By January 1, 2021, all California employers with five or more employees are required to have provided interactive harassment prevention training to all employees in California, both supervisory and non-supervisory. 

Recently, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) released supervisory on-line harassment prevention training, which can be found here. Supervisory employees must receive at least two hours interactive harassment prevention training, which must be provided every two years, and within six months of hire or promotion to supervisory ...

On June 22, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission issued a proposed Made in USA Rule regulating how businesses can advertise that their products are made in the U.S., and giving the agency discretion to impose civil penalties.

The FTC’s Made in the U.S.A. enforcement program is based on Section 5 of the FTC Act, which governs deceptive acts and practices in commerce. It applies to a host of advertising and other claims about the U.S. origin of products. In 1994, Congress codified Section 5a, titled “Labels on products”. Section 5a applies to “a product with a ‘Made in U.S.” label ...

On August 31, 2020, California introduced a statewide blueprint for reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic designed to provide clear guidance and timelines for which industries may safely open. 

The new system is color-coded and has four tiers, with Tier 1 being the highest risk of community disease transmission and Tier 4 the lowest risk. The four tiers are based on two factors: (1) the county’s positivity rate; and (2) the daily new cases for each 100,000 residents.

The tiers are outlined below:

• Tier 1 (purple/widespread): higher than 8% testing positivity rate; more than 7 daily ...

The California Consumer Privacy Act became effective on Jan. 1. Included among its provisions is the grant of a private right of action on behalf of any consumer “whose nonencrypted and nonredacted personal information … is subject to an unauthorized access and exfiltration, theft or disclosure as a result of the business’s violation of the duty to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices.” Civil Code Section 1798.150.

An interesting question is whether a company may face liability under this statute (or based on common law theories) where one ...

On August 26, 2020, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to extend the 15% cap on delivery fees charged to restaurants.  The fee cap was originally adopted on June 10, 2020, and was set to expire on August 31, 2020.

The approved amendment to the Limit on Third-Party Food Delivery Service Fees Ordinance No. 186665 states that “the current sunset date of Aug 31, 2020 be amended to 90 days after restaurants are able to resume indoor dining capacity at 100 percent and that the ordinance would be in effect at any point if the restaurants are required to reduce indoor capacity due to the ...

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued new, revised model Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) forms and notices.  The new FMLA forms and notices are intended to be more streamlined and convenient, and they include more explanatory language on various FMLA rights and requirements. 

As an examples of the new explanatory language, the Rights and Responsibilities Notice adds information on the substitution of paid leave, the medical certifications of a serious health condition define the term “serious health condition,” and the Eligibility Notice defines the terms “spouse” ...

The City of Los Angeles announced that it has extended its “L.A. Al Fresco” program until the end of 2020. The program was designed to help restaurants reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering a streamlined permitting program to turn sidewalks, parking lots, and other spaces into outdoor dining areas.

Mayor Garcetti announced that 1,486 restaurants have received Al Fresco permits so far, including many small businesses. The most recent stage of the Al Fresco program, which began on June 26, 2020, has directed 55% of program resources to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of ...

In the context of the numerous lawsuits have recently filed by policyholders seeking compensation for lost business income occasioned by the pending pandemic, a key issue will be whether those policyholders have suffered “direct physical loss or damage” to their businesses. A case decided earlier this year (albeit in a different factual context) sheds some light on whether this requirement can be satisfied in the present circumstances.

In Nat’l Ink & Stitch, LLC vs. State Auto Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co.,  2020 WL 374460 (D. Md. Jan. 23, 2020), plaintiff policyholder was the victim of ...

A bi-partisan bill to aid restaurants is gaining momentum, with over 180 co-sponsors and additional endorsements announced in the past few weeks.  The bill is officially titled the Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed To Survive Act of 2020, but is better known as the RESTAURANTS Act of 2020 (“the Act”).

The Act was introduced on a bipartisan basis in the Senate by Senator Roger Wicker and in the House of Representatives by Congressman Earl Blumenauer. The Act currently has 182 co-sponsors in the House. The National Restaurant Association ...

The FDA recently published a final rule to establish requirements for “gluten-free” labeling for fermented, hydrolyzed and distilled food.  The rule will go into effect on October 13, 2020, with a compliance date of August 13, 2021.

Federal regulations define the term “gluten-free” to mean that the food bearing the claim does not contain: (1) an ingredient that is a gluten-containing grain; (2) an ingredient that is derived from a gluten-containing grain and that has not been processed to remove gluten; or (3) an ingredient that is derived from a gluten-containing grain and ...