Hunton Retail Law Resource

In a speech before the Yale Law School February 2024, SEC Chair Gary Gensler had AI top of mind. Interrupted only by a colorful collection of movie references, Chair Gensler focused almost the entirety of his remarks on AI and the SEC’s corresponding regulatory duties. Chair Gensler addressed the risks associated with AI while cautioning reporting companies to avoid “AI washing” and making boilerplate AI disclosures that are not particularized to the company. The speech nicely underscores the SEC’s two-fold, and at times juxtaposed, concerns about the important emerging technology.

On March 6, 2024, by a party-line vote of 3-2, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted final rules (entitled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors”) requiring most public companies to disclose climate-related information in registration statements and annual reports filed with the SEC. The SEC first proposed climate disclosure rules in March 2022, and the proposal has been a source of much debate and controversy, generating over 24,000 comment letters, more than any regulation in the history of the SEC.

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Our 2023 Retail Industry Year in Review provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments, issues, and trends impacting retailers, as well as a look ahead at what to expect in 2024. We hope you will take a few minutes to review our new publication released last week.

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As reported today on the firm's Insurance Recovery Blog, the Delaware Chancery Court recently held that the duty of oversight extended to corporate officers. The important decision came after McDonald’s shareholders sued the company’s former head of human resources, alleging that the officer breached his duty of oversight by “allowing a corporate culture to develop that condoned sexual harassment and misconduct.” In that same decision, Vice Chancellor Laster also determined that acts of sexual harassment can constitute a breach of fiduciary duty. Officers are ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on October 26, 2022, adopted new executive compensation “clawback” rules, thus fulfilling its 2010 mandate under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”). The purpose of this alert is to briefly summarize the rules and some related considerations and highlight next steps that issuers should be considering as they plan to comply with the new rules.

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Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed its much-anticipated proposal to require that public companies disclose climate-related information. The proposed rule is significant because, for the first time, the SEC would mandate that companies (including foreign companies) publicly traded in the US disclose climate-related risk and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions information beyond the information currently required by existing SEC rules applicable to registration statements and annual reports.

A series of recent regulatory actions at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reaffirms the agency’s commitment to ESG (environmental-social-governance) issues under new Chair Gary Gensler. These actions, which affect shareholder proposals, contested director elections, and proxy advisory firms, will each impact publicly-traded retailers.

On September 22, 2021, the Division of Corporation Finance (Division) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a sample comment letter to highlight its increased focus on climate change-related disclosures or the absence of such disclosures in issuer filings under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. This sample comment letter follows a recent increase in climate-related comments the Division has issued during the disclosure review process, and many of the sample comments appear to be derived from actual comment letters issued in 2021. The sample is consistent with the SEC’s 2010 Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change, which does not mandate specific, line item climate change-related disclosures, but instead takes a principles-based approach.

On August 6, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved new Nasdaq rules (Rules 5605(f) and Rule 5606) aimed at advancing diversity among board members of Nasdaq-listed companies and increasing disclosure of diversity statistics. Nasdaq’s new rules underscore the increasing attention in recent years in addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues at the board level and creating new compliance obligations for Nasdaq-listed companies.

Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) – like climate change and environmental justice – has been a hot topic of discussion in the early days of the Biden administration. Illustrating the interconnectedness of the trending issues, climate change and environmental justice are pillars of ESG.

As we previously reported, new SEC rules requiring reporting on human capital resources will take effect November 9, 2020. The new disclosure is not required to be included in third quarter Forms 10-Q, but publicly-traded retailers should begin the analysis now to assess whether disclosure will be required in Form 10-K, and if so, what will be disclosed in 2020 annual reports to shareholders. Retailers determining that disclosure is immaterial under the federal securities laws may still elect to provide a human capital narrative in corporate sustainability reports, which are not filed with the SEC, in an effort to address increasing stakeholder demand for such information.

The ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other recent socio-political events will present a number of disclosure questions for publicly-traded retailers completing their second fiscal quarters.

One novel feature of the 2020 proxy season has been the surge in virtual shareholder meetings. For example, one provider of virtual meeting services reported four times as many virtual shareholder meetings as last year. Although the rise in virtual meetings this year resulted from safety precautions surrounding COVID-19, after weighing the benefits and becoming more comfortable with conducting business remotely, it is likely that many companies will continue to use virtual shareholder meetings or hybrid in-person and virtual meetings in the future.

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented effect on the retail industry across the United States, as many retailers grapple with government mandates that either require closure or impose stringent restrictions on being open, employment and supply chain disruptions, and an overall decline in consumer demand as market conditions remain volatile and unemployment rates continue to rise. The devastating consequences of the coronavirus began to come into focus at the same time many companies were preparing to issue quarterly or annual results and convene investor calls.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unique and novel challenges to publicly-traded retailers, particularly with respect to design and testing of both internal controls over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. We recommend that retailers assess what has changed in the current financial reporting environment, consider whether existing controls are sufficient to prepare financial statements and disclosure documents at the reasonable assurance level, and determine what new controls (if any) are necessary to reduce the risk of errors and fraud.

As publicly traded retailers begin to prepare their annual reports and 2020 proxy statements, they should keep in mind a number of new and amended SEC disclosure items. As detailed in our recent client alert, hot topics for proxy statements include hedging policy disclosure, board diversity disclosure and overboarding of directors.  In annual reports on Form 10-K, public retailers must consider new cover page requirements; new disclosure rules for material property, management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) and exhibit filings; and most retailers will now disclose ...

Innovation and developments in technology bring both opportunities and challenges for the retail industry, and Hunton Andrews Kurth has a sophisticated understanding of these issues and how they affect retailers. On January 23, 2020, our cross-disciplinary retail team, composed of over 200 lawyers, released our annual Retail Industry Year in Review. The 2019 edition, Spotlight on Technology, provides an overview and analysis of recent developments impacting retailers, as well as what to expect in 2020 and beyond. Topics discussed include: braille gift cards as the next wave of ...

New Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) reporting requirements took effect September 25, 2019. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently made changes to the HSR form. Retail clients exploring a merger or acquisition should be aware that the FTC requires updated codes for Item 5 of the HSR form. Clients will need to provide 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes and 10-digit North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) codes when reporting manufacturing revenues. The FTC will require 2017 NAICS codes for reporting non-manufacturing revenues ...

As reported in our previous client alert, on September 6, 2019, the staff in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance (the Division) announced important changes to the Division’s process for administering Rule 14a-8 no-action requests regarding shareholder proposals. Specifically, the staff may respond orally rather than in writing to no-action requests. Moreover, the staff may decide not to take a position on the merits of certain requests, thus leaving to the company the decision of whether to include or exclude the shareholder proposal.

On August 8, 2019, the SEC proposed rules that would revise disclosures for Regulation S-K Item 101 (description of business), Item 103 (legal proceedings) and Item 105 (risk factors), in an effort to make disclosures more useful for investors and make compliance easier for registrants.

A recent successful effort by a public company to exclude an environmental proposal from its proxy statement may signal a new approach for boards of directors to consider when managing shareholder proposals. Because retailers and consumer products companies routinely receive shareholder proposals on environmental and sustainability issues, similar arguments for exclusion may be persuasive to the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the future.

On March 20, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to simplify and modernize disclosure requirements. These amendments implement recommendations from the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and are intended to make disclosures easier to read and navigate and to reduce repetitive and immaterial information.

Activist investors continue to make liberal use of the SEC’s Rule 14a-8 to submit proposals for inclusion in company proxy statements. One of the most important shareholder trends to emerge from 2018 is the increasing involvement and support of large institutional investors in certain campaigns. Crisis management was one area in particular that institutional investors prioritized and sought disclosure on in 2018. Highly charged current events such as the MeToo Movement, the opioid crisis and the debate over gun safety, for example, have led shareholders at some of the largest retailers and manufacturers to urge greater disclosure on the reputational risks of these issues.

On January 17, 2019, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s retail industry team, composed of more than 200 lawyers across practices, released their annual Retail Industry Year in Review publication.

The 2018 Retail Industry Year in Review includes many topics of interest to retailers, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), ITC investigations, product recall insurance, antitrust enforcement in the Trump Administration, the collection and storage of biometric data, consumer privacy, SEC and M&A activity in 2018, the #MeToo movement and the impact of cashierless stores.

In a recent speech, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chairman Jay Clayton summarized a number of regulatory priorities for 2019 that may interest retailers.  Clayton began the speech looking back on 2018’s accomplishments, then spent the bulk of his time discussing planned rulemaking efforts in the coming year.

On October 23, 2018, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14J (“SLB 14J”), which reiterated and expounded upon prior guidance regarding when companies may exclude shareholder proposals under the economic relevance exception of Rule 14a-8(i)(5), and the ordinary business exception of Rule 14a-8(i)(7).

Retailers sued in state court might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the presence of a forum defendant may not always prevent removal to federal court based on diversity of citizenship. A procedural maneuver known as “snap removal” can allow a defendant to remove such a case in certain situations. Although federal district court rulings on the procedure’s validity are divergent, snap removal could gain traction from a recent thumbs up by the Third Circuit. Regardless of the governing precedent, successful snap removal requires constant vigilance, quick action and even a little luck.

On August 17, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to adopt amendments to duplicative, overlapping, outdated or superseded disclosure rules for public companies. The new rules take effect on November 5, 2018 and are effective for all SEC filings made on or after that date. 

A recent Supreme Court ruling regarding sales taxes and new tariffs on Chinese imports instituted by the Trump administration will impact many retailers, which could in turn have an effect on M&A activity in the retail industry.

Recently, Hunton Andrews Kurth launched a new blog, C-Suite Compensation Center. The blog will discuss compensation issues that are increasingly complex due to evolving laws, changing administrative rules and increasing shareholder activity.

The members of our Compensation practice group are multi-disciplinary within the various substantive areas of compensation. As multi-disciplinary practitioners, we take a holistic and full-service approach to compensation matters that considers all substantive areas of compensation.

Read the latest blog posts.

As detailed in our recent client alert, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently proposed or adopted several rules of interest to retailers, particularly those that are publicly traded. They concern (1) final rules modernizing the definition of “smaller reporting company” (“SRC”), (2) final rules implementing the use of Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (“XBRL”) and (3) proposed rules amending the SEC’s whistleblower program.

As the 2018 proxy season is winding down, some trends have begun to emerge regarding CEO pay ratio disclosure, shareholder proposals and virtual shareholder meetings.

In a speech to the New York City Bar White Collar Crime Institute on May 9, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced a new Department of Justice (“DOJ”) policy intended to ensure coordination among DOJ departments and other enforcement agencies when pursuing penalties against corporations for violations arising out of the same conduct. The policy, incorporated into the U.S. Attorneys’ Manual at § 1-12.100, seeks to avoid imposition of duplicative penalties by “instructing Department components to appropriately coordinate with one another and with other enforcement agencies in imposing multiple penalties on a company in relation to investigations of the same misconduct.”

In recent years, publicly traded retailers have experienced a significant uptick in interest from investors focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) issues. On April 23, 2018, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) released Field Assistance Bulletin 2018-01 (the “FAB”). The FAB applies to certain retirement plan fiduciaries who make investment and proxy voting decisions that derive from ESG concerns, and may impact investor behavior at public retailers.

Read our full alert.

At the end of February, the SEC staff issued a No-Action Letter to Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., permitting the company to exclude a shareholder proposal under Rule 14a-8(i)(5), often referred to as the economic relevance exception. This is the first no-action relief granted under the rule since the SEC issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I (“SLB 14I”) on November 1, 2017, and it could have implications for other retailers seeking to exclude shareholder proposals under the rule in the future.

Once the sole province of hedge funds and special interest groups, many mainstream institutional investors have now also embraced a more activist perspective with regard to their portfolio companies. In his most recent letter to CEOs, Blackrock chairman Larry Fink advocated in favor of a series of Environmental-Social-Governance (“ESG”) issues and rhetorically asked companies, “What role do we play in the community?” Other institutional money managers, like New York City’s Comptroller Scott Stringer, have also accelerated their ESG-focused shareholder activism in recent years, targeting well-known retailers such as Kroger, Walmart and Home Depot in the process. 

Businesses, financial institutions and governmental entities (state and local) are required to file tax information returns with the U.S. Social Security Administration (“SSA”) or Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). Common information returns include W-2 and 1099 forms for employees and contractors, 1098s for mortgage interest, and various 1099s for dividends, interest and miscellaneous income. Some organizations file hundreds of thousands of these forms on a regular basis.

On January 18, 2018, Hunton & Williams LLP’s retail industry lawyers, composed of more than 100 lawyers across practices, released their annual Retail Year in Review publication. The Retail Year in Review includes many topics of interest to retailers including blockchain, antitrust enforcement in the Trump Administration, ransomware's impact on the retail industry, SEC and M&A activity in 2017, cyber insurance, vulnerability to class actions, and the reduced tax rate.

Read the full publication.

The Initial Coin Offering (“ICO”) market exploded in 2017 with almost $4 billion of investments. Securities regulators in the United States have responded first with a series of public warnings and, more recently, by bringing enforcement actions against promoters of ICOs and other digital currency investments. We survey some of the recent regulatory developments in this rapidly evolving field.

Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) allowed Apple Inc. to exclude a shareholder proposal from its proxy statement that requested that Apple “produce a report assessing the climate benefits and feasibility of adopting store-wide requirements for having all retail locations implement a policy on keeping entrance doors closed when climate control (especially air-conditioning during warm months) is in use.” 

On December 11, 2017, the SEC issued a cease-and-desist order against Munchee Inc. after finding that the company’s initial coin offering (“ICO”) constituted unregistered offers and sales of securities. Munchee sought to raise $15 million for its blockchain-based food review and social platform by selling digital tokens to users that could be used to buy and sell goods and services through an iPhone app. Munchee and others promoting the ICO told investors that the tokens could be expected to increase in value as the company implemented improvements to the app and said that the company would work to support a secondary market for the tokens. 

On November 1, 2017, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I, which provides additional guidance for public companies (including retailers) seeking to exclude certain shareholder proposals from their proxy materials. Under this bulletin, the SEC staff now expects boards of directors to analyze shareholder proposals before companies make no-action requests to exclude such proposals from proxy materials under Rule 14a-8(i)(7) (the ordinary business exception) or Rule 14a-8(i)(5) (the economic relevance ...

On September 21, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued interpretive guidance to assist public companies with complying with the “pay ratio” rule and to address compliance concerns with respect to the rule’s flexible framework. According to the SEC press release, “[the] guidance on pay ratio...encourages companies to use the flexibility incorporated in our prior rulemaking to reduce costs of compliance.” The new guidance provides some accommodations that publicly traded retailers ...

On September 8, 2017, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and the New York City Pension Funds announced the second phase of their Boardroom Accountability Project, which will focus on board diversity and composition. Stringer sent a letter to the nominating and governance committee chairs of 151 portfolio companies held by the New York City Pension Funds, requesting board engagement regarding the director refreshment process and disclosure of a director qualification matrix that identifies directors’ relevant skills and experience and their gender and race/ethnicity. The list of companies included several major retailers and consisted of companies that have adopted proxy access in response to shareholder proposals from the NYC Pension Funds and those where the NYC Pension Funds’ proxy access proposals received majority support in 2017. 

Development International, an NGO with affiliates around the world, recently published its third annual report (the “Report”) summarizing U.S. public company Conflict Minerals Reports ("CMRs") filed on Form SD for reporting year 2016. Although the Report advances a very narrow reading of the recent D.C. Circuit case striking down part of the SEC conflict minerals rule, it otherwise provides a wealth of statistical information about the most recent round of Form SD filings. This information can be useful to retailers benchmarking their own Form SD reporting as well as the Form SD reporting of key suppliers.

Recently, it was reported that the UK Financial Conduct Authority will discontinue the London interbank offered rate ("LIBOR"), at the end of 2021. LIBOR is an interest rate index used in calculating floating or adjustable rates on trillions of dollars in loans, bonds, derivatives and other financial contracts. What happens under derivatives transaction documents when LIBOR is discontinued?

Read the full alert.

Last month, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) adopted a series of new audit standards that will impact the audit reporting model for public companies, including publicly traded retailers. The standards must still receive final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission, but assuming the SEC approves them, the new standards will make substantial changes to the form of the annual auditor’s report, most notably by requiring a new discussion of “critical audit matters.”

Read our full alert.

When say-on-pay (i.e., shareholders with the right to vote on the remuneration of executives) was introduced under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, there was a requirement that companies conduct say-on-pay frequency votes every six years for shareholders to decide whether say-on-pay votes should be held every one, two or three years. Companies first held say-on-pay frequency votes in 2011, so for many companies the 2017 proxy season is the first time that shareholders have revisited the matter since then.

As media outlets recently highlighted Equal Pay Day on April 4, 2017, publicly held retailers should be aware that the focus on pay equity is becoming increasingly popular among activist shareholders. This proxy season, more than 20 publicly traded companies are facing shareholder proposals at their annual meetings to vote on whether they should research and report on pay gaps by gender and race.

With less than two months before the May 31 deadline for public companies to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on the inclusion of conflict minerals in their products, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered a final judgment in National Association of Manufacturers v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the litigation surrounding the SEC conflict minerals rule. This alert provides a summary of legal developments over the past year on the topic of conflict minerals, including the SEC’s most recent action, and provides our ...

Since the beginning of 2017, the SEC has announced three enforcement actions charging companies, activist hedge funds and related individuals with violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These enforcement actions targeted parties who allegedly failed to comply with disclosure obligations in the context of hostile takeovers and shareholder activism campaigns.

Read the full alert.

On April 1, 2017, the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with an Intermediary (the “Convention”) will become effective in the United States. The Convention will, as federal law of the U.S., apply to determine the choice of law relating to certain matters concerning securities held in securities accounts, including, among other things, the law affecting perfection and priority of security interests in securities held in securities accounts. This development is particularly noteworthy to retailers that maintain secured ...

On March 1, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to approve final rules that will require public companies that file registration statements and reports subject to the exhibit requirements under Item 601 of Regulation S-K, or that file Forms F-10 or 20-F, to include a hyperlink to each exhibit listed in the exhibit index of these filings. To enable the inclusion of such hyperlinks, the new rules also require that registrants submit all such filings in HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”) format. The new rules are effective for filings submitted on or ...

On February 6, 2017, Acting SEC Chairman Michael Piwowar issued a statement instructing the SEC staff to reconsider the implementation of the SEC’s “pay ratio” rule based on any comments submitted and to determine as promptly as possible whether additional guidance or relief may be appropriate. Chairman Piwowar also opened a 45-day public comment period seeking input on any unexpected challenges that public companies have experienced as they prepare for compliance with the rule and whether relief is needed.

On January 31, 2017, Acting SEC Chairman Michael Piwowar issued a statement instructing the SEC staff to reconsider whether its 2014 guidance on the conflict minerals disclosure rule is still appropriate and whether any additional relief for public companies is appropriate. Chairman Piwowar also opened a 45-day public comment period on all aspects of the SEC rule and subsequent guidance.

A recent report by MSCI examined proxy access among the 565 United States incorporated companies in the MSCI USA Index. In two years, the percentage of companies with proxy access grew from less than 1 percent to 41.2 percent as of December 14, 2016. Additionally, of the 110 companies targeted by the New York City Comptroller’s Office and the New York City pension funds’ Boardroom Accountability Project during the 2015 and 2016 proxy seasons, 90.9 percent have adopted proxy access. Although these numbers show a substantial increase in adoption by companies, making the push for proxy access appear successful, the report notes that the companies adopting proxy access are mostly ones that already have fairly strong shareholder rights.

As with other areas of the law, the recent presidential election will present both challenges and opportunities for retailers concerned with financial and securities regulation. While President-elect Trump did not articulate his views on financial services regulation on the campaign trail in any detailed manner, he did suggest that the Dodd-Frank Act should be repealed as it has increased costs for businesses, impeded economic growth and severely reduced lending without any clear benefits to investors or consumers.

On October 11, 2016, the SEC announced its enforcement results for the fiscal year which ended on September 30, 2016. A total of 868 enforcement actions were filed, which set a new record for the most actions in a single year. The SEC filed 61 more actions in 2016 than in 2015, representing a year-over-year increase of almost 7.6 percent. The actions resulted in total disgorgements and penalties of over $4 billion, down slightly from last year’s $4.19 billion.

In a continued effort to implement the policy change announced by President Obama on December 17, 2014, to engage and empower the Cuban people, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has announced additional amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations. These amendments, which went into effect on October 17, 2016, constitute the sixth time that the various sets of regulations governing Cuba have been amended.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") charged publicly traded RPM International Inc. ("RPM") and its general counsel with violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws due to failures to disclose and account for material information related to an ongoing government investigation under the False Claims Act. The SEC alleges that the general counsel advised RPM’s CEO and audit committee of the investigation as early as April 2011, but in subsequent years, the general counsel allegedly failed to inform the company’s CEO, CFO, audit committee and external auditor of particular information known to him that showed RPM’s true financial exposure arising out of the investigation. As a result of the general counsel’s conduct, the SEC alleges that RPM filed various false and misleading reports with the SEC, thereby misleading investors about the company’s financial results, internal controls and the accuracy of its books and records. RPM ultimately restated its financial results. The SEC’s complaint seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement and financial penalties.

As retailers continue to look for new and innovative ways to maintain communication and “touch points” with their customers, many are looking to technology-infused or “smart” packaging and advertising materials. There are many ways to drive customer interaction and web traffic through smart packaging and advertising materials, including through the use of hyperlinks, quick response (“QR”) codes and near field communication (“NFC”) chips. 

Earlier this month, proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis recommended that shareholders vote for retailer Chico’s FAS Inc.’s (“Chico’s”) board of director candidates, instead of the two candidates nominated by activist investor Barington Capital Group LP (“Barington”). This prompted Barington to abandon its proxy fight.

A recent change to the U.S. regulations governing the Cuban embargo has expanded the categories of Cuban-origin products that may be imported into the U.S. Additional textiles and textile articles and, for the first time, coffee, have joined the list of Cuban-origin products authorized to be imported into the U.S. Such products, however, must be produced by Cuban entrepreneurs and the U.S. importer must receive satisfactory documentation of such producer’s independence from the Cuban government.

The due date for the next Form SD filing for those public companies required to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on the inclusion of conflict minerals in their products is May 31, 2016.

Background

In response to a challenge of the SEC conflict minerals rule by a coalition of trade associations, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion in April 2014. That opinion upheld parts of the rule, but also effectively struck down on First Amendment grounds the portion of the rule that required companies to describe their products as “DRC Conflict Free,” “DRC conflict undeterminable” or “not found to be ‘DRC Conflict Free,’ ” as the case may be. On rehearing in August 2015, the D.C. Circuit reaffirmed its April 2014 decision. The D.C. Circuit then denied an SEC and NGO’s petition for rehearing en banc the following November. Finally, in March 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch notified Congress that the federal government would not petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court. The deadline to file the petition passed in April. Thus, the appellate process has been exhausted.

On May 11, 2016, Hunton & Williams LLP and client Axalta Coating Systems, LLC, a leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings, were named 2016 ACC Value Champions by the Association of Corporate Counsel (“ACC”). The two were recognized for their efforts in driving significant legal process improvement and savings, which resulted in exemplary change management and a comprehensive approach to value.

The 2016 proxy season is in full swing, and similarly to 2015, the number of shareholder proposals has increased. According to a report by The Manhattan Institute's Proxy Monitor, for Fortune 250 companies with annual meetings scheduled on or before April 30, there was a 7.5 percent increase in shareholder proposals compared to last year. Many of these proposals involve environmental, political and social issues, among others.

On April 13, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published its long-awaited concept release on the reform of Regulation S-K. Regulation S-K is the primary set of rules that establish disclosure requirements for public companies.

For the SEC, a “concept release” is an advance notice of proposed rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act. Thus, before taking any further action to amend its rulebook, the SEC will be required to issue a set of proposed rules, elicit further public comment and then adopt final rules in another release.

On April 4, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced a $10 million whistleblower bounty, its largest to date.

Similar to a program administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), CFTC whistleblowers are eligible for an award worth 10 to 30 percent of an enforcement penalty if they bring original information to the CFTC which leads to an enforcement action that nets more than $1 million in sanctions.

As reported in the Hunton Employment and Labor Law Blog, on March 1, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) settled administrative charges against a popular telecommunications equipment supplier, Qualcomm Incorporated, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). According to the SEC, in addition to unlawfully providing meals, gifts and entertainment to foreign officials in an effort to win new business, Qualcomm also offered full-time employment and paid internships to family members and friends of foreign government officials in an effort to curry favor. In some cases, it appears these friends and family members would not have otherwise qualified for employment at Qualcomm and special accommodations were made to hire them. To settle the case, Qualcomm agreed to cease and desist from future violations, paid a $7.5 million civil monetary penalty and agreed to other heightened compliance measures.

The recent change in U.S. policy towards Cuba and a “thawing of relations” between the two countries has generated increased interest among U.S. companies in the potential for business in Cuba. Despite this increased interest, companies should proceed cautiously, as recent international investments in Cuba, often in the form of joint ventures, have yielded mixed results and experiences. British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company Unilever plc, for example, formed a 50/50 international economic association with state-owned enterprise Suchel in 1994, but subsequently left the Cuban market in 2012 due to government intrusion and labor issues.

In 2015, there was a record number of activist shareholder campaigns in the United States. Although activist hedge funds targeted companies across numerous industries, several retail companies found themselves in activists’ crosshairs. These included companies such as fast-food restaurant chains, convenience store operators, auto parts retailers and department store retailers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently announced it settled charges against the Monsanto Company (“Monsanto”) regarding its accounting practices surrounding the sale of its popular Roundup herbicide. Monsanto “agreed to pay an $80 million penalty and retain an independent compliance consultant to settle charges that it violated accounting rules and misstated company earnings.” Two Monsanto accounting executives and one sales executive also agreed to pay penalties to settle charges that were brought against them. The case underscores for both manufacturers and retailers that financial reporting and disclosures cases continue to be a high priority for the SEC.

M&A in 2015: Shattering prior records. With the economy in a modest recovery and with cheap financing readily available, M&A activity was at an all-time high in 2015. Surpassing the prior record of $4.3 trillion in deals in 2007, 2015 saw M&A activity of $4.7 trillion worth of transactions, of which approximately half involved U.S. companies. In fact, U.S. deals alone exceeded $2 trillion for the first time ever.

Please join us via webinar for a dynamic roundtable discussion with our distinguished panel of experts who will share their thoughts on changes in the law, what steps a company should take to comply with the new law and issues employers should consider as they evaluate their employee compensation.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PT
(2:00 p.m. ET – 3:00 p.m. ET)

On October 22, 2015, staff in the Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) issued Staff Legal Bulletin 14H (the “Bulletin”). The Bulletin is the latest in a series of Division interpretations under Rule 14a-8 governing shareholder proposals. The Bulletin focuses specifically on circumstances in which the Division will grant no-action relief to exclude a shareholder proposal under two hot-button issues from last year’s proxy season: (1) Rule 14a-8(i)(7), for proposals dealing with a company’s ordinary business operations, and (2) Rule 14a-8(i)(9), for a proposal that directly conflicts with one of the company’s own proposals to be submitted to shareholders at the same meeting. We discuss the Bulletin below.

On August 4, 2014, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) of the US Department of the Treasury issued new guidance outlining sound banking practices related to consumer debt sales to third-party debt buyers. The bulletin sets forth the OCC’s expectations for banks that engage in debt-sale arrangements and applies to all OCC-supervised banks.

Read full client alert.