month of February has brought the following interesting data protection developments: Dutch developments Dutch Data Protection Authority’s focus areas for 2017 Traditionally, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (the Dutch DPA) starts each new year by publishing an agenda setting out its focus areas for the respective year. The Dutch DPA Annual Agenda 2017 was published on 27 January 2017. Readers of our monthly data protection and privacy update will be aware that as per 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679,...

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In its judgement of 9 March 2017 in case C-398/15 the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) handed down an important judgement on the scope of the so-called "right to be forgotten" on the basis of Personal Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. The ECJ considered that this directive does not preclude any person from accessing, without any time limit, personal data set out in the companies registers. Nevertheless, on a case by case basis, where exceptionally justified and upon...

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Over the last couple of weeks, a series of Federal Reserve speakers have talked up the likelihood of a Fed rate hike here in March. Heading into Friday’s USA employment report, the Fed Funds implied probability indicated a 100% chance – yes one hundred percent! – of a Fed rate hike at next week’s FOMC meeting. The report itself (nonfarm payrolls +235k vs. +200k expected, 4.7% unemployment in line with expectations, and a slightly higher labor participation rate) did...

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There are only 312,000 people who call the Upper Peninsula of Michigan home – which is less than 5 percent of the state’s total population – but nearly one of every three of these people has some Finnish ancestry. In fact, the westernmost five counties of Upper Michigan are the only counties anywhere in the U.S. where Finns are the majority ethnic group. Here in Hancock – a place the early Finns called, “Ameriikan Lappi” – the Honorary Consul office...

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