On December 23, 2021, President Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bars the importation into the United States of products made from forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China.
This year has seen a number of international and regional legislative efforts imposing human rights due diligence and transparency obligations on multinational employers.
Compliance or internal audit departments frequently carry out audits intended to assure that business partners in an organization have policies and procedures that are effective for maintaining corporate compliance and consistent with myriad laws.
A corporate whistleblower can create more financial, organizational, and reputational damage to an employer by using the federal False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. § 3729-33, than by using any other “whistleblower” law.
On February 19, 2021, the DOL announced that OSHA will oversee worker retaliation complaints filed under the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act (CAARA) and the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).
When Congress overrode President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act on January 1, 2021, it enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which was part of the defense authorization bill.
Largely overshadowed by the rise in COVID-19 deaths and the January 6, 2021, siege on the Capitol, the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2019 became law on December 23, 2020.
On May 1, 2019, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice released updated guidance for prosecutors to utilize in assessing whether an organization had in place “an adequate and effective corporate compliance program.”
The Hong Kong legislature is currently considering draft legislation which, if enacted, will require certain companies—including those incorporated outside of Hong Kong—to publish a “slavery and human trafficking statement.”
On February 21, 2018, the Supreme Court resolved a circuit split on whether the Dodd-Frank Act requires employees to report externally to the SEC in order to be protected by the Act’s anti-retaliation provision.
