One year after assuming her role, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today delivered her maiden State of the European Union address to the European Parliament’s Brussels plenary. Speaking for over an hour, President von der Leyen presented her vision for revitalising the EU’s economy in a sustainable, green and more innovative way. Building on her former experience as German Defence Minister, President von der Leyen also spoke passionately about her vision for a more geo-politically impactful European Union that stands up...

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Previously published in FTI Journal | The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is paving the way for an era of similar laws in states across the country. Rather than trying to adapt incrementally, companies should position themselves now for general compliance. Data equals dollars in today’s digital age with personal information as the hot commodity. However, headline topping cybersecurity breaches have made consumers skittish about how companies handle the data they share online. Rising demand for greater protection of personal information...

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On Monday September 7, 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued draft Guidelines 8/2020 on the targeting of social media users (the "Draft Guidelines"). The Draft Guidelines have far-reaching implications for social media platforms, advertisers, and adtech companies, as they will result in a clarification of the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders, and establish rules for consent. The Draft Guidelines are open for public consultation until October 19, 2020. Interested companies can submit their comments to the EDPB. Summary The Draft Guidelines...

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In response to inquiries from the financial industry as to how to assess risks of potential illegal activity with respect to beneficial owners who are “politically exposed persons” (PEPs) overseas, federal bank regulators issued a “Joint Statement on Bank Secrecy Act Due Diligence Requirements for Customers Who May Be Considered Politically Exposed Persons” on August 21, 2020. Specifically, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the National Credit...

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Our recent data science study about calendar earnings changes and news sentiment shows evidence of alpha generation. When companies change the dates of their official earnings releases it has been speculated that it is because they want to delay the release of bad news or bring forward the release date for good news. In a recent white paper, RavenPack data scientists sought to test this hypothesis by constructing strategies that bought and sold stocks when companies changed their earnings dates. Read...

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Regardless of your view of the efficacy of ESG disclosure for publicly-traded companies, investors increasingly are insisting on it, and the advisors that can profit from it the most – proxy advisory firms, large accounting firms and consultants – are heavily promoting it. For the 100 or so largest public companies, adding ESG disclosure to their current disclosure process generally is not a big deal. Many already publish reports consistent with GRI guidelines, and some publish reports that are...

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Armed with useful flowcharts to help organisations determine their role, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidelines on the concepts of "controller", "processor" and "joint controller". Just over a month ago, the Litigation Chamber of the Belgian Data Protection Authority had published a decision in which it appeared to adopt an extensive interpretation of the concept of "controller"; now, thanks to extensive developments by the EDPB, that interpretation no longer seems to be relevant. In this newsletter, however, we...

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As the EU chief Brexit negotiator headed to London for the eighth round of post-Brexit negotiations, the underlying tensions between the EU and UK Government finally reached breaking point after a series of aggressions, this week. The deep-seated divisions and mounting tensions between Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost have become increasingly apparent over the past few weeks, with the two men publicly accusing each other, or the institutions they represent, of everything from stalling progress to refusing to engage with...

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Earnout payments are a common and widely used tool for pricing targets operating in the life sciences, although there are various nuances depending on the specific sub-sector (biotech, pharma, med-tech, and so on). Indeed, earnouts can be a powerful mechanism in an industry where the evaluation of a target can be quite complex due to things like long R&D phases, clinical trials, and market access to products, especially in the biotech and pharma sectors, with all the connected risks....

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During negotiations earlier this year between the White House and Congress over a potential third round of COVID-19 relief legislation, the idea of a Social Security payroll tax holiday was raised as a possible means to provide relief to American workers. A payroll tax holiday would consist of a temporary reduction or elimination of the employee’s share of the Social Security tax (which currently equals 6.2% of an employee’s 2020 wages up to the Social Security wage base of...

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