Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

Commercial contracts are typically represented by two separate, yet equally important, components: the master agreement that contains primarily legal terms, and the ordering documentation that contains primarily commercial terms.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently proposed expanding its Negative Option Rule to all subscription agreements. Businesses offering subscription services would be required to make it at least as easy for consumers to cancel a subscription service as it is to sign up for it. For example, if a consumer can sign up for a service online, then the consumer must also be able to cancel it online in the same number of steps (and not be required to cancel in person).

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) came into force on November 16, 2022. The DSA creates comprehensive new obligations for online platforms, introduces protections for users' rights online, and places digital platforms under a new transparency and accountability framework. The DSA is a first-of-a-kind regulatory toolbox globally, which sets an international benchmark for a regulatory approach to online intermediaries.

Following up on our April 27, 2022 post, Data Scraping Deemed Legal in Certain Circumstances, the most significant data scraping lawsuit has finally come to an end. After six years of litigation, LinkedIn Corp. and hiQ Labs, Inc. reached a confidential settlement agreement and filed a stipulation and proposed consent judgment (stipulation) with the California district court on December 6, 2022. The stipulation includes, among other things, a $500,000 judgment entered against hiQ, establishment of hiQ’s liability under California common law torts of trespass to chattels and misappropriation, and various forms of injunctive relief effectively prohibiting hiQ’s future ability to data scrape LinkedIn.

In this post, we discuss the various aspects of domain name registration in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The European Commission confirmed on April 23, 2022, that the European Parliament and Council have reached political agreement the Digital Services Act (DSA) first published in December 2020. Morgan Lewis previously reported on the publication of the DSA.

After two decisions by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, data scraping is deemed legal if the information is publicly accessible on the internet.

As technology and the use of the internet continue to evolve, lawmakers remain focused on setting a legal framework for businesses operating “online” in Russia. In 2021, the Russian regulatory landscape underwent significant changes, which will no doubt have an impact on how tech and media companies conduct their business in Russia. Some key highlights include the following: 

The UK government is considering responses to its proposed reforms to auto-subscription rules for consumer contracts, as part of a broader consultation on reforming UK competition and consumer policy.

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