June 07, 2019 The government of the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, has purchased a parametric insurance product that would offer up to $3.8 million to repair hurricane damage to the reef starting in June. The parametric insurance product, which will be provided by Mexico-based insurer Afirme Seguros Grupo Financiero SA de CV, will be triggered if wind speeds above 100 knots are registered within the covered area, with a payout split of 50% for reefs and 50% for beaches, according to a statement issued on Friday by the Nature Conservancy, which partnered with the government and other partners to devise the reef insurance policy concept.
China-based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. said that the U.S. trade ban on the tech giant is likely to cost the company $30 billion in lost revenue this year, Reuters reported. Ren Zhengfei, chief executive of Huawei, said that the trade ban has disrupted the company’s supply of components and prevented Huawei from buying anything with U.S. technology. The ban has also forced several companies to limit or cease their relationships with Huawei.
Franklin Z. Wolf April 01, 2019 The Illinois legal landscape recently became more of a minefield for employers due to the decision by the state’s Supreme Court in Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp. that gives the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act new teeth and requires all private entities — subject only to limited exceptions — to be even more cautious in how they collect, store and use biometric information. Enacted in 2008, the law requires private entities, including employers, that collect or maintain employees’ fingerprints, retinal or iris scans, voiceprints, hand scans or face geometry to first receive written consent from the employee, and also develop a publicly available policy that establishes the retention schedule for the applicable biometric information. The law further mandates that the employer destroy biometric information upon the earlier of either of the following circumstances: the initial purpose for collecting the relevant biometric information has expired, or within three years of the individual’s last interaction with the employer. Further, the law implements a reasonable standard of care upon employers that applies to collection, maintenance and transmission of biometric data, and prohibits the sale, leasing or trading of any such information. The implications are apparent from the plain language of the law. If an individual prevails in a lawsuit, he or she is entitled to $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per willful violation, or actual damages, whichever is greater. Perhaps most importantly, it also provides for attorneys’ fees, costs and any other relief that a court may deem appropriate. If a private entity collected, maintained or used biometric data on a mass or even moderate scale, violating the statute’s provisions could result in costly penalties that escalate quickly. The magnitude of these risks is evidenced by yet another Illinois class action case, Sekura v. L.A. Tan Enterprises Inc., wherein the parties reached a settlement of approximately $1.5 million in connection with various violations of the law.
Gloria Gonzalez April 01, 2019 A recent outbreak of devastating tornadoes in Alabama highlights a trend of insurers expanding their use of drones to assess damages caused by intensifying and more frequent natural catastrophes. Previously, drone programs developed by insurers primarily focused on claims, but recent efforts have evolved to include underwriting and risk mitigation, including using drone imagery to identify problems prior to catastrophes and to take steps to fortify the resilience of properties to weather events. The major inflection point for insurer usage of drones was 2017 due to the cost of hurricanes such as Harvey and Irma, said Edin Imsirovic, senior financial analyst with A.M. Best Co. Inc. in Oldwick, New Jersey. “These catastrophe events proved the value of drones for the industry, as it would have been impossible to immediately access some of these areas in great detail using anything else but drones,” he said. “It was really due to these catastrophe events that the insurance industry moved away from the concept of whether the drones are useful to ‘How do we scale our drone operations?’ given the tremendous benefits of drones: efficiency, safety and customer satisfaction,” Mr. Imsirovic said. Drone utilization in the insurance industry is being driven by technological advances in artificial intelligence and image recognition — “the ability to automate all of these processes and sort through all of these images without the human intervention,” he said. AI can now “categorize objects and images more accurately than humans.” Prior to the 2018 natural catastrophe season, drones were not often used in the surplus lines markets, but hurricanes Florence and Michael and the Camp and Woolsey wildfires created a scarcity of field adjusters, contractors and ladder companies, said Emily Daugherty, claims supervisor at third-party administrator Minuteman Adjusters Inc., a unit of H.W. Kaufman Financial Group Inc. based in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
March 28, 2019 A power outage hit Venezuela on March 25 and March 26, forcing businesses to shut operations and disrupting activities at the country’s main oil export terminal – Puerto Jose, Reuters reported. The blackout affected several cities including Caracas, Maracaibo, Barquisimeto and Valencia and stranded commuters across the country. Jorge Rodriguez, the country’s information minister, said that an attack on Venezuela’s main hydroelectric Guri Dam affected three major transmission lines and caused the widespread power outage.
March 28, 2019 A study by Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab Z.A.O. found that more than 47% of industrial control system computers across the world suffered cyber attacks in 2018, up from 44% in 2017, Betanews reported. The study found that Vietnam, Algeria and Tunisia recorded the most number of industrial cyber attacks. Kaspersky said that these cyber attacks cause material losses and production downtime at industrial facilities.
March 28, 2019 Spain’s competition regulator has fined 15 companies including Germany-based conglomerate Siemens A.G. and France-based Alstom S.A. €118 million ($133 million) for rigging public rail contracts, Market Watch reported. The regulator said that the companies operated three separate cartels to manipulate Spanish rail infrastructure company ADIF-Alta Velocidad’s contracting process over a period of 14 years.
March 28, 2019 (Reuters) — Purdue Pharma LP fraudulently transferred funds to members of the wealthy Sackler family who control the OxyContin maker despite knowing it faced major liabilities that had made it already insolvent, New York’s attorney general alleged on Thursday. New York Attorney General Letitia James made the claims in a revised lawsuit already pending against Purdue over its role in the opioid epidemic that added members of the Sackler family and other drug manufacturers and distributors as defendants. The lawsuit alleged Purdue and other manufacturers engaged in deceptive marketing that downplayed the dangers of the addictive painkillers and accused distributors of failing to detect the diversion of the drugs for illicit purposes. “As the Sackler family and the other defendants grew richer, New Yorkers’ health grew poorer and our state was left to foot the bill,” Attorney General James said in a statement. The revised lawsuit also added as defendants units of opioid manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Endo International PLC, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. In a statement, the Sackler family called the lawsuit “a misguided attempt to place blame where it does not belong for a complex public health crisis.” Representatives for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
March 28, 2019 Prepackaged potato skins marketed by TGI Fridays are not made with the skins of potatoes, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday. Plaintiff Solange Troncoso of New York is proposing a class action against the Carrollton, Texas-based company, claiming that the company misleads consumers by selling “Potato Skins” snacks that contain potato flakes and potato starch, but no skins, Reuters reported. The lawsuit claims the Idaho Potato Commission and others inside and outside the industry have associated potato skins with healthy eating since they started appearing on restaurant menus a half-century ago, according to the wire service. Ms. Troncoso is claiming she and other consumers are defrauded by the misleading packaging for its bacon ranch, cheddar and bacon, and sour cream and onion potato skins, providing them with an “inferior product,” either by mistake or at a “full” price, according to Reuters. “The presence of potato skins imparts a further value in the eyes of reasonable consumers,” states the complaint, filed almost a year after Ms. Troncoso paid $1.99 for a bag of TGI Fridays Sour Cream & Onion Potato Skins at a convenience store. TGI Fridays has not commented on the suit.
March 28, 2019 (Reuters) — Johnson & Johnson has settled three cases brought by plaintiffs who claimed asbestos in the company’s talcum-based products caused mesothelioma, an attorney for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday. The cases were pending in Oklahoma, New York and California state courts. J&J, which faces some 13,000 talc-related lawsuits nationwide, denies that its talc causes cancer, saying numerous studies and tests by regulators worldwide have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free.
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